GWP-Med organises a workshop within the framework of the ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ Project, in Athens on 2-4 March 2015, aiming to strengthen the Secretariat’s, as well as its partners’, capacity on mainstreaming gender and corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues in water policy-related work.
The Hebei province is experiencing severe water shortages resulting in serious environmental and socio-ecological problems. To combat these issues, the provincial government has encouraged rainwater utilisation for agriculture as well as improving soil and water conservancy and vegetation cover. The most important lesson is that rainwater is able to alleviate water shortage particularly in dry season or dry zones.
Zagreb, 3 July 2015. Today, the ICPDR Stakeholder Conference “Voice of the Danube” has convened in the Croatian capital. Over 80 stakeholders from a broad range of backgrounds stood the heat and expressed their views on the draft management plans for the Danube River.
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.
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.
Within the framework of IDMP implementation, GWPEA has started the process of documenting and sharing the knowledge about good case studies on drought resilience the Horn of Africa, in selected countries including Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia
The cattle corridor of Uganda has semi-arid characteristics, high variability of rainfall and droughts. The main economic activities in this area are pastoralism and crop production. Historically, the area has been well known for reliance on mobile pastoralism as an important strategy to cope with resource variability. However, people’s abilities to cope greatly weakened as the impacts of disasters became frequent and severe. The recurrence of droughts in the Aswa-Agago Sub-Catchment has been exacerbated by climate change. This has compromised the ability of populations and ecosystems in the area to recover from the shocks.
The Executive Secretary of GWP, Rudolph Cleveringa, says that GWP as a network needs to change: “We can’t use the same agenda as we did 20 years ago”. Approaching World Water Day 2016, Cleveringa takes a moment to reflect on GWP’s 20 years in the water world and talks about his vision on how to make the network fit for the future – local inclusion and diversity are words he uses to make his point.