At the end of last year, the GWP network consisted of 13 Regional Water Partnerships, 84 Country Water Partnerships, and 2,904 Partners located in 172 countries. The Annual Report for 2013 is now completed and available online.
Up to 300 participants from more than 30 countries were gathered for the Gender, Water and Development Conference, 7-11 November in East London, South Africa. The conference is organised as a step towards an on-going journey to change equality, equity and development in the water sector.
Watersheds are essential to the livelihoods of humans. A significant portion of a society’s economic gain and overall survival is acquired through the ecosystem goods and services provided by watersheds. Jamaica as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) has recently been facing increased stress and vulnerability to its water resources.
There is a need for stakeholders to be organized, capacitated and empowered in order to be effectively involved in decision-making processes in the development and management of shared water resources, improved climate resilience, poverty alleviation and ensuring that water resources are secure. With that objective in mind, GWP SA through the Namibia Water Partnership conducted its first training workshop aimed at broadening stakeholder participation in Transboundary Water Resources Management in the Orange – Senqu basin.
GWP SA is a member of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the Gender Water and Development (GWD) Conference which will be held from 7-11 July 2014 in East London, South Africa. During the month of March 2014, the LOC reflected on the role of gender equality and how this can be prioritised as a mechanism for creating more equal societies and spurring development. Reflecting on the 2014 International Women’s Day Theme “Equality for Women is Progress for All”, The LOC resolved that this was a key message that needed to be rolled out as the world commemorated International Women’s Day, which fell on 8th March.
On March 22, 2015, in Shanghai, the World Water Day, the Forum on Water and Sustainable Development was organized jointly by the Society of Enterprises and Ecology (SEE) and Xingye Bank with the support of the UNESCO, WWF, MAB and GWP China as well as some companies such as Coco-cola, Wanko, Yikang, etc. More than 300 people attended the opening ceremony of the Forum.
The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) of Trinidad and Tobago and the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, will host the first-ever Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Research Symposium in Trinidad on July 15th and 16th, 2015 at The University Inn and Conference Centre in St. Augustine.
The 1st Regional Conference of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector was organised on 28-30 October 2014, in Athens, Greece, by the Global Water Partnership- Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in close collaboration with the EU funded Sustainable Water Integrated Management-Support Mechanism (SWIM-SM) project. It convened more than 110 decision makers; representatives of government; civil society; the private sector; international organisations; donors and financing institutions.
Partnership is our strength. We strongly believe that water security and climate resilience in region will be achieved through collaborative partnerships and functioning networks. As a result, we have 8 functioning Country Water Partnerships and local active networks and partners.