Climate change remains one of the most pressing global challenges, affecting vital sectors such as agriculture and water resources. For the Kingdom of Eswatini, these challenges are not just theoretical but a lived reality. Erratic rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts, and recurrent floods pose significant threats to water security and sustainable development. In response, Eswatini is actively implementing initiatives to strengthen climate resilience in its water sector.
On Wednesday 4 October 2023, GWP and IW:Learn hosted an online session on multi-stakeholder regional dialogues, focusing on the critical enabling factors that contribute to their success, and how they positively impact transboundary water cooperation.
The year 2023 was a remarkable year for GWP as the organization draws towards the end of its global strategy 2020-2025.
In Central Africa, great strides were made by all five countries (Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo and Sao Tomé and Principe) in the region to advance the implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and to address challenges related to climate change, gender equality in the water sector amongst other things.
Project to support the operationalization of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) to strengthen resilience to climate change in transboundary basins in West Africa (PAGIREC- AO), this is the title of the funding request whose validation of the detailed request motivated the restricted technical regional workshop organized on December 14 and 15, 2023 in Ouagadougou by the Department of Agriculture, Water Resources and Environment (DAREN) of the WAEMU Commission, in collaboration with the Water Resources Management Centre (CGRE) of the ECOWAS Commission and the Global Water Partnership in West Africa (GWP-WA).
A groundbreaking initiative that is global in scope,
the GWL Programme aims to bringing the WASH and IWRM
sectors closer together and addressing climate
resilience.
The 2023 United Nations Water Conference was successfully held from 22-24 March 2023. The event was held at UN Headquarters in New York, co-hosted by the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands, aimed to assess the progress of the Water Action Decade 2018-2028 and reaffirm water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The mission of the Global Water Partnership to support countries in the adoption and implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Agenda 6.5.1 to track the degree of IWRM. Thus, the global office and the regional secretariat of Southeast Asia participated in the main events, and side events (on-site and virtual events).
On September 6, 2024, the Global Water Partnership China (GWP China) hosted the "Research Conference on Energy Transition and Water Resources Management in Water-scarce Areas of China" at the Yingze Hotel in Taiyuan, capital city of Shanxi Province.
In 2017 and 2020, the SDG 6.5.1 Survey Reporting was conducted, and a post-Survey Assessment of the results was carried out in 2021. One of the challenges in IWRM implementation identified through the assessment was the lack of IWRM understanding among various government stakeholders, as well as the private sector.