The 2014 Global Water Partnership (GWP) Consulting Partners Meeting which was held on June 27th and 28th, 2014 in Trinidad closed with an Annual Lecture entitled “Climate and Water: Global to Local Caribbean Socio-Economic Climate Change Scenarios” which was delivered by Professor John B.R. Agard.
The National Consultation Dialogues (NCDs) are organised within the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP), which is undertaken by the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Region of the Global Water Partnership (GWP).
GWP Eastern Africa held the 3rd Regional Consulting Partners (RCP) meeting on 20-21 March 2014 at Munyonyo Speke Resort Hotel in Uganda. This is a statutory and decision making meeting that takes place once every two years.
GWP South America recently organised the first Latin American workshop on International Waters Law. The initiative is a collaboration with GWP Central America and aims to encourage improved international cooperation on water governance.
An Expert Task Force of the joint GWP/OECD project “Global Dialogue on Water Security and Sustainable Growth” has presented provisional results of research into the economics of water security. Although still a work in progress, some striking patterns stand out, and the experts believe this could be a game changer in the quest for a dedicated water goal in the post-2015 development agenda, as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be decided upon.
The water sector in South Africa is dynamic and facing major challenges such as reduction in capacity of the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) to engage as extensively with stakeholders. As a result of a weak partnership base, it has been difficult to ensure the implementation of equitable and sustainable IWRM. Although a South African Country Water Partnership (SA CWP) was launched in 2002, and was active in early GWP activities such as the Framework for Action (FFA) over the years the sense of purpose for a partnership among water actors diminished as the water sector changed it’s strategic dimensions. One of the challenges that the SA CWP of the Global Water Partnership faced was defining exactly what its role in South Africa would be and how it would partner with other Water sector stakeholders to ensure that it executes its tasks and achieves success.
The Regional Secretariat of GWP Eastern Africa assisted with technical and financial support to a meeting in Mogadishu to launch a Somalia Country Water Partnership on 29th January 2014. As a result of the meeting, Somalia is soon set to join GWP by establishing a Country Water Partnership.
La Poza micro-basin is experiencing severe environmental degradation, mainly due to unsustainable deforestation practices executed to expand agricultural land. To combat the issues, action was taken to implement IWRM. Throughout the implementation, there has been a high level of community participation facilitated by extensive capacity building and training in environmental management. The primary lesson drawn from this example is the crucial importance of community participation for a successful implementation.