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Name:                               Maria Amakali

Occupation:                     Director of Water Resources Management

Country:                          Namibia

Country of Work:           Namibia and SADC

What would you say are the main challenges in your work as a woman?

 

I started working as hydrologist in the Department of Water Affairs in the early nineties. I had studied in the US and was ready to come and work in a newly independent Namibia. My responsibilities included planning and execution of research and investigations regarding sustainable development of water resources; and providing advice on the effective utilization, protection and conservation of such resources. At a time I found a lot of males, in the department. Except for the two women scientist in Hydrology Division, most women were doing mostly secretarial or office administrative work. I remember one day standing outside, waiting for my ride home and this man came to me asking whose secretary I was. In an independent Namibia, I was quite shocked that the old stereotype mentality that women can only be secretaries still exists. Those days there were not many women or black hydrologists, but I was still offended.

 

With the overall vision of achieving water security and the SDGs, GWP supports mandated actors to advance water governance through the application of IWRM principles – widely accepted as the keys to solving the problem of sharing limited water resources equitably among many competing water users. Our most meaningful results therefore lie in the governance improvements introduced by actors at all levels where GWP is active. These governance improvements, recorded as tangible outcomes, occur in “change areas” which cover the wide array of the water governance spectrum.

2015, with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement, was a year of key commitments to sustainable development by governments, civil society, and the private sector.

Capacity building – at the individual, institutional, and societal levels – is an important means to further IWRM principles and boost the overall quality of water governance structures. Capacity building essentially stands for a twofold process: (1) it is about understanding the obstacles that prevent the people, the organisations, or any other elements of an institutional framework from fully realizing their development goals; and (2) it is also concerned with finding the applicable mechanisms in overcoming these challenges and ultimately achieving better and more sustainable results.

Three factsheets on the three demonstration pilot projects of the Integrated Drought Management Project (IDMP) West Africa have been produced. These factsheets give basic information on the various pilots projects being carried our in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the framework of the IDMP. The French version of the factsheets are available and can be downloaded here.

The Mauritius Youth Water Network (MYWN) is an association comprising youth from different organisations (government, NGOs and other civil society organisations).  The MYWN was set up in June 2015 following a National Youth Forum during the SADC Water Week. The forum brought together youth leaders to develop a national action plan for the implementation of the AMCOW Policy and Strategy on Mainstreaming Youth in the Water and Sanitation Sector and SADC Youth Strategy.

23rd Regional Council (RC) Meeting, 7th General Assembly (GA) and the Sub Regional Consultative Meeting leading to 8th World Water Forum (WWF) - 2018 Brazil were held back to back on 28 and 29 October 2017 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The young parliamentarians acting through the National Youth Parliament for Water and Sanitation (PNJEA) of Benin, have organized on Thursday, October 29, 2015, in Cotonou an official ceremony to present the White Booklet to the Beninese authorities. The PNJEA also seized the opportunity to distinguish its godfathers and godmothers including the Minister of Water.

Lake Cyohoha and its 508 km² watershed in the Bugesera region marks the border between Southern Rwanda and Northern Burundi. In the GWP WACDEP climate resilience project, stakeholders analyzed the situation and decided for actions. Drought resistant trees were planted, water points installed and connected to a supply network, fuel saving stoves and biogas was introduced and capacity development events were held. 

The 3^rd 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.