Climate change in Bangladesh is critical and according to National Geographic, Bangladesh ranks first as the most vulnerable nation to the impacts of climate change in the coming decades.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat is implementing the SADC Regional Strategic Action Plan on IWRM – III (SADC RSAP III) which is designed to provide a programmatic approach to facilitate the implementation of the Protocol on Shared Watercourses through the application of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). GWP Southern Africa is an implementing partner for SADC providing programmatic support to the implementation of the RSAP III and is providing support to increasing engagement of stakeholders within the Phase III of the Transboundary Water Resources Management Programme.
The nine countries sharing the Nile Basin may have specific variations in cultures, policies, and institutional frameworks, but climate change continues to be a cross-cutting factor impacting their socio-economic livelihoods – whether agriculture, energy production, mining safety, or water quantity and quality.
Since 2005, GWP Caribbean and one of its Partners, the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), have brought together ministers and other senior government officials every year to discuss water issues and explain the benefits of IWRM. At the last high-level session, in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, in October, these efforts bore fruit.
In Benin, four years of lobbying and workshops culminated in the adoption by the Government, in July 2009, of a new water policy based on the IWRM approach. GWP Benin led efforts, working with parliamentarians, ministries, civil society, local communities and water user organisations, and establishing a task force. GWP Benin also arranged for consultants to review the first draft of the policy and organised a national workshop to validate the final draft.
GWP Provincial Water Partnerships in Fujian, Hebei, Hunan and Shaanxi are key players in implementing two rural development policies – The Water Saving Society and The New Countryside Development.
For nearly ten years, GWP Central America has been working with legislators in Honduras to explain the benefits of IWRM and advise on technical aspects as they drafted and refined water legislation.