Freshwater is under acute pressure from climate change in North Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, COP20 delegates heard on Wednesday. Experts from countries as diverse as Tunisia and Belize urged visionary leadership from politicians to protect natural resources, reports CDKN’s Mairi Dupar from Lima, Peru. The experts from the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW), Global Water Partnership and CARICOM also called for water managers to build on their local innovations for climate resilience – and to get savvier about communicating solutions to policy-makers. The event was an opportunity to learn about common problems and possible solutions across Africa, Central America and the Caribbean, based on a South-South learning project supported by CDKN.
Lao Water Partnership with support from GWP Southeast Asia held a seminar on 15 June 2015 to support the Government of Lao PDR’s policy in relation to preparation and finalization of national socio-economic development plan 2016-2020, Strategy 2025 and Vision 2030, which related to national sustainable development and green economy.
Mr. Thoumma Saleumxay, Deputy Director General of Department of Water Resource, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, chaired the meeting and expressed on the important of Integrated Water Resources Management, sustainable development management in Lao PDR in in his opening remarks.
International donors have poured money into developing Nepal’s irrigation infrastructures since the late-1950s, but results remain only partly successful. At present, irrigation infrastructures have been developed to serve 1.331 million ha but the irrigation potential is estimated to about 1.76 million ha. The Irrigation Water Resources Management Project is one of the latest international aid efforts aimed to developing the irrigation facilities while improving Nepal’s institutional framework pertaining to water infrastructure projects. The importance of adequate and timely finance, well-defined administrative roles and institutional capacity building are part of the key lessons learned from this project.
Global Water Partnership (GWP) invites all Partners to its annual GWP Network Meeting on 1 June 2015. This year’s meeting will be held online - www.gwp.org - broadcast by live stream, with an opportunity to watch a taped version of the event afterwards.
CCRIF SPC formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility is inviting applications for its 2015 CCRIF Regional Internship Programme. The programme provides work experience in areas related to disaster risk management.
The 2nd Regional Alumni Workshop of the ‘Water Integrity Capacity Building Programme for the MENA Region’ was organised by GWP-Med (8-11 February 2016, Dead Sea, Jordan). Regional alumni workshops aim to lead to the creation of a regional community of practice on water integrity and foster water integrity ambassadors, reinforcing the enabling environment and building synergies in the target countries and the MENA Region at large. The first Regional Alumni Workshop (November 2015, Tunis, Tunisia) targeted alumni from the national civil society workshops, whereas this second one targeted operational/mid-level management staff.
Interview with Inga Blaževičienė from Vilnius University in Lithuania.
On the occasion of National Consultation Dialogues in Romania and Lithuania, today Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe releases a video about the Integrated Drought Management Programme in Central and Eastern Europe.