2021 marks 25 years since Global Water Partnership (GWP) was founded with a mission to foster Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and – ultimately – to achieve a water secure world. Throughout 2021, celebrations will take place in the worldwide network of 3,000 Partners, highlighting past successes and setting new goals for future achievements.

To share its experience on dental fluorosis in the Far North region of Cameroon, the Cameroon Country Water Partnership (GWP-Cmr) has published a technical note in French titled « La Fluorose Dentaire: Une Menace encore méconnue de la Santé publique au Cameroun»

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.

In December 2020, GWP welcomed six new members on its Steering Committee, adding to seven members who have served longer. The Committee acts as a Board of Directors for the GWP Network and the GWP Organisation (GWPO). The members rotate every three or six years. Now, for the first time, a Permanent Youth Seat has been added. Jamilla Sealy from Barbados is the new representative on this seat. “Being the first youth, and also being a female of African descent and from the Caribbean, which are often under-represented in the global sphere, makes it a humbling experience”, she says about her appointment.

As part of Inter-Regional and South-South Cooperation within the GWP network, Global Water Partnership South America (GWP SAM) in collaboration with Global Water Partnership, Central Africa (GWP-CAf) organized a webinar in Portuguese on November 19, 2020 to introduce the Integrated Water Resource Management – IWRM Toolbox by GWP to partners in Sao Tome and Principe in a bid to find out their IWRM learning needs and preferences.

Global Water Partnership (GWP), the African Union Developmental Agency AUDA-NEPAD, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), and Development Bank of Southern Africa held a consultative meeting on 24th November, on the development of a water investment scorecard to track progress in mobilising water investments in Africa.

The Young Caribbean Water Entrepreneurs Shark Tank Competition is an initiative of the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) and was first launched in 2019.