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Water governance remains a key challenge in the Mediterranean. Efforts of countries focus on improving policies making and action planning, institutional settings, law and regulation, enforcement mechanisms, innovative financing, application of cost recovery and polluter pays principle, etc. To achieve sustainable models of development, water must be mainstreamed into other sectoral policies such as agriculture, land planning and use, energy, industry, tourism and trade. Political will is key for making these happen. The importance of cross-cutting issues, such as gender, equity, poverty and rights, is increasingly recognized but is still relatively poorly tackled.

Lake Naivasha is an internationally renowned Ramsar site located in the Rift Valley in Kenya. But unlike most other designated wetlands of international importance, the water in Lake Naivasha also anchors a flourishing horticultural industry. The Lake Naivasha Riparian Association (LNRA) was established in 1929 to protect local land owner’s rights. and the LNRA became more strident in trying to balance the impact of the expanding commercial interests surrounding the lake with protecting its environmental integrity.

The Pantanoso watershed in Montevideo has been identified as vulnerable to threats of intense rains and floods, posing risks to the human settlements. To combat the risks, action was taken by the local population and governmental authorities to engage in a project on Climate Related Disaster Risk Management. The key lesson is that strengthening vulnerable communities upon climate risks represents a key tool for the IWRM, since it contributes to empowering the population. 

Decentralised small water retention measures are important sources of water during dry periods in Central and Eastern Europe, according to drought experts who met on 28-29 October in Warsaw, Poland. 

A sustainable sanitation workshop was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 4-5 April. The event drew parallels among different toolboxes and programmes and enabled networking among experts in the GWP Central and Eastern Europe region.

National consultations towards consolidating Madagascar’s input into the RSAP formulation were held at the Ivato Conference Centre (CCI) on 4^th and 5^th June in Antananarivo. It saw the attendance of more than 200 various national stakeholders from all water-related sectors in Madagascar. Media experts as well as youth were fully represented.

GWP SA, on behalf of SADC is currently making preparations for the forthcoming SADC Water Weeks which have been slated from April – October 2014. The SADC Water Weeks are aimed at ensuring that the Regional Water Programme is well understood and embraced by stakeholders from various sectors at the national level. The SADC Water Weeks were last held in the year 2000 and led to the development of the SADC Water Vision for Water, Life and the Environment

The round table  "Role of water for sustainable development of Kazakhstan" was held on 4 April 2014 in Astana within the national consultations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the National Program on Water Resources Development to Post-2015 in Kazakhstan.

The countries in Southern Africa are at very different stages of implementing Integrated Water Resource Management, and have different experiences in this regard. It is, at this point, useful to take stock of the process and to examine opportunities for improved IWRM implementation in the various countries. The GWP SA, supported by the African Development Bank (through the Multi-donor Water Partnership Programme), put in place a project to examine the status of IWRM implementation in southern Africa and to develop recommendations for the way forward. Access the individual country IWRM reports:

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