GWP held its annual Network Meeting on 25-26 June 2019. Following last year’s success, the meeting was held in a Follow the Sun format – a 29-hour long, online meeting of back-to-back sessions with all GWP regions. A big topic was the new GWP Strategy 2020-2025, which is due to be launched shortly – the meeting adopted the network's new strategic directions.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies and actions specially designed for the current pandemic situation will protect disaster-affected areas from becoming epicenters of pandemic explosion and assist with swift recovery from disasters.
The High-Level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) was established to assist the international community, governments and stakeholders in mobilizing political will and resources. HELP is committed to address water-related disaster risk reduction under the COVID-19 Pandemic.
GWP Mediterranean has been working actively in Jordan for over a decade, assisting the country’s water sector to meet the challenging demands it faces. Much of the work has been centered around sustainable water financing. In the past year, a significant breakthrough was made when a government-led collaboration with the Jordanian banking sector was established.
The Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) and GWP Central America reported back to the Ministries of Environment of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala on the national workshops regarding integrated drought management. GWP Central America coordinated a series of workshops on integrated drought management as part of the project “Increasing Disaster Risk Reduction Capacity due to Floods and Drought and Promoting Resilience in Central America”, financed by EUROCLIMA+.
The Adaptation Fund has funded for US$ 7.92 million a regional project submitted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in partnership with the Volta Basin Authority (VBA) and Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP-WA). The Project intitled "Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning Systems for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin" will contribute to improve the resilience of countries sharing the Volta Basin to flood and drought risks and to ensure sustainable socio-economic development of the riparian populations.
Since being adopted by the GWP network last year, the new GWP Strategy 2020-2025 – Mobilising for a Water Secure World – was launched at a series of events around the world throughout the second half of 2019. The strategy calls for urgent action on, and agile responses to, the world water crises.
The Global Water Partnership (GWP) Steering Committee announced the appointment of Mr Darío Soto-Abril (pictured) as GWP Executive Secretary, effective March 1, 2021. Soto-Abril joins GWP after serving as Global CEO at Fairtrade International since February 2017.
