World Water Day is an important milestone to raise the awareness of water security globally. The theme of World Water Day 2021 is valuing water. The value of water is greater than its price – water has enormous and complex value for our households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the integrity of our natural environment. Without a comprehensive understanding of water’s true, multidimensional value, it will be challenging to safeguard this critical resource for the benefit of people, environment, and economic development.
The Indonesia Water Coalition (IWC) that officially established through the charter signing ceremony on the 29 January 2021 sees World Water Day as an important milestone to achieve water security in Indonesia, which aligns with its vision. Since its establishment in January 2021, the coalition has been focusing on initiating multi-stakeholder collaboration to tackle the growing water challenges jointly. To leverage best practices from each company and organization, we are inviting the coalition’s founding members to share their commitments, achievements, and future-plans to the public via online sharing sessions between 22-31 March 2021. As one of the founding members, Fany Wedahuditama, Regional Coordinator for Global Water Partnership Southeast Asia (GWP-SEA) shared these discussion topic on the 29 March 2021.
GWP-CAf offered a training to the finance team of RECOJAC (Réseau Eau et Climat des Organisations de Jeunes d'Afrique Centrale) with a focus on grants management and justification.
The first platform with harmonized data for the Drin River’s environment, societies and economies has just been launched. The Integrated Management System is a free online tool available to all that allows regular information exchange among competent institutions in the Drin basin, facilitating effective transboundary cooperation.
August 4 -- The High-Level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) was established to assist the international community, governments, and stakeholders in mobilizing political will and resources. HELP is committed to addressing water-related disaster risk reduction including the present challenge with the COVID-19 pandemic circumstances in hand. The consultation meeting was held to discuss and gain insights on how to practically implement key suggestions proposed in the HELP Principle to Address Water-related Disaster Risk Reduction under Covid-19 Pandemic. The consultation also aims exchanges among decision-makers, experts and practitioners in Asia region on how they can be better prepared for co-occurring disasters on water and health.
On 7 October, GWP Chair Howard Bamsey was the keynote speaker in the second of a series of webinars organized by the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) on the road towards the 4th Asia-Pacific Water Summit in 2022. He spoke to the topic of "Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Investors: More Risks, More Opportunities through better Governance." His speech focused on how the world can deal with the potentially catastrophic risks of climate change by changing the pattern of investment in the global economy, towards climate-friendly activities.
To bridge the gap between the 2019 and 2021 Stockholm World Water Weeks, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) invited convenors to host a virtual adaptation of their World Water Week 2020-approved sessions between 24 and 28 August. The week goes under the umbrella of #WWWeek At Home. GWP co-convened several sessions.
