The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is celebrated annually on 17 June to raise awareness around desertification and drought. GWP Senior Water & Climate Specialist Valentin Aich, who works on the Technical Support Unit of the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP), shares some insights on what’s currently on the IDMP agenda. One of the major activities is expanding the programme to Caucasus and Central Asia (CACENA). Aich is passionate about this but explains that it is a process that will take years to achieve – however, all the elements are now in place and the time is right.
Today is International Women’s Day and, with the rest of the world, GWP is celebrating the tremendous efforts by women and girls in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, the GWP network repeated the "Follow the Sun" experience, an online partner network meeting, after the success of last year. From 25th to 26th June 2019, all GWP regions were given the opportunity to express their views on the new GWP 2020-2025 strategy, for which they actively participated in the development.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated on 2 February every year to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet. The 2021 theme shines a spotlight on wetlands as a source of freshwater and encourages actions to restore them and stop their loss.
From October 12 GWP-WA Secretariat has a new staff. The recruitment process of the WACDEP-G programme manager was concluded by the recruitment Mr. Joseph Yaovi KOGBE, as the Regional Program Officer of AIP WACDEP-G West Africa.
The United Nations system designated 2020 as the year in which most of the indicators under Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation were to be updated. GWP, through its SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme, committed to assisting at least 60 countries in mapping out progress on SDG 6.5.1 – the degree of implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Despite the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, about 2,400 participants in 61 countries were consulted, mostly online.
The event series, “Transboundary freshwater security governance train” continued on 20 April. The initiative is a collaboration between GWP and Wuhan International Water Law Academy, and the topic of the 4th session was “International Water Law and Climate Change.” Around 120 participants joined the online session. “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges in international water law,” said event Co-Chair Barbara Janusz-Pawletta.
On May 28, the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Focal Point of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment (MARENA) and the IWRM Commission, with the support of GWP, held a national consultation for the SDG 6.5.1 baseline - the degree of implementation of IWRM. This is part of GWP's global efforts to assist national stocktaking and reporting on IWRM.
