Building Bridges of Confidence Through Technical Dialogue

Abstract

The Regional Initiative for Dryland Management was established in 1996 to promote technical cooperation between Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian National Authority, and Tunisia. The Initiative was conceived by the Multilateral Working Group on the Environment (WGE) as an instrument to serve the Middle East peace process through scientific collaboration on relatively uncontroversial, apolitical issues that mutually affected the five parties concerned. The Multilateral Working Group itself had been established during the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. In a meeting of the Working Group held in Tokyo in May 1993, land degradation of desertification was identified as just such a common issue, one which would be best served through regional cooperation, including direct interaction between technical experts from Arab countries and Israel. Three months later the Oslo Accords were finalized, and catalysed planning for the Initiative, originally named the "Initiative for Collaboration to Control Natural Resource Degradation (Desertification) of Arid Lands in the Milled East" but more widely referred to simply as "Desertification Initiative".