The 3rd Regional Alumni Workshop in the framework of the Sida funded and Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled programme ‘Water Integrity Capacity Building Programme for the MENA Region’[1] was organized by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in collaboration with Al Akhawayn University, on 23-26 May 2016, in Ifrane, Morocco.
Since 2015, the Country Water Partnership of Benin (Benin CWP) initiated with the support of the Water Integrity Network (WIN) the development of a charter for good governance in the frame of the Multiannual Programme for the promotion of integrity in the area of water and sanitation in Benin. A working group with the support of a consultant led the drafting process of the Charter. From October 2015 to date, the Charter was developed, and stakeholders were consulted on its contents as well as its operationalization mechanism that was also developed.
Many participants from West African countries took part in the International Water Law training in Kampala (Uganda) from 6 to 12 June 2016.
The implementation process of national and regional platforms on the Integrated Management of Drought is ongoing. Thus the regional core group as well as the national core group of Niger held their first meeting of 2016 respectively on Wednesday, June 15 in Ouagadougou and Wednesday 22 June in Niamey.
A far-reaching political and technical process towards establishing a joint vision for water security in the Mediterranean towards 2030 and beyond is on-going in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). It draws on integrated responses, focusing on the feasible and the tangible. Building trust among countries and stakeholders, it aims at linking capacities and financial resources towards addressing needs. GWP-Med contributes to the UfM process servicing as its technical facilitator.
The International WaterCentre (IWC) is currently offering several full scholarships for high calibre international candidates interested in studying the Master of Integrated Water Management (MIWM) commencing in February 2017 at The University of Queensland.
The AMCOW Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Tanzania) will be holding the 6th Africa Water Week (AWW) and 10th General Assembly at Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 18th-22 July, 2016 under the theme ‘Achieving the SDGs on Water Security and Sanitation’. The Tanzania Water Partnership has been co-opted by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation as one of the lead institutions constituting the National Organizing Committee (NOC) for the 6th Africa Water Week. Several members of TWP are part of the NOC.
See Press Release from Ministry of Water and Irrigation (Tanzania)
See Information Note
Getting the GWP-CAf ready to successfully end the first period (2014-2016) of its regional strategy, also repositioning it to fit for the second half of the regional strategy and for 2030. Yes. But how? It is to answer this question that the GWP-CAf chair convened an extraordinary Steering Committee meeting. This meeting had as theme: “SDGs: Opportunities for changing and redefining the role and business model for GWP-CAf and the CWPs. It was held on June 30, 2016 in Douala, Cameroon.
The attendees to the meeting were the statutory steering committee members notably, 4 chairs of CWPs; Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and Sao Tomé and Principe; the chair of the technical and Scientific Committee; the representatives of ECCAS and of basin organizations: CICOS; the delegates of Civil Society organizations (REFADD) and the players of water sector (SODECA); the GWP-O executive secretary as well as the GWP Southern Africa (GWPSA) executive secretary.
The overall objective of this extraordinary Steering Committee meeting was to reflect upon and propose a roadmap for the choice of the new host institution for GWP-CAf and to examine the different options of business model and governance for GWP Secretariat at country level in order to apply them in central Africa region.
Through different presentations on positioning the GWP network to fit for future 2030 and its implications as well as on the experience of governance and funding of GWP Southern Africa, the members of steering committee understood that the GWP network needed a double reforms
An internal change that will take into account the improvement of four domains (strengthening the country level; improving sustainability of financing; improving corporate knowledge management and learning and increasing Institutional performance) while external change will cope with a new global water institutional architecture.
The south-south initiative (GWPSA and GWP-CAf) based on experience sharing between regions permitted participants to go through the CWP governance, accreditation process and different managing options for CWP.
Five old, hand crafted rainwater storage cisterns located in the villages of Pyrgos, Mesa Gonia and Exo Gonia, were in the focus of a research project recently concluded in Santorini. The project aimed at advancing rainwater harvesting in the island of Santorini, undertaken by the University of Cornell and Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean, with the support of the Municipality and the Water Supply and Sewage Authority of Thera (Santorini).
The programme of ecological security of ten-kilometre river of Fujian Province was initiated by Fujian Water Resources Department and GWP China Fujian.