During the months of December and January the Country Water Partnership of Mali undertook to closely sensitize main stakeholders to raise the dwindling political will in the country on IWRM. On Thursday, December 27, 2018, a meeting was held with the Malian Association of Municipalities (AMM), to exchange with local authorities on Integrated Water Resources Management.
Isabella Pagotto of the Swiss development Cooperation met with a Gambia Country Water Partnership (GCWP) team comprising Mrs. Ndey Sireng Bakurin, chair, Mr. Momodou BE Njie, Executive Secretary, Mr. Yusupha Bojang, National IWRM Focal Point and Mrs. Fatou Sima Steering Committee and GWP-WA Technical Committee member on Tuesday 4th December 2018.
GWP, Cap-Net UNDP, and other partners have introduced a new tool to foster Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) on a global scale. The online course, Unpacking the Opportunities of IUWM for Sustainable Cities, was held in October-November 2018. It attracted 154 applications, with 72 accepted, and a follow-up course is being planned for 2019. “The great thing with the course is that it can be adapted to fit any project as needed,” says GWP Senior Network Specialist François Brikké, who sees a big potential in further developing the course at regional and country level.
Colombo is one of the first 18 cities that has been accredited as a Ramsar Wetland City at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP13) held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 25 October 2018.
In 2018, the International Coordinating Council of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme approved the registration of the Lower Prut Biosphere Reserve, which has now officially become the first biosphere reserve in Moldova.
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.
