The 5th Africa Water Week (AWW5) takes place in Dakar, Senegal on 26 to 31 May 2014. The event is convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in conjunction with the African Union Commission and organised with other development partners. GWP is involved in a number of activities.
The Minister of Water, Hydraulic equipment and Sanitation of Burkina Faso, Ms. Mamounata BELEM / OUEDRAOGO, presided over the official ceremony of the validation workshop of two studies on June 3, 2014 at the Palm Beach Hotel in Ouagadougou.
A presentation on Gender Mainstreaming in the SADC Water Sector was made during the 6th RBO workshop held on 15-17 October, 2014 at Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. GWP SA has facilitated the organization of the RBO workshops, which are aimed at enhancing and building the ability of the RBOs to prepare, respond and recover from water related impacts (flood and droughts) and build resilience to climate change within the RBOs through all aspects, including gender mainstreaming.
Uneven geographical distribution, coupled with pressures from rapid population growth, increased urbanization, industrialization and environmental degradation, is a big challenge to the sustainable development of Uganda’s freshwater resources. However, the policy and institutional framework has advanced over the past two decades in Uganda. The policy and legal reform process started with the introduction of the Water Act (1995) and the Uganda Water Action Plan (1995). Other key policies included the National Water Policy (1999) and the Local Government Act (1997, 2000). A key Lesson learnt is that political support matters in achieving success, as does the nature and logic of the political system. In Uganda, political prioritization of water and poverty was central to progress. The depth and longevity of sector reform relies on political support, which can ebb and flow.
Despite an almost abundance of water, most water users in the South-western region of Burkina Faso regularly face water shortages due to an intensification of irrigated agriculture. Action was consequently taken to set up the Local Water Committee. The lesson learnt is that in the realm of the water sector, it is crucial for the state, local authorities, civil society and the private sector to collaborate to find new potential solutions.
The consultation workshop in West Africa on the strategy of the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) was held on 21 and 22 July 2014 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). It brought together representatives of Transboundary water management organizations, regional institutions, civil society in the region and the government of Burkina Faso.
GWP participates at the 2014 NAP Expo, taking place in Bonn, Germany on 8-9 August 2014. It is the second NAP Expo, organized by the Least Developed Countries Expert Group (LEG) under the UNFCCC.
The Workshop on Climate Change, Flood Control and Optimized Use of Rain Water, for this purpose, was organized by GWP China Hebei in cooperation with Hebei Provincial Hydraulic Engineering Society on November 26 and 27, 2013 in Baoding City, Hebei Province.