CCRIF SPC formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility is inviting applications for its 2015 CCRIF Regional Internship Programme. The programme provides work experience in areas related to disaster risk management.
Thirty participants from 5 Middle East & Nortnern Africa (MENA) countries - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia - gathered in Tunisia, on 8-19 February 2015, in a course held in the framework of the 4-year MENA Integrated Sustainable Coastal Development Training Programme (MENA ISCD), financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and jointly implemented by NIRAS Natura AB and the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med).
At its seventeenth session, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) acknowledged that national adaptation planning can enable developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), to assess their vulnerabilities, mainstream climate change risks, and address adaptation. The COP established the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process to facilitate adaptation planning in LDCs and other developing countries.
In December this year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) will take place in Paris. Governments are supposed to come to a universal agreement regarding climate which will determine the future of our planet.
Lebanon and Jordan are exploring the possibility of joining the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention). To assist the two countries in this process, UNECE and the Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med), with financial support provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), have organised national workshops to increase awareness and understanding of relevant stakeholders of the different legal and institutional frameworks for cooperation on shared waters resources, the specificities of the UNECE Water Convention, in comparison to the UN Watercourses Convention, as well as the complementarity of the two agreements.
GWP China co-hosted three thematic sessions under the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) on IWRM, Water and Food Security as well as Water and Cities at the 7th World Water Forum that was opened on April 12, 2015 in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea. The GWP China Delegation of 9 members participated in the opening ceremony, sessions and events during the 6-day conference.
Representatives of GWP Kenya and GWP Ethiopia recently carried out an exchange visit to share experiences on water resources management practices.
The GWP network celebrated World Water Day 2015 with a string of events throughout the world, from Central America to China. This a summary of some of the highlights, with links to reports.
The 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) took place in Sendai, Japan, 14-18 March. The planned outputs were met, with the announcement of a Declaration and a new Outcome Document to replace the Hyogo Framework for Action; the UN's previous disaster risk reduction deal, which expires in 2015.
Among the knowledge products the Water, Climate and Development programme of GWP Central America worked on in 2014, are the analysis for the promotion of water security through no/low regrets investments in climate change plans and strategies at the country level.