In celebration of International Youth Day 2020 on 12 August, GWP organised an online discussion with GWP Youth Engagement Specialist Rianna Gonzales, who interviewed GWP Southern Africa Youth Coordinator Paseka Lesolang about his achievements as an entrepreneur and influencer. Paseka said that one of the most important skills that has brought him to where he is today, is self-knowledge. This has allowed him to stretch himself to the next point. “Know thyself” was therefore one of his key messages.
Eight African entries have qualified in the semi-finals of the Water ChangeMaker Awards, which were launched by GWP and partners in 2020 to recognise the teams and organisations who shape water decisions that build climate resilience.
One of the main stepping stones toward the United Nations 2023 Water Conference – the first UN conference dedicated to water in over 45 years – is the 2nd High-Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”, to be held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 6-9 June 2022.
The EURECCCA project set out to increase the resilience of ecosystems by supporting sustainable management of forests, wetlands, and riverbanks and to increase the resilience of agricultural landscapes by supporting communities to develop and implement sustainable water harvesting, soil bio-physical and flood control structures.
On 27 October, Global Water Partnership and Wuhan International Water Law Academy organised an online engagement session based on the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security. The topic was ‘Does the world need more International Water Law?’ The event attracted approximately 100 participants. “One of the most encouraging feedback was a participant who realized ‘we don’t need to be lawyers to work with international water law.’ We tend to think that it is always lawyers who exercise the law, but the law is there to be exercised by anyone,” said GWP’s Yumiko Yasuda after the event.
The Mekrou Project Phase 2 – Niger component has started an active implementation phase with the beginning of consulting missions for the operationalization of IWRM in the Mekrou sub-basin in Niger.
On 23 June, GWP Chair Howard Bamsey took part in a panel discussion on water and climate organised by pharmaceutical company Bayer and the Water and Climate Coalition. Bamsey said the water community needs to better articulate the central role of water in climate: “Water is a part of the climate struggle.”
