With the long-term vision of transforming water from a potential source of conflict into an instrument of cooperation and peace through concrete actions, a new structure has been set up for the Blue Peace in the Middle East Initiative, as a structured and dynamic network of prominent institutions from partner countries in the region.

The Blue Peace Community in the Middle East is a soft infrastructure for dialogue. The long term objective for enabling water cooperation in the Middle East is to create an institutional cooperation mechanism for the sustainable management of water resources.

Blue Peace in the Middle East is focusing on contributing to peace building through integrated political and technical dialogues, substantiated through concrete regional projects, data collection and capacity building programs. It combines hydropolitics with hands-on technical expertise.

So far, the Initiative has consisted of different studies such as field visits to various transboundary basins all around the world and workshops etc. which are significant efforts to find solutions to three main challenges for sustainable water management in the region:

• Closing the knowledge gap with regard to reliable data on water resources,
• Enhancing capacity building and confidence building,
• Developing dialogue among partner countries.