Preparations for GWP’s participation in Stockholm World Water Week 2015 have been going on for several months and everything is now ready. The network is organising a number of events and GWP representatives will participate in many sessions throughout the week of 23-28 August.
GWP Burkina Faso implemented the start-up meeting and first national training workshop on June 16th and 17th to 20th, 2014, respectively in Ouagadougou. The start-up workshop was chaired by the General Secretary of the Ministry of Water, Hydraulic facilities and Sanitation, the Executive Secretary of GWP-West Africa and the Chair of GWP-WACDEP Burkina Faso.
The National Consultation on Non Conventional Water Resources (NCWR) Management will be held on Tuesday, May 6th, at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Malta.
GWP delegates are taking part in the UNFCCC climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, 1-11 June 2015. The conference is part of the preparations for the up-coming COP21 conference in Paris, France, in December. In Bonn, GWP is organising a side event and a GWP booth with information is available during the second week of the conference.
Global Water Partnership’s (GWP) side event on ‘County Support for Water Security and Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Climate Finance’ was organized during the 2nd week of the UN Climate Change Conference (SB 42) in Bonn, Germany.
The farmers in the Volta river basin generally rely on rain-fed agriculture. However, insufficient or irregular rainfall frequently puts farmers at risk of losing their crops. Farmers must have access to a reliable water supply to sustain their livelihoods. In line with the problems highlighted, the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) set out to find ways to strengthen the capacity of the famers, communities and other stake holders in the basin. As a lesson learnt, it is reasonable to expect stakeholders to adopt improved agricultural practices if such new practices are of their own benefit. Experiences show that stakeholders will only participate in innovation platform meetings when they see the value of doing so.
GWP SA’s Executive Secretary, Ms Ruth Beukman joined other key stakeholders at the much awaited Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) Official Launch which was held at Maputo, Mozambique on July 24th 2014. The launch of LIMCOM follows the finalisation of the process of ratification of the Agreement for the establishment of LIMCOM.
Stakeholders concerned with water management and food security recently gathered for the First World Irrigation Forum in Turkey. A GWP delegation participated and discussed future collaboration possibilities with forum organiser ICID (The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage).
The 16th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium was held on the island of Mauritius at Le Méridien Hotel from the 28 to 30 of October 2015 under the theme ‘Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Infrastructure Planning for Water Security in Southern Africa’. The University of Mauritius, a GWPSA partner was the lead host of the Symposium. The Symposia has been held annually in the Eastern and Southern African region for the past 15 years to promote interaction among policymakers, academics, practitioners from water and related sectors, and cooperating partners.