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.
A regional water youth network was created by participants to the recent Youth for Water Conference organised by GWP Central America, Movimiento de Jóvenes por el Agua (Youth Movement for Water, MOJA) and La Ruta del Clima (The Climate Route) and supported by GWP South America, UNICEF-Nicaragua, Reforestamos Mexico, and IUCN.
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.
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.
18 members of the group called Sidwaya were trained on 13 June 2015 on the site of the drip irrigation demonstration project in Ramitenga. It aimed to enhance the participants' knowledge on technical processes for the production and the methods for the conservation of corn and okra crops. The exchanges took place between participants and trainers on the technical process for the production of each enterprise and the methods of conservation and processing of these products after harvesting.
The National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) that was adopted in July 2014 was officially launched by the Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa on the 19th of November 2015 at Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe. The launch was attended by senior government officials, representatives from different organisations in the water sector and the local leadership drawn from the 9 Provinces around the country. The launch came at a time when Zimbabwe is stepping up efforts towards climate change adaptation and mitigation as witnessed by the development of the Strategy and the Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs) to support the process.
Securing continuous political support for enhanced ownership, wide outreach and impact, is among the horizontal objectives of the regional project "Capacity Building Programme on Water Integrity in the Middle East and North Africa"[1]. This SIWI-led, Sida-supported, UfM-labelled programme where GWP-Med is a core regional partner, aims to develop capacities of targeted water stakeholder groups at different governance levels to improve transparency, accountability and participatory practices in water management in the MENA region. Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia are the focus countries of this work.