On her visit to the Hellenic Parliament on 27 February 2020, Global Water Partnership Executive Secretary, Dr Monika Weber-Fahr, extended an invitation to Greek Parliamentarians and Government to strengthen their collaboration with the Global Water Partnership network, in order to address global and regional challenges to water security.
12 August marks International Youth Day - the 2019 theme is “transforming education”, highlighting efforts to make education more relevant, equitable and inclusive for all youth. GWP launched its Youth Engagement Strategy in 2015 and has since then been actively pursuing various youth initiatives. Coinciding with International Youth Day, GWP's new Youth Engagement Specialist, Rianna Gonzales, takes up her new position in the GWP secretariat in Stockholm, Sweden. She describes the youth sector as “an explosion of energy and hope."
Dr Adrien Coly, Chair of the Country Water Partnership of Senegal received Mr Ndour Niokhor, Director of Water Resources Management and Planning (DGPRE) of Senegal on Wednesday 13 May 2020 for a working meeting.
GWP representatives from global, regional, and country level took part in 27 different public sessions at this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, 26-31 August. Sessions covered a full range of topics, such as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), ecosystems, urban, migration, drought, financing, transboundary, youth, etc. The GWP booth also had themes every day of the week, which included capturing the voices of the visitors, and networking.
“Connection leads to protection because when you feel connected to something, you feel a responsibility to care for and protect it,” says Stephanie Woodworth as she reflects on her experiences over the past few years – from winning the 2016-2017 edition of the Great Waters Challenge, to working on a number of water-related youth projects and finding her motivation to reach her goal of connecting people to water, especially the younger generation.
In 2020 with the onset of the global COVID-19 Pandemic, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) was motivated to find a novel and creative way of educating Caribbean kids about the critical value of water, the various water issues that occur throughout the Caribbean region and how they could be empowered to become Water ChangeMakers.
13 October marks the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. The day is centered around the seven targets of the Sendai Framework, and this year focuses on Target D: reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services. According to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) floods are the most common natural disaster with the largest impacts on society. GWP Senior Network Specialist Frederik Pischke says that there are great published insights that can help those in need to build resilience – online HelpDesks on flood & drought management offer practical support.