Governance

The Advisory Group is the Mediterranean Wetlands Committee composed of 27 countries (to be confirmed in June 2010 during MedWet Com 10). It is responsible for providing strategic guidance to the Coordination Unit (CU), facilitating all contacts between their own networks and the MWO project team, broadly disseminating the MWO results in their countries/ networks, approving the MWO annual workplan and assisting the MWO/CU in fund-raising activities within their countries/ networks. The MWO Advisory Group will meet as part of the regular MedWet/Com meetings, i.e. every 1.5 years.
The smaller Steering Committee composed of MWO Partners has the role of guiding the MWO-CU as required. It acts strictly according to the strategic guidance provided by the Advisory Group. It will meet once a year with the MWO/ CU, and if possible more often by taking advantage of other meetings/ conferences.

The Steering Committee includes (members marked “*” will be renewed every 3 years):

MedWet secretariat
one representative of the UNEP / Mediterranean action plan
one* representative of MedWet scientific & technical team
one* technical partner with a strong commitment and experience in the main MWO tasks
one* representative of a local wetland observatory/ monitoring system
one* representative of an active committed MedWet network

For the first triennium (2010-12), its composition was agreed upon in February 2010 as follows:

the MedWet Secretariat
UNEP / MAP: Blue Plan
MedWet scientific and technical team: EKBY (Greece)
MWO technical partner: Wetlands International
Local wetland observatory: ANPE Tunisia (Ichkeul monitoring system)
Representative from a MedWet network: NGO network or North African Wetlands Network (to be selected by the MedWet Secretariat)

Executive management

The MWO Coordination Unit is a technical team, made up of staff from Tour du Valat.
Under the guidance of the Advisory Group and the Steering Committee, the Unit is responsible for:

establishing the Observatory structure and facilitating its operation
coordinating the technical work done by all partners
ensuring the overall delivery of project results as planned
dealing with all day-to-day administrative/partnership matters
preparing key technical elements for informed decisions to be made by the Steering Committee
assist in fund raising to implement monitoring and evaluation activities (by the CU or MWO partners)
cooperating with the MedWet Secretariat to facilitate the work of the Advisory group and acting as the secretariat for the Steering Committee