To stimulate new thinking to improve Sri Lanka’s natural resources management, the first Young Water Professionals Symposium for the country was organized by GWP Sri Lanka in association with IWMI and Unilever on 22-23 November in Colombo with the participation of the Hon Minister of Water Supply and Drainage Dinesh Gunawardene and Prof Mohan Munasinghe, Nobel Peace Prize winner 2007 (IPCC), and over 150 participants.
The Volta River basin remained one of the few unregulated transboundary watercourses in Africa. Action was taken to improve water governance and water management practices. Although this is still in progress, it has resulted in multi-scale participatory governance frameworks for joint management. From this process, it is evident that building a local knowledge base with good data and information systems is important in deciding the most efficient allocation of resources.
The GWP/WMO Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) released a new publication on National Drought Management Policy Guidelines: A Template for Action.
With the introduction of IWRM, South Africa has shifted the design and implementation of water management to local institutions. This has created a demand for innovative methods for local stakeholders’ participation. Action was taken to introduce the participatory process Companion Modelling that is based on the use of simulation models and role playing games. Consequently, this case study illustrates new methods and tools that facilitate dialogue and improve decision-making skills of local stakeholders.
A national workshop organized by the Permanent Secretariat of the National Council on Environment and Sustainable Development (SP/CONEDD) was held on 27 March 2014 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to validate “the study and mapping of the vulnerability to climate change of water resources in the Nakanbé basin”.
Reba Paul from Bangladesh was awarded a scholarship with the International WaterCentre (IWC) in Australia last year. Reba’s scholarship is a collaboration between GWP and IWC – one that will expand to a second scholarship in 2014. As the application deadline approaches, Reba tells her story below.
GWP Eastern Africa held the 3rd Regional Consulting Partners (RCP) meeting on 20-21 March 2014 at Munyonyo Speke Resort Hotel in Uganda. This is a statutory and decision making meeting that takes place once every two years.
The Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) is organizing its flagship Forum on 1-3 October 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.