Thirty participants from 5 Middle East & Nortnern Africa (MENA) countries - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia - gathered in Tunisia, on 8-19 February 2015, in a course held in the framework of the 4-year MENA Integrated Sustainable Coastal Development Training Programme (MENA ISCD), financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and jointly implemented by NIRAS Natura AB and the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med).
A field trip to the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) as well as to water management national institutions in selected Danube Riparian countries - Austria, Slovakia and Hungary – that are active in the framework of the ICPDR, was organized on 8-10 October 2014.
Africa Water Week (AWW), the African continents premier biennial event on the water calendar was held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania from 18-22 July, 2016. The sixth AWW was held under the theme “Achieving the SDGs on Water Security and Sanitation”. The theme was built on the success and deliberations of the 2014 5th Africa Water Week on “Placing Water at the Heart of the post 2015 Development Agenda”.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day (8 March), the officers of the Global Water Partnership have interviewed women in the water community across the global network on their journey to become successful in their professions, how to overcome obstacles they face as women, and also recommendations to other women. In GWP China, talk with Qihua CAI was in the office of the regional secretariat, hearing her 38 years of karma with the work in water sector.
The new GWP Gender Strategy was formally launched at a well-attended event at Stockholm World Water Week 2014 on 3 September. On the same day GWP added to its strategic allies by signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the French Water Partnership, the European Water Partnership and UNESCO-IHE.
Bratislava/Sarajevo, 21 September 2015. Iman Maljić from Bosnia and Herzegovina has won the “International Danube Art Master 2015” competition. The winning art work “Black Swan” was chosen from over 600 submissions.
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).
Late September,Water Salon had its first output“Water Salon Insight—Water and Hydropower Development in China” along with media platform “wechat” launched to the public. As the follow-up of the first activity of Water Salon, jointly organized by GWP China, WRI, WWF and IUCN, was completed in April, 2015, Water Salon Insight works as a visible media interacting government, experts and the people to discuss the common interests in water related fields.
The capacity needs for youth on IWRM in Lao PDR is strongly needed to advocate the knowledge and skills which they can further support and disseminate among their specific groups in the schools, universities and communities. Youth has more creative ideas and lots of activities related to environmental protection as well as some of water protection – water saving campaign, etc.