Thirty participants from 5 Middle East & Nortnern Africa (MENA) countries - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia - gathered in Tunisia, on 8-19 February 2015, in a course held in the framework of the 4-year MENA Integrated Sustainable Coastal Development Training Programme (MENA ISCD), financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and jointly implemented by NIRAS Natura AB and the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med).
The populations of Ramitenga harvested on August 25, 2015 the corn grown on the demonstration site of the drip irrigation project. The quantity harvested has suffered damage caused by migratory birds that decimated almost 30% of the crops. According to the WACDEP Regional Manager, "the demonstration site was at that time the only place where birds could have something to eat, which accentuated their aggressiveness despite all the actions undertaken by project beneficiaries to hunt them."
The fifth National Training Workshop related to the implementation of the WACDEP Capacity Development Programme on the “Economics of Adaptation Water Security and Climate Resilience Development” was held in Maputo-Mozambique on the 09th - 10th April 2015, at the National Director of Water Affairs (DNA) premises. The opening was done by the Deputy National Director for Water, Mr. Hélio Banze.
The Water, climate and development programme Lao PDR aims to develop stakeholder analysis and roadmap for capacity development on water security and climate resilience. Series of consultation meetings were conducted from June to September 2014 to gather inputs from stakeholders at national, province and river basin level.
In total 404 people from 55 institutions were involved in the meetings including public, private sector, academia and provinces throughout the country. The main finding from the series of consultations is that the knowledge of local communities in river basin about climate change is still limited. However, most stakeholders consider climate change as a challenge to find appropriate solutions for. Based on the findings, the Lao Water Partnership drafted a National Capacity Building Plan on Water Security for Climate Change Adaptation and Management.
During the year, Vietnam Water Partnership reviewed the existing irrigation management status and plan as well as drafted a proposal for new irrigation management plan. Two key government institutions, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Vietnam, are fully supporting the implementation of the activities that are under WACDEP program. Vietnam Water Partnership also coordinated closely with National Focal Point of Vietnam to UNFCCC, which will utilize the results of this program into other program of climate change agenda in the country.
A training workshop was organized in Tunis, in the framework of the Water, Climate, Development Program for Africa (WACDEP), on 20-23 October; the second one out of a series of five training workshops composing the capacity building program “The Economics of Adaptation, Water Security and Climate Resilient Development”. This series of workshops follows the Framework cycle developed under WACDEP for water security and climate resilience.