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The government of Lao PDR is working very constructively to improve the water resources planning and management system in Lao PDR especially in the formal higher education system.

Through the Lao Water Partnership, Mr. Chanthanet Boualapha, Director General of Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment who acts as chairperson of Lao Water Partnership opened the consultation on mainstreaming the IWRM in the formal higher education system. He expressed on the important of IWRM progress and application in Laos context for a decade as well as capacity building on this field. He also addressed the importance of the strengthening the local capacity in the whole country for IWRM decentralization and human resource development including emphasizing on integration and mainstreaming IWRM /IRBM approach into education system in each level.

 

 

 

 

 

Global Water Partnership Southern Africa attended training on the application of Environmental Flows in the management of transboundary river basins in Southern Africa, with a special focus on the Pungwe River Basin. The training which brought together about 20 participants was an IUCN initiative and was held from 30^th November to 3^rd December in Cape Town, South Africa.  The main parties involved were the government representatives of both Mozambique and Zimbabwe who share the river Basin and therefore needed to come together and agree on the Environmental Flows requirements to ensure equitable socio-economic development and growth.

The DIKTAS Project (2010 - 2015) was a collaborative effort to improve knowledge and attract the international community’s attention on the widespread, yet vulnerable and poorly understood karst aquifers in the Dinaric Region; it was also an effort to enhance coordination among countries, agencies and other stakeholders towards an equitable, sustainable, integrated management of the Dinaric Karst Aquifer System’s transboundary water resources and the protection of the unique dependent ecosystems from natural and man-made hazards including climate change.

As part of the two-day Meeting of Regional Partners in Water and Wastewater, the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), the United Nations Environment Programme, Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit (UNEP-CAR/RCU) and the Global Environment Facility’s Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management (GEF CReW) partnered to host a special Knowledge Sharing Session on New Tools and Resources for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Caribbean.

Hungary has joined the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) in 2013. National organizer of the SJWP is GWP Hungary Foundation in agreement with the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). The patron of the Hungarian competition Mr. János Áder President of the Republic.

Madagascar held its SADC Water Week on the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th June at the Ivato Conference Centre in Antananarivo. This event was held in high esteem given the present context in Madagascar. In fact, it has just been about 17 months since Madagascar was welcomed back in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). On Wednesday the 3^rd, a joint session was held for media experts and the youth to provide them with some relevant background information on this SADC initiative. The meeting brought together  youth from the water sector and beyond, as well as media experts from various ministries, some NGOs, civil societies and academic institutions.

The International WaterCentre (IWC), in collaboration with GWP, is currently offering full scholarships (tuition fees and living expenses) for two high calibre candidates from developing countries to study the Master of Integrated Water Management programme (MIWM) in Australia next year.

The WACDEP Coordinating Unit, under GWP SA has been working with stakeholders in and the WACDEP Program Managers in Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the preparation of the Reference Group Country Missions scheduled for March 2014. The Reference Group meetings were held from 23-25 March in Mozambique and 26-27 March in Zimbabwe among other things provided opportunities to exchange experiences, lessons, and challenges with the WACDEP team in Mozambique on WACDEP implementation and generate perspectives for enhancing progress in all components of the programme.

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.

Due to temporal and spatial variability of rainfalls, Sri Lanka experience local scarcity. Furthermore, most water resources are used for irrigation, and little is left for industry and domestic use. Action was taken towards policy reform but these reforms were, however, nationally desired but externally designed, leading to failure since they did not account for the Sri Lankan context. This case study thus illustrates the crucial importance of national anchoring of policies.