Photo by keith stanski on Flickr

EWI’s Preventive Diplomacy Initiatives are helping to realize alternative futures for Afghanistan and the stability of Southwest Asia with a series of policy dialogues with officials and experts to improve regional cooperation on water. The series, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and endorsed by EWI’s Parliamentarians Network on Conflict Prevention and Human Security, focuses on water security as a critical component of conflict prevention.

Launched in April 2009, the series will continue until December, bringing together key policymakers and experts from Afghanistan, its neighbors and key international stakeholders such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, NATO and the UN. It aims to provide new strategies to enhance regional cooperation, agricultural development and energy production.

New thinking in these three areas is critical to stability and sustainable development in Afghanistan and Southwest Asia. Water infrastructure is essential to improve the lives of the millions of people who are most affected by rising food prices, unemployment and limited energy capacity. Further, enhanced regional cooperation is critical to the success of the international community’s efforts in Afghanistan.

This series convenes five policy dialogues to identify new water management strategies to help build stability in Afghanistan and Southwest Asia:

• Opening session (2 April, 2009): a fact finding session to identify the key challenges, outline areas for win-win solutions and set a framework for the next dialogues
• Session 2 (30 April, 2009): the Amu Darya river and Afghanistan’s relations with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
• Session 3 (28 May, 2009): the Kabul river and Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan
• Session 4 (25 June, 2009): the Helmand river, the Harirud and the Murghab rivers and Afghanistan’s relations with Iran and Turkmenistan

When the series ends, EWI will issue a publication highlighting its consensus recommendations.

By early 2010, a high-level international conference will conclude the first cycle of EWI’s water management project, build on its recommendations and establish a new framework for regional cooperation on water issues. EWI will use the conference to bring together decision makers to facilitate agreement on the steps necessary to implement the recommendations of the series.