Global Water Partnership (GWP) welcomes the aspirational 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by Member States at the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2015. The transformational vision of the agenda is ambitious and will need an unwavering commitment on the part of everyone. GWP will play its part.
The Global Water Partnership (GWP) Sponsoring Partners have announced the appointment of Dr. Oyun Sanjaasuren as the new Chair of GWP, effective July 1, 2016. Dr. Oyun is a Member of Parliament of Mongolia, former Minister of Environment and Green Development, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs. She currently serves as President of the United Nations Environment Assembly of UNEP.
The South Asia Regional Workshop on lessons learnt in Strategy Implementation on Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in Water Sector was held on 9 to 10 September 2014 in Colombo, Sri Lanka and it was organised by South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) in partnership with GWP SAS, and in technical collaboration with UNDP.
The Expert Task Force of the joint GWP/OECD Global Dialogue project met in Paris in November to evaluate their work on the economics of water security. The report will be finalized in the coming months, before the official version is presented at the World Water Forum in South Korea in April 2015.
Water Security for Development
Water is the key to the world’s ability to cope with climate change. Whether it is food security, poverty reduction, economic growth, energy production or human health – water is the nexus. Climate change is the spoiler. No matter how successful mitigation efforts might be, people will experience the impacts of climate change through water.
GWP is responding to the climate change challenge through the Global Water, Climate and Development Programme that includes a portfolio of programs and projects that aim to build climate resilience through better water management.
Global institutions are still in the learning phase when it comes to successfully managing water and energy in an integrated manner as part of the quest for sustainable development. According to World Bank official Daryl Fields, understanding the water-energy nexus is critical for addressing growth and human development, urbanisation and climate change, but many policy-makers are finding it challenging to transform this concept into a reality. Fields, who is also a Technical Committee member of the Global Water Partnership, was speaking at a recent meeting of the GWP Consulting Partners, held in Trinidad for the first time.
“Water security is at the heart of our global development challenge”, said GWP’s new Patron, Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as she spoke at Africa Water Week 2014 (AWW5) in Dakar, Senegal.
The Africa Water Week (aww) is organized by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and represents a political commitment at the highest level with over 1000 participants from governments, regional institutions, international partners, the private sector, the scientific community, civil society, and the media from all over the world, and in particular Africa, meeting to discuss and collectively seek solutions to Africa’s water and sanitation challenges.
On the eve of International Women's Day March 8 GWP CACENA has interviewed women successfully working in the water sector in CACENA region to know how to overcome obstacles they face as women, and also what they would like to recommend to other women.