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The Volta River basin remained one of the few unregulated transboundary watercourses in Africa.  Action was taken to improve water governance and water management practices. Although this is still in progress, it has resulted in multi-scale participatory governance frameworks for joint management. From this process, it is evident that building a local knowledge base with good data and information systems is important in deciding the most efficient allocation of resources.  

As a way of supporting the CGIAR Challenge Programme for Water and Food (CPWF, 2009-2013), approach in the Limpopo River basin, GWP SA is undertaking work for the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) to specifically package and disseminate the small scale infrastructure work package, a CPWF Research package that was undertaken on the Limpopo River Basin between 2009 -2013. The assignment with the ARC began in May 2014 and will be implemented until the end of 2014.

 West Africa struggles for ratification

Despite high water availability in Jamaica, uneven distribution in both time and space creates local scarcity. Hence, it is problematic to distribute water adequately to all sectors, and to develop abstraction points for water treatment. To address the issues, action was taken and a Water Sector Reform was proposed, including a Water Sector Strategy and Action Plan.  From this experience, the lesson learned is the importance of coordinating activities and harmonising policies, legislation and institutions.

The second round of Uganda national consultations on water in the post-2015 development agenda took place on the 18 March 2014, in Kampala, Uganda. The meeting was graced by the chief guest, Prof Ephrem Kamuntu, Minister of Water Resources and Environment, who highlighted the issue of water security.

The Global Water Partnership–Caribbean (GWP-C) Water Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) is aimed at building climate resilience in the water sector as a key part of sustainable regional and national development for economic growth and human security.

In Chile, water has been privatised. However, in order to make sure that access was still available to all strata of society, the privatisation was accompanied by a robust regulatory framework, including a system of direct subsidies for drinking water consumption and sewage services for low income households. This case thus illustrates that in case of privatisation, a direct subsidiary scheme should be considered. 

The Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C) in conjunction with the Global Water Partnership Organisation has developed a Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) for the Caribbean to support the implementation of the water related actions outlined in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Implementation Plan for the Regional Framework for Achieving Development Resilient to Climate Change.

WACDEP CACENA was formulated by Global Water Partnership in Central Asia and Caucasus to initiate development of the regional agenda on climate change adaptation. There is a big differentiation in renewable water resources availability among the countries within the GWP CACENA region. The biggest part of the territory is located in the arid and semi-arid climate, and irrigated agriculture accounts for about 80-90 % of total water use. The most common challenging issues for the Caucasian sub-region are the low access to proper drinking water supply and sanitation, water ecosystems degradation, floods and, in some zones - water scarcity. For Central Asia they are increasing water deficit (droughts in irrigated zones) and water ecosystems degradation. Climate change aggravates all these problems. The programme will provide planning support to governments of CACENA countries for better preparing to climate change and for improving water security.

GWP Malaysia and the Global Environment Centre co-organised a Regional Training of Trainers course on Ecosystem Services and IWRM on 18-21 June 2012. It was targeted to enable greater awareness and understanding on ecosystem management based on a holistic and sustainable manner aimed at empowering relevant stakeholders in Malaysia with knowledge and skills needed to adopt the ecosystem services concept.