This month, Howard Bamsey began his duties as the new Chair of GWP. He did so with a visit to the global secretariat in Stockholm, Sweden, where he met staff and got briefed on current issues around the network. We took the opportunity to discuss his thoughts on joining GWP, and his reflections on some of GWP’s most recent activities at the UN climate change conference, COP24, in December.
With over 54 shared river basins in Africa, cooperation in the management and development of transboundary water resources is a key building block towards regional and economic integration. However, the pace of investment in transboundary water projects in Africa remains very slow hampering progress towards the continent’s economic growth aspirations and 2030 SDG targets.
The SADC Secretariat has been holding a series of workshops for the transboundary River Basin Organisations (RBOs) in the region since 2006. The workshops are organised with the aim of using RBOs as a vehicle for strengthening regional integration and have served as a key tool for implementing SADC’s Revised Regional Protocol on Shared Watercourses (2000).
Activities under this focus area aim to promote gender mainstreaming in the water sector as part of implementing priority intervention P3.1 in the RSAP IV on IWRM in line with the SADC Gender Policy and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
Water management is one of the greatest challenges facing the food & drink sector today, with far-reaching implications for society, as well as the competitiveness and sustainability of all food and drink manufacturers. Water Market Europe 2019 is focusing on the food & drink sector that covers the full water cycle and has a high impact on climate challenges. It is held 20-21 March in Brussels, Belgium.
River Basin Management 2019 is the 10th Conference in a series which marks the growing international interest in the planning, design and management of river basin systems. The event will cover all aspects of Hydrology, Ecology, Environmental Management, Flood Plains and Wetlands. It takes place in Alicante, Spain.
The 24th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP24), hosted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, is taking place in from the 2nd to the 14th December 2018, Katowice, Poland.
Gathering more than 70 high level MENA representatives -from national and regional institutions involved in the sectors of water management, energy production, food and agriculture, and environmental protection, as well as financing institutions- the 1st Nexus Roundtable in the MENA and wider Mediterranean solidly contributed to the ongoing Dialogue processes in the Region for the incorporation of Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems Nexus considerations in national and transboundary water resources management planning, including the link between the Nexus approach and vulnerable groups (women, youth, poor), and the enhancement of related capacities of MENA institutions and stakeholders.
