On September 24-25, 2015 the Final Conference of the European Union TEMPUS Programme I-WEB project (“Integrating Water cycle management: building capability, capacity and impact in Education and Business”) will be held in the Kazakh National University (KNU) named after Al-Farabi and CAREC.
This conference will take provide an opportunity to present and reflect on the outcomes of the three-year EU project’s implementation in Kazakhstan, executed by a consortium of 15 partners led by Middlesex University of London (MU). This conference will:
• share the practical achievements of the project in three pilot universities in Kazakhstan: Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kokshetau State University (KokSU) named after Ualikhanov and Akhmed Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University (IKTU);
• demonstrate widespread dissemination of the project approach and outputs in Central Asia through the Central Asian Leadership Programme and the web platform of the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC);
• show experiences and good practices of the CA region in the field of integrated water cycle management (IWCM) and transboundary water cooperation in the region.
The theme of the project is particularly relevant for Central Asian region due to the fact that the topics of water, IWCM, transboundary cooperation on water and water related issues, access to drinking water, waste water treatment, etc. are extremely important for both Kazakhstan – the target country of this project – and for the Central Asian region as a whole. Thus, whilst being national in its initial direction, the project is in fact a regional initiative. It allows access to information and educational resources, supporting capacity building of teachers and experts and in Kazakhstan and all CA countries in the region facing similar problems, with a clear focus on the need for actions to be transboundary in their scope.
During the conference, special attention will be paid to existing international experience and best practices in the field of IWCM, water policy and diplomacy in the Central Asian region, the role of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS), presented by Middlesex University London, Leipzig University, the Technical University of Valencia, University of Cyprus, CAREC, and recognised international and national experts on transboundary cooperation in the Central Asian region.
A special session of the Conference will be devoted to the development and implementation of the educational program on IWCM for undergraduates of the Kazakhstani universities, which demonstrate experience of international cooperation, inter-disciplinarity in area of ecology, IWCM, sustainable development and the new textbook developed to support of this course, which will presented by Kazakh experts from KazNU, KokSU and IKTU.
A particular attention will be paid to the role of young leaders in Central Asia through the linking of this I-WEB conference with the Central Asian Leadership Program (CALP) from 2010 to 2015. Graduates of the sixth leadership programs event, conducted by CAREC in cooperation with UNEP and with the support of the Norwegian Government and the OSCE Centre in Astana, will be able to tell about its role in the development of transboundary cooperation between five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, providing further opportunity for project results to be widely distributed and used in Central Asia in the nearest future, facilitating sustainability of project results and making it possible to replicate the results on a Central Asian-wide basis.