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For many businesses, issues of water scarcity are becoming increasingly relevant to their activities, manifested as increased costs or difficulties to obtain water as users compete for rights. To understand water dependencies in time and space, many companies apply the measure of water footprint, estimating water use throughout the value chain. Using this measure can give important insights into variation between countries in terms of how much of the water relates to production. 

The Five Year (2014-2018) Strategic Plan for Burundi Water Partnership was presented to development partners on 25 September, 2014 in Bujumbura. The conference that was opened by the Assistant to the Minister in charge of water (MEEATU) aimed to create a platform to raise funds for the implementation of activities contained in the different project proposals of the strategic plan for water resource management and climate resilience. 

The first step of working towards water security is to understand the nature and the scope of the resource itself. That means taking a holistic view of the water resources in a given country or region and relating those to their use by society and the environment. For that, demand and supply need to be assessed and data on the physical and the socio-economic aspects of the resource gathered. It is also important to understand how policies are performing, which is why indicators for IWRM should be developed and used for monitoring and evaluation.

GWP SA was invited to join about twenty other stakeholders in a discussion convened by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) Brownbag. The discussion was held on 27^th November 2013 to converse food insecurity in Southern Africa. The brown bag represents an effort to engage stakeholders to dialogue in order to address deeper problems – focusing on changing underlying policy, legislation and practice, rather than on short-term welfarest interventions. The discussion was moderated by Masego Madzwamuse, the Economic Justice Programme Manager at OSISA.

The Yangtze River Basin has been severely affected by climate change. To address this, the Yangtze River Basin Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation Report has been drafted to evaluate the impact on representative ecosystems and water resources, and pinpoint adaptation strategies. The experience has demonstrated that good adaptation measures should consider not only climate itself, but also other factors, such as economy, technology, as well as social and cultural norms. 

On the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, GWP Central and Eastern Europe launches an international photo contest on 17 June.

The Country Water Partnership of Benin (CWP-Benin) organized in June 2012 a training workshop of water stakeholders on gender mainstreaming in the management of water resources in the country. The Thecnical Note develop by the CWP for stakeholders, users and decision-makers has served as reference framework of the capacitiy building session.

Management of the Upper Vistula basin is guided through the project Continuation of the Implementation of the Water Framework Directive, which is a joint French-Polish initiative. This project provides avenues for exchange of practical experiences between Polish and French partners, mobilises different stakeholders within basin borders. The most important lesson learned is to remember that documents should be transparent and comprehensible. 

The annual Global Water Partnership Consulting Partners Meeting will be held in Stockholm on August 26, 2012 immediately prior to the Stockholm World Water Week. The theme of this year's meeting will be “Water security as a catalyst for climate-resilient development”

The Botswana Country Water Partnership (BCWP) was launched in October 2003 as a chapter of GWP-SA.  The Partnership was established with a mission to promote collaboration and sustainable utilization and management of water resources in Botswana through exchange of knowledge, experience and the practice of IWRM.