What is so special about water diplomacy? And where does the discussion on women and gender fit in? Placing women, water and diplomacy in the same sentence, often enough causes reactions that include head-scratching and eyebrow-raising; the link among them is not easily -nor well- understood.

15% increase for Gabon and 10% increase for Sao Tome and Principe - these are the final SDG 6.5.1 scores noted for the two countries following a national stakeholder consultation.

With 20 stakeholders in attendance, the Republic of Congo is the second country in Central Africa to hold a consultation workshop to validate the country report on indicator 6.5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals which monitors the degree of implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM).

Facilitated by the Central African Republic Country Water Partnership (CWP-CAR) , Central African Republic is the first country in the region to hold a stakeholder consultation workshop to validate the national monitoring report on indicator 6.5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The workshop was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Water resources Development and GWP-CAR on July 1st,2020 in Bangui.

Mindful of the SDG 6.5.1 reporting deadline of July 31st, GWP-CAf and its five CWPs have been fully engaged with country focal points to ensure that the ongoing monitoring and reporting process is conducted as per the UNEP guidelines.

Hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Hydraulics for the Republic of Congo (MEH) and facilitated by Country Water Partnership Congo and the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP Congo), the validation workshop for the national report on SDG 6.5.2 for the country took place in Brazzaville, Congo on the 22nd of June, 2020. The workshop had as objective to discuss on the state of Congo's water resources and cooperation in the field of transboundary waters and validate the draft report on SDG indicator 6.5.2, which assesses cooperation on transboundary rivers, lake basins and transboundary aquifers.

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).

Every year, all GWP Regions meet to brainstorm, share knowledge and learn about current challenges and future opportunities for the network at the annual regional days. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s regional days was held virtually for a period of four days, starting June 1st with over 100 participants at the opening plenary chaired by the outgoing Executive Secretary (ES), Monika Weber-Fahr . All regions were fully represented including GWP-CAf which was represented by the Regional Chair, Regional coordinator, as well as the Finance and Communications officers.