GIWA, with its headquarters based in Kalmar (Sweden), is a UNEP/Swedish joint activity, which is also supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It is assessing the state of global waters and developing strategies to overcome identified problems. The world’s oceans have been split into 15 mega-regions, with 66 sub-regions, with West Asia being part of the Indian Ocean Mega-region, comprising 5 sub-regions, namely, the Gulf of Aden (sub-region 48), the Red Sea Area (sub-region 49), the ROPME Sea Area (sub-region 50), the Jordan Valley (sub-region 51) and the Arabian Sea (sub-region 52). UNEP/ROWA is coordinating the implementations in these 5 sub regions

The process has been started with the preparation of assessment reports in each of the sub-region, based on a GIWA-developed Methodology, to identify priorities for future action. The next phase will be the analysis of these reports and the identification of appropriate projects