The Volta Basin Authority (VBA) held from August 3 to 5, 2015, in Abidjan, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire the Regional Stakeholder Forum on Governance in the Volta Basin under the theme "Water, source of conflict or cooperation".
Organized by the VBA in collaboration with IUCN, the meeting gathered the focal points of the VBA, civil society, the six riparian countries (Benin, Burkina, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, and Togo) and resource persons from IUCN, WRCC / ECOWAS, CILSS and GWP / WA.
“Improving water governance for achieving financial sustainability in the Mediterranean” is the topic of the event organised by Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med), during the upcoming World Water Week in Stockholm, within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled project ‘Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector’ and with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
“Although water is central to development, its value is often overlooked. It is thus essential that this national consultation helps to ensure that water is properly reflected in any post-2015 agenda. Moreover water is tied to most development themes – such as food, health, energy. So it is essential to recognize the obvious linkages with these other thematic consultations”
The vision of the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) is for a water secure Caribbean and its mission is to support Caribbean countries in the sustainable development and management of their water resources at the community, national and regional levels.
GWP Myanmar (MmWP) held an open discussion on the needs of water cooperation among water users on 8 November. The aim was to help shape the water resources management in the region.
The Botswana SADC Water Week was held from 28-30 April 2015 in Gaborone at the Cresta President Hotel (Journalist training and Youth Forum) and the Cresta Lodge for the consultative forum. During the youth forum, the youth agreed on setting up a structure that will implement youth activities at country level and this will be housed by the Botswana Water Partnership Secretariat.
The 16th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium was held on the island of Mauritius at Le Méridien Hotel from the 28 to 30 of October 2015 under the theme ‘Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Infrastructure Planning for Water Security in Southern Africa’. The University of Mauritius, a GWPSA partner was the lead host of the Symposium. The Symposia has been held annually in the Eastern and Southern African region for the past 15 years to promote interaction among policymakers, academics, practitioners from water and related sectors, and cooperating partners.
Climate change is expected to severely affect water resources in the low-lying part of the Netherlands. It was decided to take an integrated approach and a process was set up in which all parties claiming space in the area were invited to discuss the water issues. The key insight from this case is the additional water needs can be integrated in the spatial planning through an open planning process.