Capacity Building in IWRM: The IWRM MSc Curriculum at the Water and Environment Centre, Republic of Yemen

Abstract

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is an interdisciplinary approach to water resources management, as opposed to water resources development. In developing an MSc curriculum at the Water and Environment Centre (WEC) at Sana'a University in the republic of Yemen, three goals were defined. The first goal is to integrate the knowledge and skills developed at the different faculties at Sana'a University into an integrated teaching curriculum. The second goal is to meet the demands from the Yemeni water sector, such that graduates have the skills and knowledge required for their future jobs. The third goal is to make the IWRM curriculum institutionally and financially sustainable, such that it can continue to be part of the Sana'a University MSc Program. The development of the IWRM MSc curriculum is done in a participative way, using support of other international universities, to ensure that the complete 2-year program of the curriculum is a coherent package, and not a collection of individual classes. The first semester is designed to develop the same level of knowledge for the inflow students, who will likely have a variable background. The second semester is designed to teach integration of knowledge and skills on the topic of water management. The third and fourth semester are designed to improve research skills and finish the MSc with thesis work. The program will start at the end of 2005, but the process of development of the curriculum has already developed a common sense of integration in Water Resources Management with lecturers from multiple disciplines