Before the International Children’s Day (June 1st), 15 teams of 13-19-year-old young people convened in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province to share their inventions with experts and the public and to realize their innovative solutions to improve water and environment in and around their schools at the Junior Water Prize (JWP) Final.
The ad-hoc Steering Committee for the Nexus activities in the Drina River Basin under the SEE Nexus Project, supported by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), had its first online meeting on 15 October 2020. Representatives from the Ministries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia relevant to the water, energy and environment sectors, were informed about and commented on the project’s objectives and planned activities in the basin.
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.
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 is conducted in an approach of a ‘train’ stopping at various locations in the world, with focus on topics related to transboundary freshwater security. At each of the stops, a different topic from the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security is explored. In the 4th session, the topic is "International Water Law and Climate Change" and it takes place on 20 April.
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."
“This opportunity has opened my eyes…it has taught me to think in a whole new manner about the climate change problem as it relates to Small Island Developing States.” These are the words of 27-year-old Khadija Stewart from Trinidad and Tobago, when asked about her experience as a 2019 Peace Boat Ocean and Climate Change Youth Ambassador.
