Mr Nanda Abeywickrama, (former Secretary, Ministry of Lands and Land Development (1978-88) and Director, International Co-operation (1988-94) also worked as a Special Adviser to the Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) from 1997 to 2005. In 1998, Mr Abeywickrama’s name was recommended by the then Director General, IWMI and appointed as a founding member of the Global Water Partnership Technical Advisory Committee for South Asia (SASTAC). Later, he held the position of Regional Chair of GWP South Asia (GWP SAS) from 2005 when the SAS Secretariat was moved to Sri Lanka under the hosting agreement with IWMI. He served as the Chair, GWP SAS from 2005-06 and weaned away from work gradually. Currently, Mr Abeywickrama is in his retirement living with his beloved wife in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Can the UN 2023 Water Conference help us to re-think how we value water and accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals?
Chad, Congo, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe have completed the third round of reporting on indicator 6.5.1 of Sustainable Development Goal 6, which monitors the degree of implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).
The Ugandan Ministry of Water and Environment, GWPEA together with Uganda Water Partnership, are organizing a 2-day event to launch and conduct initial stakeholder consultations of the Global Water Leadership Programme
It’s been called the African COP, the Adaptation COP, the Implementation COP, the Solutions COP, and the Development COP. Clearly, there is a lot riding on the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this 6–18 November. It marks the 30th anniversary of the Convention’s adoption, but also a new and difficult phase in global climate action.
The GovernAgua project: "Transforming water governance in South America: from reaction to adaptation and anticipation” was launched on 26 July. The regional event, supported by GWP South America, took place at the SARAS Institute headquarters (South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies) and it was broadcast online.
GWP Eastern Africa Regional coordinator George Sanga joined participants from the Netherlands and 7 Africa countries (Burkina Faso, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa), and Dutch Blue Deal partners for a workshop on sustainable financing of Integrated Water Resource Management. He shared the GWPEA experience with implementing the SDG6 IWRM Support Program on how the Blue Deal program can replicate the Matchmaking Initiative pilot in Kenya to mobilize financial resources in target countries.
These topics of water pricing, nature-based solutions, financial opportunities were discussed and an interesting excursion gave insights into the challenges of a local WRUA (Water Resources Users Association) in implementation of a Mangrove restauration project on the shores of the Indian Ocean.
