The tenth Assembly of Partners of GWP West Africa held on September 2021 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on the theme "Covid-19 Crisis Response Strategy for Water Security and Sustainable Development in West Africa”.
The Chair of GP-WA, Prof. Amadou H. MAIGA and the Executive Secretary, Mr. Armand HOUANYE visited Senegal from 16 to 21 Novembre 2020 to support the Country Water Partnership (CWP) that is engaging new actions for a renewed dynamism. The chair of CWP Senegal, Dr. Adrien COLY invited the regional leadership to back the CWP in its efforts for consolidating the actions he has started with his team to strengthen the partnership, build new alliances and engage new fund-raising initiatives.
The Water ChangeMaker Awards are in the final stage of judging. From 350 initial submissions, there are 12 finalists. The winners will be presented during the virtual Climate Adaptation Summit on 25 January 2021. Here we recognise the top five countries where GWP partnerships mobilised the most Award submissions: China, India, Kenya, South Africa, and Uzbekistan.
GWP co-designed a webinar series on farmer-led irrigation (FLI) in partnership with the World Bank, the International Water Management Institute, and the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute. The 2-part series, which concluded on 9 July, highlighted the need for innovative water solutions to support agricultural production systems in a changing climate. FLI development has gained increased attention as one of the solutions to build climate resilience for smallholder farmers. GWP is involved with stakeholders in several countries on FLI initiatives.
In 2021, GWP and Wuhan International Water Law Academy are co-organising an interactive online series called the "Transboundary freshwater security governance train". The series of online engagements sessions will be conducted in an approach of a ‘train’ stopping at various locations in the world, with focus on topics related to transboundary freshwater security from different parts of the world. At each of the stops, a different topic from the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security will be explored. The first session is on transboundary water agreements, and it takes place on 19 January, stopping in Africa, Europe and Asia.
Today’s water challenges need all water interests to be at the table to jointly diagnose, discuss, and develop shared solutions – including the private sector. Over the past years, GWP has been able to build experience in engaging the private sector. To further develop this work, engagement with the private sector cuts across all three GWP Anchor Areas (climate resilience, Sustainable Development Goals, and transboundary water cooperation) in the GWP 2020-2025 Strategy.
After taking part in the GWPO Working in Virtual Environment Training (WiVe) ahead of the Virtual Regional Days 2020 , Global Water Partnership Central Africa (GWP-CAf) decided to share the knowledge acquired during this training with all Country Water Partnerships within its network.
Communications is key for development, something recognised by both GWP and Sida, Sweden’s International Development Cooperation Agency, and one of GWP’s founding Partners. On 22-23 November, the Communication teams of GWP and Sida joined forces with Malmö University’s Master's in Communication for Development in convening a 2-day seminar for their students as part of the course on "Media, globalization and development."
