The environmental Art competition, “Danube Art Master” is delighted to have received a surprisingly large number of artworks submitted in 2020, despite taking place under truly exceptional circumstances.

An online consultation on the Nexus in Albania held online on 14 December brought together more than 50 stakeholders and experts to discuss how to overcome barriers and coordinate actions to apply the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus approach, achieving cross-sectoral benefits for all. The meeting, which gathered representatives from key institutions from related sectors, was convened by GWP-Med and UNECE in the frame of the SEE Nexus project, which is supported by the Austrian Development Agency.

Social inclusion and gender equality are long-established, core values of the GWP Network and manifested in the GWP Gender Strategy and the GWP Gender Action Piece. In a series of inter-regional discussions, GWP Senior Gender & Social Inclusion Specialist Liza Debevec sets out to identify what GWP as an institution can do to apply the concepts in these documents. Her first discussion is with Amy Sullivan and Andrew Takawira, who are both involved in a large Pan-African project on gender transformative water and climate investment. The discussion topic is institutional leadership and commitment, which is the first of 4 action areas in the Gender Action Piece. Their message is clear: leadership makes all the difference.

The Water ChangeMaker Awards are in the final stage of judging. From 350 initial submissions, there are 12 finalists. The winners will be presented during the virtual Climate Adaptation Summit on 25 January 2021. Here we recognise the top five countries where GWP partnerships mobilised the most Award submissions: China, India, Kenya, South Africa, and Uzbekistan.

The United Nations system designated 2020 as the year in which most of the indicators under Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation were to be updated. GWP, through its SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme, committed to assisting at least 60 countries in mapping out progress on SDG 6.5.1 – the degree of implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Despite the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, about 2,400 participants in 61 countries were consulted, mostly online.

Este acuerdo de cooperación con el gobierno para medir las contribuciones nacionales determinadas incluye el diagnóstico de avances en materia de adaptación al cambio climático desde una perspectiva sectorial y territorial.

In a bid to ensure that the Republic of Congo National Water and Sanitation Policy document takes into account all sectors related to water and directly addresses the challenges of the WASH sector in the country, the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources with the support of GWP-CAf and UNICEF organized a two day stakeholder consultation workshop from 25th – 26th November 2020 in Brazzaville.

To strengthen its network, RECOJAC applied for and obtained special funding from GWP Global Youth Support Program to support one of its partner organizations, PIVJET International, in the execution of a COVID 19 sensitization campaign for youths

Joyce Najm Mendez describes herself as a technoxamanist, TEDx lecturer, STEM advocate and social entrepreneur working on the water-energy-food nexus and transboundary cooperation. She is a MSc candidate in Sustainability and Adaptation Planning at the Centre of Alternative Technology, UK, and she has co-founded several organisations in Latin America, tackling mainly sustainability and adaptation-mitigation of climate change. In this article, she shares some of her experiences. She says that “working with young people means investing in the present, and the opportunity for real change in the civilisation paradigm.”

The Central African Republic Country Water Partnership held its General Assembly and the Steering Committee Meeting on November 27 and 28 respectively in Bangui.