From 29th to 30th September, 2015 the meeting of the “Taskforce” for the development of central Africa regional hdyro-meteorological strategy was held in Douala, Cameroon. It was organized by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in collaboration with GWP-CAf.
In addition to ECCAS and GWP-CAf’s experts, the meeting was attended by national experts in meteorology and hydrology from Cameroon, Congo, Chad, DR Congo, Gabon and Sao Tomé é Principe as well as representatives of UNESCO and Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC).
The “Taskforce” meeting planned during a working visit conducted by GWP-CAf to Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in July 2015, enabled experts to better understand the regional hydrometeorological strategy elaboration process and approve the regional synthesis report of baseline studies for National Hydrological and Meteorological Services conducted in six (6) pilot countries in Central Africa. The road map for the development of regional hydro meteorological services strategy in Central Africa was also discussed and approved.
Dr Jerome Delli Priscoli is the new Chair of the GWP Technical Committee. However, his history with the network goes back to 1996 at a meeting in Stockholm where GWP was conceived. “The work of GWP is born from a philosophy that is central to my own philosophy, which is a multi-stakeholder, participatory approach,” he says.
Preparations for GWP’s participation in Stockholm World Water Week 2015 have been going on for several months and everything is now ready. The network is organising a number of events and GWP representatives will participate in many sessions throughout the week of 23-28 August.
The Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med) is seeking to hire a Project Coordinator / Chief Technical Advisor (PC/CTA) for the GEF funded project titled: “Enabling transboundary cooperation and integrated water resources management in the extended Drin River Basin”.
Responding to the dramatic increase in extreme weather events and mega disasters is one of the great challenges of the Limpopo River Basin. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a top priority for the basin as it seeks to hold back the tide of rising economic and human losses through flood and droughts. To reduce risks from such disasters, GWPSA has over the past 2 years been involved in the development of a disaster risk reduction action plan for the Limpopo Basin. This Plan of Action presents a strategy for integrating disaster risk reduction into the Limpopo transboundary level operations. As part of the process to developing the plan, GWPSA held a workshop on the 5th of April, 2016, to validate the draft DRR action plan of the Limpopo Basin.
On May 19, 2015, the 2015 World Hydropower Congress was opened in Beijing, China, with 1,000 representatives of the government, civil society, finance, academia and industry gathering to discuss the future direction of the sector. Prof. Wang Hao, Acting Chair of GWP China Region and Angela Klauschen, Senior Network Officer of GWPO, participated in the Congress.