The MedPartnership and ClimVar projects held their final meeting on 3-4 November 2015 in Athens, Greece to showcase the results achieved through the activities and demonstration projects implemented over the past five years or so aiming to address the main environmental challenges that Mediterranean marine and coastal ecosystems face.
GWP-Med provides technical assistance to the UfM secretariat that coordinates/supports the drafting procedure of a roadmap and associated work plan for the work of the WEG.
At the 11th GWPSA Consulting Partners held in Pretoria from 12-13th November, 2015, GWPSA Partners elected a new Chair. In line with GWPSA’s Constitution, the Chair will serve for four years. The new Chair, Dr. Kuiri F. Tjipangandjara is from Namibia. He obtained his D Sci Eng Degree in 1991 in Mineral Engineering and Chemical Metallurgy, at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University, New York City, USA.
In line with the GWP strategic thematic area on urbanisation, GWP is collaborating with AfDB – Africa Water Facility and Partners to support the region and countries in Africa to address challenges related to water management in urban areas in cities in Africa. In view of this, a capacity building workshop on IUWM was held from 25th to 28th January in Abidjan, Ivory Coast aimed at contributing to the well-being of the urban population of Africa by improving water and wastewater services through the implementation of an integrated approach.
The Regional Coordinator took part in the enlarged meeting of the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) Coordination Office and to the meeting of the Project Steering Committee SITWA in Dakar, on 15 to 17 December 2015.
After a year of operation to the satisfaction of the solar installations, and in accordance with the contract, a general review of equipment installed was made, followed by a final acceptance on December 23, 2015 by the Executive Secretary.
GWP is planning to help some countries for their preparedness to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in September 2015 as a follow up to the MDGs.
Global Water Partnership Southern Africa organised a workshop on the development of a Water Resources Management book for Zimbabwe on the 6th -7th of January 2015. A group of 27 experts (local and regional) met at Bronte Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe to deliberate on the development of chapters for the proposed book. Experts were drawn from various water related fields namely water and health, hydrology, water supply, water quality, environmental science, freshwater ecosystems, water resource planning, water policy and irrigation, aquatic ecology, groundwater, water resource management, remote sensing, water infrastructure and development, GIS and climate and water resources.
Sustainable Water Integrated Management – Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM), the largest water-related regional project supported by the European Commission (EC) during 2010-2015, successfully concluded its phase I, and held its Final Steering Committee (SC) Meeting in Luxembourg, on the 25th of November. With a budget of 7.7 million Euros, the project was implemented in nine south Mediterranean countries[1] by a consortium led by LDK and with GWP-Med as the project technical director.
The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) contributed to a key UNESCO handbook on science diplomacy and transboundary water management published in late 2015, focusing on the Orontes River case in Lebanon; this was the outcome of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project “New technologies for an integrated and sustainable management of natural resources in Lebanon” financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.