On 27 October, Global Water Partnership and Wuhan International Water Law Academy organised an online engagement session based on the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security. The topic was ‘Does the world need more International Water Law?’ The event attracted approximately 100 participants. “One of the most encouraging feedback was a participant who realized ‘we don’t need to be lawyers to work with international water law.’ We tend to think that it is always lawyers who exercise the law, but the law is there to be exercised by anyone,” said GWP’s Yumiko Yasuda after the event.
GWP held its annual Regional Days meeting on 1-4 June. The virtual event set a record in numbers, with over 120 GWP participants worldwide. While the main purpose is to have a shared understanding of GWP priorities and approaches, one of the highlights this year was the ‘virtual signing’ of a grant agreement between GWP and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on readiness support to the Zambia National Adaptation Plan (NAP).
In a series of inter-regional discussions, GWP Senior Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist Liza Debevec is investigating what GWP as an institution can do to apply gender equality and social inclusion in its practical work. From the GWP Gender Action Piece, published in 2017, she looks at the 4 action areas that were identified as key to progress. This month, she talked to Colin Herron and Fabiola Tábora about Action Area 2 – gender and inclusion analysis that drives change. Both Herron and Tábora are involved in finalizing complementary gender analyses in their respective areas of expertise – global and regional (Central America) – and they discuss how to use the findings to transform water resources management through gender mainstreaming.
On 10 & 11 March 2020, more than 20 experts, water managers, scientists and representatives of authorities joined a training on Drought Management in the Drin Basin, organised by GWP-Med. An online platform was used to virtually bring together participants from Albania, Greece, Kosovo*, North Macedonia and trainers from Slovenia. The focus was on enhancing capacities for a proactive approach to integrated drought planning, adaptation and management.
All behavioral change needs motivation from the inside – this is true both for people and organisations – and change is impossible until old belief systems and stereotypes die away, says GWP Senior Gender & Social Inclusion Specialist Liza Debevec. She reflects on a discussion on gender equality during the recent webinar series on “Women Water Climate: Tackling the Challenges” – and the huge challenges that surround this topic.
