The 9th session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP9) to the UN Water Convention concluded on 1 October after a week of sessions, all serving to review and propose action towards transboundary water cooperation. GWP Executive Secretary Darío Soto-Abril was a panelist in a high-level session on the theme of 'Water and Peace'. One of his key messages was on the importance of turning challenges into opportunities.
Chad is the first African country to join the Water Convention in 2018. Aware that a large part of its water resources is shared, its accession to this convention will enable the country to better manage the resource in a concerted manner which adequately meets the growing needs of the population in a context where water security is increasingly threatened by climate change.
GWP-Med is leading the "Maximising impact through communication, dissemination and exploitation" Work Package of the new Horizon2020 SpongeWorks project, coordinating activities that will boost the project's visibility and overall impact. SpongeWorks will implement 19 sponge measures in three demonstrator sites in France, Greece and a transboundary basin shared between the Netherlands and Germany aiming to enhance water retention and management while contributing to climate resilience and ecosystem health. Through effective communication and dissemination strategies, GWP-Med will ensure the project's results are widely shared with stakeholders, facilitating broader adoption and long-term sustainability of sponge measures.
On Friday, 30 June 2023, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Secretariat handed over a climate-smart agriculture pilot project to Metsimotlhabe Community Trust in Botswana. The project was officially handed over to the community by Mr. Nchidzi Mmolawa, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs, who was the Guest of Honour at the event.
Organised by SIWI, World Water Week 2024 aims to highlight water cooperation, for peace and security in its broadest sense. GWP and its network will co-convene, support and take part in various activities, both within the formal agenda of the Week but also side-events and other conversations outside the venue.
How can GWP support governments to better integrate gender into their IWRM plans and policies to improve country score on SDG 6.5.1? In response to this, GWP-Central Africa organized a multi-stakeholder consultation in Mbalmayo, Cameroon on February 22nd to test the gender checklist developed by the Global Water Partnership (GWPO) under its SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme.
GWL-Tanzania has produced a series of Root Cause Analysis Reports – one for each challenge that was identified as a critical barrier to climate-resilient water management in the country.
Water governance must embrace gender equality and social inclusion if it is to truly contribute to poverty reduction as the world closes in on 2030, the world’s deadline for meeting the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals. Only by integrating gender and poverty issues into scientific research that informs and finances more equitable and inclusive policies, can we hope to move closer to these important goals.
