A series of 22 country consultations took place from February to May 2013 to address the importance of water to national development.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat is implementing the SADC Regional Strategic Action Plan on IWRM – III (SADC RSAP III) which is designed to provide a programmatic approach to facilitate the implementation of the Protocol on Shared Watercourses through the application of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). GWP Southern Africa is an implementing partner for SADC providing programmatic support to the implementation of the RSAP III and is providing support to increasing engagement of stakeholders within the Phase III of the Transboundary Water Resources Management Programme.
The Swaziland Country Water Partnership (SZCWP) was launched in 2004 to support the IWRM Plan development (2008) and more generally to provide a platform for stakeholder driven water management.
Decentralised small water retention measures are important sources of water during dry periods in Central and Eastern Europe, according to drought experts who met on 28-29 October in Warsaw, Poland.
GWP Eastern Africa organized a Water and Climate Development (WACDEP) Training Workshop on August 21-22, 2013 in Bugesera District, Rwanda. The title of the workshop was “Role of Communication in Promoting Water Security and Climate Resilience.” The theme was grounded in the understanding that the success of WACDEP rests on how all stakeholders are informed, actively engaged and owning the processes: consultations, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. A total of 30 communications experts and journalists from Burundi and Rwanda attended the training.
Social media syndication is common place on GWP. See this diagram for details.
GWP Central Asia and Caucasus (CACENA) has received a grant from USAID to coordinate a consortium developing a regional economic model for the integrated use of water resources in the Aral Sea basin.
One of our partners, The Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO), held its 8th IWRM Training in Thulhiriya, SriLanka from 27 November-4 December 2013 to be hosted by Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL). The Training theme is "Enhanced Water Security through IWRM - Mahaweli Experience".
The eight days training program used a mix of participatory and trans-disciplinary case studies which aims to develop the capacity of participants in IWRM Implementation by using the "IWRM Spiral Model" which was introduced as part of the "IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level" and issued by UNESCO in 2009. 27 Participants from 11 countries includes: Lao PDR, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The countries in Southern Africa are at very different stages of implementing Integrated Water Resource Management, and have different experiences in this regard. It is, at this point, useful to take stock of the process and to examine opportunities for improved IWRM implementation in the various countries. The GWP SA, supported by the African Development Bank (through the Multi-donor Water Partnership Programme), put in place a project to examine the status of IWRM implementation in southern Africa and to develop recommendations for the way forward. Access the individual country IWRM reports:
NATURE 2000 comprises a designation of nature sites of EU importance. However, after consultations with water managers, it became clear that NATURE 2000 sites located in the river valleys imposed new challenges for water resources management. Action was taken by GWP-Poland and WWF-Poland to find solutions. The project demonstrates that multi-stakeholder dialogue is a basic requirement for the solution of problems involving different perspectives and priorities.