Research and Development (R&D) Institutions have a key role to play in Africa’s economic renewal and sustainable development, by improving conservation and utilisation of the continent’s water resources through R&D efforts. In its stride to continue collaborating with R&D institutions, GWPSA’s Executive Secretary, Ms Ruth Beukman participated at a kick off of the NEPAD Networks of Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Water Sciences Phase II meeting held at the Southern Sun- The Cullinan hotel in Cape Town, South Africa from the 24th to the 26th of May, 2016.
The International Conference "Water conservation and water use efficiency", organized by the Network of Water Organizations from Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (INBO-EECCA) took place on May 21, 2015 in Minsk.
Each year, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) holds its Regional Days and Annual Consulting Partners (CP) Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden home of the global Secretariat. The CP Meeting is a consultative approach in which Partners recommend actions to be taken, which is fundamental to the operation of the GWP network, which spans over 3000 partner organisations in more than 180 countries.
A training course on International Water Law (IWL) in Africa took place in Kampala, Uganda, in June. It was the second year running that GWP and its Partners organised the course, with the aim to strengthen transboundary water resources management in Africa. The training was appreciated by the participants who lauded its significance in improving water governance in basins.
From 29th to 30th September, 2015 the meeting of the “Taskforce” for the development of central Africa regional hdyro-meteorological strategy was held in Douala, Cameroon. It was organized by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in collaboration with GWP-CAf.
In addition to ECCAS and GWP-CAf’s experts, the meeting was attended by national experts in meteorology and hydrology from Cameroon, Congo, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon and Sao Tomé é Principe as well as representatives of UNESCO and Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).
The “Taskforce” meeting planned during a working visit conducted by GWP-CAf to Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in July 2015, enabled experts to better understand the regional hydrometeorological strategy elaboration process and approve the regional synthesis report of baseline studies for National Hydrological and Meteorological Services conducted in six (6) pilot countries in Central Africa. The road map for the development of regional hydro meteorological services strategy in Central Africa was also discussed and approved.
In Southern Africa, two countries (Tanzania and Zambia) have been selected for the implementation of the SDG Water Preparedness Facility (SDG Water PF). This selection follows the endorsement of Water as one of the 17 goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015 at the UN General Assembly, GWP is developing the SDG Water Preparedness Facility (SDG Water PF), which is designed to deepen and streamline the vision of water security.
The CWP Ivory Coast took part in the regional training and management experiences sharing workshop between the actors of the Lake Chad Basin and the Mano River Union organized from October 5 to 7, 2015 at the Hotel New Pergola at Abidjan, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.