World Wetlands Day is celebrated on 2 February every year to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet. The 2021 theme shines a spotlight on wetlands as a source of freshwater and encourages actions to restore them and stop their loss.
Next up in our series of partners speaking about why their communities should submit their change journeys to the Water ChangeMaker Awards, we shift focus to the environment. We spoke with James Dalton, Director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Water Programme.
Thirty members of women-led organizations in the Central African Republic have been trained on water security and management, gender, and climate resilience.
From 2 to 4 September 2019 in Lomé and Danyi-Apéyémé-Todome in Togo, GWP-WA and its partners CWP Benin, CWP Burkina Faso, Eau Vive Internationale Togo and the ISW met to review the implementation of the three country microprojects in order to draw lessons and recommendations to be taken into account for the consolidation of the results and the scaling up of the initiative.
The 14th UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP14) takes place 2-13 September at the India Expo Center and Mart, in New Delhi, India. GWP is represented and play an active role during the second week of the event.
With over 54 shared river basins in Africa, 15 being in the SADC regions, cooperation in the management and development of transboundary water resources is key to economic growth and integration.
GWP West Africa held its statutory meetings in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 23 to 26 September on the theme "Accelerating progress in IWRM implementation to achieve water-related SDGs in West Africa: challenges, innovative approaches and roles of partnerships". These include the meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee on 23 September; the Steering Committee on 24 September 2019; and the Assembly of Partners (AP) on 26 September 2019. On 25 September, the regional dialogue was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Sanitation of Burkina Faso, the ECOWAS Water Resources Management Centre and the West African Monetary and Economic Union (UEMOA).
In March 2021, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) will hold a Caribbean Science Symposium on Water; the first of its kind for the region. Its main theme will be “Building Resilience in the Regional Water Sector to Address Climatological and Hydrological Risks and Threats.”
OPTAIN (EU-funded research and innovation project) proposes a social and scientific journey towards the increasing and better understanding of the multiple benefits of Natural/Small Water Retention Measures (NSWRM). OPTAIN will identify efficient NSWRM to better adapt to extreme events (floods, droughts) and reduce conflicts between agricultural water uses and other human and environmental demands in small catchments across different biogeographical regions of Europe in close cooperation with local actors.
