Young water leaders from Central and Eastern Europe attended COP25 in Madrid as part of the GWP youth delegation to continue the efforts of GWP to engage and empower youth in water and climate governance.
In one of its key activities at COP25, GWP announced a new collaboration with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other partners, to create plausible water solutions for a climate-resilient future in 2030 and beyond. The initiative is called "Water Resilience Frontiers: Pathways for transformational Climate Resilient Water Security in 2030 and Beyond".
The SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme, coordinated by GWP in collaboration with the UN Environment-DHI Centre and UNDP Cap-Net, has facilitated a coordinated approach to monitoring and enhancing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.5, implementing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). In 2019 four pilot countries were supported to create an IWRM Action Plan. Some lessons on how the experience gained can be put to practical use in other countries have now been captured in a summary report.
For our third and final youth voice on water for 2019 we go to the warm Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago to meet Khadija Stewart, who shares her water journey and how social media and communication has guided her to where she is today: “A simple Facebook post changed my life”, she says. The story is part of a collaboration between World Youth Parliament for Water (WYPW) and GWP to make sure the voices of youth are heard.
The Water-Employment-Migration (WEM) Lab II (19-20 November 2019, Istanbul), brought together representatives of key institutions (including on migration and labour), governments and stakeholders including the private sector civil society and academia, to identify related challenges, possible solutions and synergies among a range of partners. The focus was on addressing key lines towards building the WEM Framework Programme of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Water Agenda, building on contributions by on-going and future actions and projects.
How to deliver water, energy and food for all in a sustainable and equitable way, while preserving the health of natural ecosystems that form the basis of any economic activity? The Nexus approach moves beyond traditional sectoral thinking in order to achieve overall security and sustainability of all resources.