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The Mekong is the longest river in Southeast Asia, beginning its 4,200 km journey in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, passing six countries and reaching the South China Sea. Policy reforms to adopt integrated water resources management had been initiated and water related laws had been developed. However, there were still major gaps in the supporting knowledge and information. IUCN and its program Water &Nature Initiative (WANI) supported to scale up so called Tai Baan research (villagers’ research) that enabled local communities to represent their own social reality and through media and public forum, this knowledge can be mainstreamed into water management research and implementation.

 

Changing the behaviour of water users and water managers towards more sustainable practices is a necessary step in achieving water security. However, this requires changes of deeply held attitudes in individuals, institutions, professionals, and social organisations to encourage a more water-oriented society. By definition, social change instruments are not neutral: the positive aims that one person might pursue with their behavioural change could be considered destructive by others. Therefore, it is important to be clear on the goal (what to change) and on the method (how to change).

The Policy Dialogue in the framework of the joint GWP-Med and OECD Project on Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector held its second consultation workshop in Tunis on March 5, 2014.

The Policy Dialogue in the framework of the joint GWP-Med and OECD Project on Governance & Financing for the Mediterranean Water Sector held its second consultation workshop in Tunis on March 5, 2014.

The national workshop to validate the results of the study on the proposed agreement on the establishment of the framework and mechanism for cooperation and planning in the Mekrou basin was held on 15 June 2015 in Cotonou, Benin.

 

The MedPartnership and ClimVar projects held their final meeting on 3-4 November 2015 in Athens, Greece to showcase the results achieved through the activities and demonstration projects implemented over the past five years or so aiming to address the main environmental challenges that Mediterranean marine and coastal ecosystems face.

The Chair of GWP- WA, Professor Abel AFOUDA conducted a working visit to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Niamey in Niger from 4 to 8 February 2014 to discuss mainly on the new project ''Water for Growth and poverty Reduction in the Mekrou transboundary River basin”.

The Limpopo River Basin (LRB) which has a total population of 18 million with 15 million in South Africa, 1.2 in Botswana, 1.1 million people in Mozambique, 0.8 million in Zimbabwe is prone to natural disasters as a result of climate change. Therefore, on the 24^th of November, 2015, Resilience in the Limpopo Basin Program (RESILIM) in partnership with Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) undertook an in-country consultation workshop on the development of the Limpopo River Basin Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Action Plan.

One of the greatest barriers to achieving sustainable development is the increasing depletion of natural resources resulting in the degradation of ecosystems that are essential for human well-being and economic prosperity. This briefing note outlines the importance of ecosystem conservation. Briefing notes are two-page summaries on selected topics. They are prepared by GWP’s Global Secretariat and its partners.