On 21 April, a kick-off meeting of the Visegrad Fund funded project to support transfer of knowledge and lessons learned from the successful cooperation on drought from the Visegrad Countries officially launched a special Community of Practice platform dedicated for a community of stakeholders with interest in mitigation of drought issues in the country of Armenia. The event was attended by 40 participants who had the opportunity to get acquainted with the details of the platform, its content, working process and principles as well as all the working possibilities of the platform.
Recognizing the need for a high level of awareness in the process of drought assessment, early warning and management, and attaching importance to the engagement of all drought beneficiaries in the process, the main goal of the Drought Community of Practice project,hosted by the GWP Toolbox, is to create a universal platform that would:
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Bring together the parties primary affected by drought
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Allow effectively identifying the existing problems
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Offer possible and innovative solutions
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Exchange knowledge and experience
Arevik Hovsepyan, the president of CWP Armenia, and Alisa Savadyan, a GWP CACENA board member, made the opening speech at the meeting. They emphasized the importance of the platform in the effective drought management in Armenia and urged the users of the platform to take all possible measures to ensure the active operation of the platform.
The project partners then spoke about the details and expected outcomes of the project and emphasized the fact that Drought Community of Practice is in line with the Integrated Drought Management Plan, which in turn is the vision of the Global Water Partnership for the coming years.
In the following session, the representatives of the Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center, Gohar Yeghiazaryan and Hasmik Panyan, presented the drought monthly bulletin, launched within the framework of the platform's activities, and discussed its structure and content as well as the frequency of data updates.
Closing the meeting, the moderators of the Drought Community of Practice Platform addressed the platform's technical capabilities and its structure, presented the expected action plan and target groups of users. Following these events, a set of three thematic webinars are expected to be held in the next three months.
The main purpose of the project is to contribute to promoting the Visegrad regional cooperation in drought management and mitigation of the climate change and knowledge transfer to Armenia conditions.
The objectives achieved by development of the Drought platform, and specially targeted training for the drought managers, decision and policy makers in Armenia. An integrated proactive approach to drought planning, adaptation and management is promoted.