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The International Workshop on Water Scarcity: Taking action in transboundary basins and reducing health impacts will take place on 11 - 12 December 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland.

GWP and Partners recently organised a one-day high level workshop in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss gender equality and inclusion in water management, and set out a path forward for a range of influential stakeholders. This was the second part of a wider study on how to better address gender-equality and inclusion issues in water-related policies and programmes. The event was facilitated by Melita Grant of the Institute for Sustainable Futures - University of Technology of Sydney (ISF-UTS) in Australia. She talks us through the process.

In Shaanxi Province, groundwater is the main source of water for drinking and irrigating crops. It is also vital for sustaining ecosystems such as streams, lakes, and wetlands. But this resource is coming under pressure due to population growth, urbanisation and changing land use, and climate change. GWP China Shaanxi conducted a series of studies to analyse the role of groundwater in water resources allocation. These led to a proposal to establish legislation and provided policy recommendations to decision-makers to strengthen the management of groundwater.

GWP has supported the consultation process of francophone youth from 21 countries in the creation of a White Paper, which expresses the role of youth in the management of water in the context of climate change. The paper was presented at COP21 in Paris last year. GWP Central America and partners have now launched a contest for youth based on the recommendations of the White Paper.

The annual GWP Network Meeting will be held on 11 October at 13.00 Central European Time (CET). It is a virtual meeting, to be broadcast on the GWP website www.gwp.org – with a special guest message from UN Deputy Secretary General (DSG) Jan Eliasson. A live session will be held in connection to this on GWP’s Facebook page – we welcome your questions and comments.

GWP co-organised the recent World Meteorological Organization (WMO) HydroConference – the Global Conference for Prosperity through Hydrological Services – in Geneva, Switzerland. The event set out to create better interfaces between the providers of hydrological services and the users who need such services for a wide range of decision-making.

In our interview series marking GWP 20 Years, we talk to GWP Steering Committee (SC) member Dr. Gunilla Björklund. Her ties to the network run back all the way to its founding days, and over the years she has been involved in GWP project evaluations as a consult. She says the main challenge as a SC member is to have a global overview while still maintaining an understanding of the details.

GWP Central America is part of the organising committee for the sub-regional process leading up to the 8th World Water Forum, to be held in Brasilia, March 2018. In this capacity, GWP Central America, together with GWP Caribbean, held an online consultation to identify cross-cutting themes and topics that will be discussed at the Forum next year. The results were presented at the 2nd Stakeholders Consultation Meeting in Brasilia, on April 26-27.

Stockholm World Water Week takes place from 27 August to 1 September. This year's theme is "water and waste – reduce and reuse". GWP plays an active role in a number of events.