Success stories of Palestinian achievers from all over the world

Ayman Rabi

Personal Info

  • Country of residence: Palestine
  • Gender: Male
  • Born in: 1964
  • Age: 51
  • Curriculum vitae :

Information

Dr. Ayman Ismail Rabi was born in 1964 in the village of Deir Ghassaneh. He earned his B.Sc. in geological engineering from Turkey in 1987, and his M.Sc. in water resource systems engineering from the UK in 1993. Finally he got his Ph.D. from Washington International University in 1999.

He started his professional career in 1987 with the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), conducting a field survey on natural springs in the West Bank. He continued working with PARC as a volunteer for one year and a half, during which time he founded the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG). The Group is currently the largest professional non-governmental body working on water and environmental issues in Palestine, of which Dr. Rabi is the Executive Director.

The idea behind founding PHG emerged from the desperate need for a specialized body that can document and address water and environmental issues in a professional way. This motivated Dr. Rabi to focus more on the broader water and environmental issues in Palestine and how they are related to the overall hydro-political context in the Jordan River and the Mediterranean basin.

After five years of hard work in advocating for water and environmental issues in the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPT), Dr. Rabi was nominated a member of the Palestinian team to the Multilateral Working Group on Water within the Peace Process in 1992. After that, with the support and cooperation of other PHG colleagues, he continued to expand the professional network with other regional and international professionals and networks. He represented PHG in the launching of the Mediterranean Water Year in 1994 in Athens, Greece. He then became a member in the Sustainable Water Supply Committee for the Middle East in 1996, sponsored by the US National Academy of Sciences. The committee produced a book on water resources and their utilization patterns in the Jordan River basin. He also was part of the team that prepared the Emergency Nature Protection Plan in the oPT in 1996.

Realizing the environmental challenges and the need for more cohesive efforts, he proposed to establish the Palestinian Environmental NGO Network (PENGON), which became a reality in 1999. Today, PENGON has sixteen member organizations working on environmental issues in Palestine.

He also led the coordination efforts of environmental NGOs in the Mediterranean basin to prepare a position paper on water issues, which he presented on their behalf at the Ministerial Water Conference in Turin, Italy in 1999.

Source

Achievements and Awards

Dr. Rabi has actively participated in addressing various water and environmental issues at the local and international levels. He attended tens of conferences and meetings and was elected vice president of one of the environmental NGO forums, MEDFORUM in Spain in 2003. He was also elected member of the advisory board of the Mediterranean Information Office, which is currently the largest environmental NGO forum in the Mediterranean basin. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy. Moreover, he is the national focal point for Palestine within the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).

Dr. Rabi has reviewed many books and research documents on the topic. His most recent endeavour was reviewing the part on water within the "Referenced Guide in Environmental Education" developed by MA'AN Development Centre.

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