The Global Water Partnership (GWP) network was tasked to facilitate consultations on water and food security at country level in order to provide concerned governments with widely shared position on water and food security issues and challenges in their respective countries. The Zimbabwe Water Partnership (ZWP) through a committee comprised mainly from the food and water sectors spearheaded the water-food consultations.
Global Water Partnership Southern Africa attended training on the application of Environmental Flows in the management of transboundary river basins in Southern Africa, with a special focus on the Pungwe River Basin. The training which brought together about 20 participants was an IUCN initiative and was held from 30th November to 3rd December in Cape Town, South Africa. The main parties involved were the government representatives of both Mozambique and Zimbabwe who share the river Basin and therefore needed to come together and agree on the Environmental Flows requirements to ensure equitable socio-economic development and growth.
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.
GWP-CAf Staff made a four days working visit to the Executive Secretariat of Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), which took place from 22 to 25 of March 2016, in Ndjamena, Chad.
The main objective of this visit was to finalize the ToRs and tender document for the development of a project on the establishment of an Early Warning System. The visit ended with the approval of the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the project entitled “Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems (EWS) for Climate Resilient Development and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Chad Basin area”.
GWP West Africa took part in the regional workshop to validate the sub regional report on the West African process of the 7th World Water Forum on "Risk and uncertainty management for resilience and preparedness to disasters".
GWP is involved in a number of events at this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm. Among the highlights is a joint GWP/OECD Side Event on the “Global Dialogue on Water Security and Sustainable Growth”, where a high level panel will address the water security challenge and present the early results of an Expert Task Force.
The Nigeria Water Partnership (GWP-Nigeria) has carried out successfully on 15 June 2015 in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources the national consultation on water and food security. The Chairman of GWP Nigeria, Dr. Hassan Bdliya in his welcome address stated that in recognizing the looming food and water crises, the United Nations Open Working Group on Sustainable Development made a proposal for a dedicated goal on food security (Goal 2) – ‘’end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’’ and another dedicated goal on water (Goal 6) – ‘’ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’’.
Taking advantage of their presence in Ouagadougou, the GWP WAF chair, Abel AFOUDA and the network officer for West Africa visited with the Executive Secretary some of our partners. In view of getting in touch with the technical and financial partners, a series of meetings were organized.
After a brief and comprehensive analysis of the situation in the area of drought in West Africa, the IDMP continues approaches in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to conduct national reviews of initiatives, current or less than three (3) years plans and strategies in all three countries.