GWP Central America held its annual General Assembly in Costa Rica on April 1, with the participation of 40 partner organisations. The activity was organised as a parallel event during the Latin American Sanitation Conference (LATINOSAN 2019), to integrate partners in the sanitation discussions carried out during the conference.
The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus (Faculty of Food and Agriculture) along with other agencies, recently hosted a week-long International Conference entitled “Climate Change Impacts on Food and Nutrition Security” in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
GWP South Asia attended a national key water sector stakeholder discussion held on 8 August 2019 in Colombo organised by the Programme Management Unit of the Mahaweli Water Security Investment Programme (MWSIP) under its consultancy package “Strengthening of Integrated Water Resources Management (SIWRM)” in Sri Lanka.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5), the effects of climate change will reduce renewable surface water and groundwater resources in most dry subtropical regions. These changes may intensify competition for water among all sectors, strain already water-scarce environments, and negatively impact water quality and quantity globally. Transboundary water basins are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, says Sonja Koeppel, Secretary of the UNECE Water Convention, as she highlights the up-coming Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on freshwater security that GWP is developing together with partners.
The project titled "Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin’’, for which the development process started in 2015 and received great support and contributions from Volta Basin Authority Executive Secretariat and institutions from the six Volta Basin riparian countries, has been approved for funding from the Adaptation Fund during the 23rd meeting of the Project and Program Evaluation Committee (PPRC) of the Fund held from 9 to 11 October, 2018 in Bonn, Germany.
The Volta Basin Authority (VBA) held from 9 to 11 April 2019 the 4th session of the Forum of Parties which is a platform bringing together in addition to the VBA member States representatives of major stakeholders including farmers, women, youth associations, private sector, NGOs, etc. active in the basin.
A GWP delegation including the Chair, Prof. MAIGA, ES Armand HOUANYE, Technical Committee chair, Dr. BARRY and Network Officer, Julienne ROUX met on 16, 17 and 19 October with several institutions to start or strengthen collaboration. The personalities and institutions met include the Executive Director of the Volta Basin Authority (VBA), IFAD Burkina Faso Office,