To mark the International Desertification and Drought Day, we invite you to the OPTAIN Pannonian Regional Dialogue Conference, taking place on 22 May 2025 in Budapest and online.
The White House Action Plan on Global Water Security, launched by the Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris, on 1 June 2022, presents significant opportunities for achieving climate-resilient water security in Africa where the joint World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF statistics estimates over 400 million people do not have access to clean drinking water and over 700 million live without access to good sanitation.
Following the launch of Regional Strategy on Drought Risk Management and Mitigation for South Asia at the 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the UNCCD which was held on 10 December 2024, the countries of GWP SAS conducted mini-launches and key stakeholder consultations locally. The key stakeholder consultations around the strategy facilitated identifying the national level priorities that should be developed into action plans by keeping the regional strategy as the guide.
When sitting and former Heads of State come together to mobilise billions of dollars for water investments in Africa, it cannot be business as usual for the water and sanitation sectors.
The UN theme of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD 2018) relates to gender equality and activism, building on global movements such as #metoo and #TimeIsNow. For the water community we translated this to “Time is now for equality in water access and management!” and followed it up by asking women in the GWP network “How can activism empower women in the water sector?” These issues were also raised in a Facebook Live session on 8 March together with GWP Partner Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).
In its continued efforts to strengthen climate resilience in the water sector, water stakeholders in Malawi gathered for a two-day kick-off workshop for activities under the AU AIP Multi-Country Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Project, being implemented under the broader umbrella of the Continental Africa Water Investment Programme (AIP), a flagship initiative aimed at closing Africa’s water investment gap.
