The Global Water Partnership (GWP) network was tasked to facilitate consultations on water and food security at country level in order to provide concerned governments with widely shared position on water and food security issues and challenges in their respective countries. The Zimbabwe Water Partnership (ZWP) through a committee comprised mainly from the food and water sectors spearheaded the water-food consultations.
At the SADC Water Week in Mozambique held from 20-22 May, 2015, stakeholders discussed the challenging aspects of managing water resources in the country in view of Mozambique sharing a number of river basins with its neighbours. For instance, the supply of water for the river basins located in the southern part of the country is heavily dependent on the Basins of international rivers. The solution to this challenge was seen in Mozambique requiring to always adapt an integrated water resources management approach and having long-term cooperative arrangements with its neighbours to avoid water availability being a constraint on future growth.
The Government of Malawi, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development assured that the Malawi government is working hard to address the challenges rocking the water sector in the country. Malawi hosted the SADC national week whose focus is on mainstreaming gender in water issues. The event was held from 13-15 May, 2015 at Crossroads Hotel, Lilongwe. The SADC Water Week, held under the theme “From Vision to Action” was attended by delegates from government ministries, civil society and the private sector.
The International Land Coalition (ILC), Global Water Partnership (GWP) and International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has brought together land and water professionals, researchers and policy makers to reflect on the linkages between water and land in the emerging geopolitics of food, and to discuss cases from global, regional, basin, national or local levels, where these linkages were successfully addressed in legal frameworks, policy, and/or practice. The workshop is being held in Pretoria from 15 – 16 June 2015.
Following the information day on the Francophone youth for water project in Korea on April 13, 2015 and the orientation day in Cotonou on May 8, actions are continuing with the World Youth Parliament for Water (WYPW). Each of the youth developed roadmap activities to be undertaken for the implementation of this "Francophone Youth for Water" initiative at country level.
A workshop was held in Niamey on May 29, 2015 to validate the study on 'Analysis of the results of national consultations and elaboration of the preliminary proposal of the agreement on the establishment of the framework and coordinating mechanism for political dialogue in the Mekrou basin planning process ''.
This workshop brought together about 40 people who validated the document by highlighting the context of Niger.
Eighty representatives from a diversity of water–related sectors participated in an informative meeting, held on 22 May 2015 in La Paz, to learn about the advantages of establishing a Country Water Partnership (CWP) in Bolivia.
The GWP Technical Committee, in collaboration with the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), organized a workshop on the “Global Food Security Challenge through Coordinated Land and Water Governance”. The event took place 15-16 June in Pretoria, South Africa.
The UNESCO Chair of Sustainable Development Management and Education in the Mediterranean at the University of Athens, the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development and the Mediterranean Education Initiative for Environment and Sustainability (MIO-ECSDE/MEdIES) are organizing an online survey, under the political guidance of the Secretariat of the Union of the Mediterranean (UfM) entitled “Mediterranean Youth Responses towards sustainable development and current crisis”.
The survey invites young people (15-35 yrs old) from the Mediterranean countries to share their thoughts about sustainability issues, the current economic and sociopolitical crisis in many parts of the region as well as their vision for the future.
For more information and to fill in the survey, click here.