This article is part of a wider coverage of the “MENA Focus” events, a set of four regional sessions dedicated to the Middle East & North Africa, officially launched at the Stockholm World Water Week 2016, alongside the Regional Days for Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) had been selected and serves as the overall coordinator for these “MENA Focus” events. The sessions were organized in partnership with a number of international regional institutions and organisations. “Seeking answers to the MENA water crisis” was the first out of the four sessions, held on the 30th of August.
More than 80 Members of Parliaments (MPs), journalists, country administrators, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, and private partners from 16 countries contributed to a regional workshop dedicated to climate change adaptation in coastal areas of the Mediterranean (5-6 November 2015, Athens).
Following the end of the first phase of WACDEP in 2016, an African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) programme implemented by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) and partners, a number of knowledge products have been developed to help capture the various lessons and experiences drawn from the various WACDEP projects. The products provide a more comprehensive understanding of the programmes innovative approach.
These knowledge products are the opportunity to make available the programmes thinking and knowledge as we continue to build a water secure and climate resilient world. Access the products below:
Global Water Partnership’s (GWP) side event on ‘County Support for Water Security and Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Climate Finance’ was organized during the 2nd week of the UN Climate Change Conference (SB 42) in Bonn, Germany.
The Regional Coordinator took part in the enlarged meeting of the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) Coordination Office and to the meeting of the Project Steering Committee SITWA in Dakar, on 15 to 17 December 2015.
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.