A landmark conference took place on 15-17 October 2014 at Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa to enhance discussions between SADC and SADC regional partners such as River Basin Organisations, International Cooperating partners and developmental partners, such as RESILIM, CRIDF and GWPSA on “Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Resilience in Water Related Disasters”.
Based on country studies on Local Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (LIKSP) and how they contribute to enhancing climate resilience in each of the 14 countries in the SADC region, Qandelihle Simelane (regional consultant of LIKSP studies) gave a regional summation from country studies undertaken in the region during the 6th SADC River Basin Organisations (RBOs) Workshop held from the 15th to the 17th of October 2014 at Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa under the theme “Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Resilience in Water Related Disasters.”
A presentation on Gender Mainstreaming in the SADC Water Sector was made during the 6th RBO workshop held on 15-17 October, 2014 at Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. GWP SA has facilitated the organization of the RBO workshops, which are aimed at enhancing and building the ability of the RBOs to prepare, respond and recover from water related impacts (flood and droughts) and build resilience to climate change within the RBOs through all aspects, including gender mainstreaming.
A three-day National Adaptation Plan (NAP) training workshop was held from the 3rd to 5th of September in Salima, Malawi as an effort to help the Government of Malawi identify the next steps in establishing a NAP process. The workshop was highly interactive drawing upon a broad range of climate sensitive sectors and stakeholders, and was successful in reaching its overall objectives of building an understanding of the NAP process and to draft a roadmap for country level advancement.
In line with one of the decisions of the Sixteenth Session of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Malawi launched its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) on 2nd September at Sunbird Capital Hotel in Lilongwe. This was followed by a three day National Stakeholder Workshop at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach Hotel in Salima whose goal was to assist the Malawi Government to identify the next steps to start its National Adaptation Plan Process through multi-stakeholder engagement.
GWP’s WACDEP Capacity Development Programme held the second workshop in Maputo, Mozambique from the 26th- 29th August, 2014 on ‘Economics of Adaptation, Water Security and Climate Resilient Development in Africa’. The workshop is one of the workshops in a series of five national workshops under the “GWP/UNDP-GEF joint Capacity Development Programme on the Economics of Adaptation, Water Security and Climate Resilient Development in Africa”.
The GWP SA Young Professional Development Programme is part of GWPs role in integrating youth in its strategy. As part of GWP SA’s commitment, three young water professionals were recruited between the months of July – August 2014. This effort comes in support of the GWP strategy that aims to increase the involvement of young people as essential partners in GWP’s network to strengthen their awareness and develop their skills in working towards a sustainable future in fields related to water management and development.
The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa, on behalf of the Strengthening Institutions for Transboundary Waters Resources Management in Africa (SITWA) project held a regional consultation for about 20 participants to ensure regional stakeholder input into the draft 10-year strategy and a detailed 5-year action plan of the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) was held on 30th and 31st July, 2014 at the Gaborone Sun hotel in Gaborone, Botswana.