Over 350 individuals and groups from over 80 countries submitted their personal experience of having influenced water decisions to build climate resilience by the Water ChangeMaker Awards deadline, June 14. Thank you to all the ChangeMakers who shared their stories and to the ChangeMaker Partners who helped mobilise and spread the word. We now enter the next phase of the Awards: the screening and the judging.
"Right now, a network like the Global Water Partnership is needed more than ever before," says GWP Executive Secretary Monika Weber-Fahr, as she reflects on what happened in 2019 and with a view to what the future might hold. Her remarks came in the just-published GWP in Action 2019 Annual Report.
On May 28, the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Focal Point of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment (MARENA) and the IWRM Commission, with the support of GWP, held a national consultation for the SDG 6.5.1 baseline - the degree of implementation of IWRM. This is part of GWP's global efforts to assist national stocktaking and reporting on IWRM.
GWP held its annual Regional Days meeting on 1-4 June. The virtual event set a record in numbers, with over 120 GWP participants worldwide. While the main purpose is to have a shared understanding of GWP priorities and approaches, one of the highlights this year was the ‘virtual signing’ of a grant agreement between GWP and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on readiness support to the Zambia National Adaptation Plan (NAP).
In response to many requests, we have decided to extend the deadline for the Water ChangeMaker Awards with one week - to 14 June 2020 by midnight CEST - to give those who have not yet finalized their submissions a chance to participate.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has worked on water for food issues for over four decades, and therefore the decision to join the Water ChangeMaker Awards as a Knowledge Partner was a happy one, says Claudia Ringler, Deputy Division Director of IFPRI's Environment and Production Technology Division. According to her, all water decisions affect climate resilience in one way or another.
IHE Delft has held the 6th edition of the International Symposium on Knowledge and Capacity Development for the Water Sector. Due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the symposium – “From Capacity Development to Implementation Science” – was held online on 26-29 May, with around 500 participants from around the world. GWP is a Partner of the Symposium and hosted a session on ‘Reaching and engaging local communities.’ Recommendations from all sessions were fed into the Delft Agenda, finalised at the end of June and launched on 20 July.
Any experience on water management is worth to be shared, says Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of UNESCO: “Water managers need to understand the different journeys that have been taken, so that we collectively can promote sustainable water management.”
"We're interested in the Water ChangeMaker Awards because we understand that climate resilience is an active leadership," says John Matthews, Executive Director of Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) on the decision to partner with GWP for the Awards: “Climate resilience is something that requires bold thinking and bold actions, and we need the Water ChangeMaker Awards as a signal for aspirations, for hopes, for what positive change can really look like.”
