International donors have poured money into developing Nepal’s irrigation infrastructures since the late-1950s, but results remain only partly successful. At present, irrigation infrastructures have been developed to serve 1.331 million ha but the irrigation potential is estimated to about 1.76 million ha. The Irrigation Water Resources Management Project is one of the latest international aid efforts aimed to developing the irrigation facilities while improving Nepal’s institutional framework pertaining to water infrastructure projects. The importance of adequate and timely finance, well-defined administrative roles and institutional capacity building are part of the key lessons learned from this project.
GWP and key partners organised a training opportunity on Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) in Mongolia at the end of September. A new toolkit with training modules for IUWM were used for the first time, to test their functionality in a real environment.
The GWP Technical Committee has launched three new Technical Focus Papers and introduced a Background Paper. This took place at an event in Stockholm on 28 August. The event was live streamed and a recording of this will be available shortly.
GWPSA is delighted to observe International Women's Day this year under the theme “Pledge for Parity” by highlighting the achievements of some of the women in the network that have put gender parity on their agendas. [Mrs. Bogadi Theresa Mathangwane (Botswana); Prof. Celine Sikulisimwa (Democratic Republic of Congo); Ms. Suzana Saranga Loforte (Mozambique); Ms Maria Amakali (Namibia); Dr. Manta Devi Nowbuth (Mauritius);
Ms Nompumelelo Ntshalintshali (Swaziland).
Our interviewed speakers are exceptional women who have made their careers in water, from the government and academia arenas, and in many regards influenced policy. We hope that they will inspire you to reflect on the role that women working in the water sector can play. These women demonstrate their “Pledge for Parity” by taking concrete action as champions to help accelerate gender parity.
Read what they say about acknowledging their responsibility to do what they can to drive progress towards parity. Yet let us also be mindful that progress has slowed down in many places across the world, so urgent action in the water sector is needed to accelerate gender parity.
Representatives of GWP Southeast Asia, GWP South Asia and GWP Central Asia and Caucasus joined The Regional Workshop on South-South Cooperation in Flood Management, organised by the GWP global secretariat and GWP China from 14 to 16 December 2015 in Guangdong, China.