Lebanon and Jordan are exploring the possibility of joining the UNECE Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention). To assist the two countries in this process, UNECE and the Global Water Partnership - Mediterranean (GWP-Med), with financial support provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), have organised national workshops to increase awareness and understanding of relevant stakeholders of the different legal and institutional frameworks for cooperation on shared waters resources, the specificities of the UNECE Water Convention, in comparison to the UN Watercourses Convention, as well as the complementarity of the two agreements.
GWP contributed to three regional training workshops in Ethiopia for Anglophone and Francophone African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to advance their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) through the NAP Global Support Programme (GSP).
Madagascar held its SADC Water Week on the 3rd, 4th and 5th June at the Ivato Conference Centre in Antananarivo. This event was held in high esteem given the present context in Madagascar. In fact, it has just been about 17 months since Madagascar was welcomed back in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). On Wednesday the 3rd, a joint session was held for media experts and the youth to provide them with some relevant background information on this SADC initiative. The meeting brought together youth from the water sector and beyond, as well as media experts from various ministries, some NGOs, civil societies and academic institutions.
The Minister of Water, Hydraulic equipment and Sanitation of Burkina Faso, Ms. Mamounata BELEM / OUEDRAOGO, presided over the official ceremony of the validation workshop of two studies on June 3, 2014 at the Palm Beach Hotel in Ouagadougou.
A press event was held at the Athalassa Center for Environmental Education on December 2nd, 2014 to mark the conclusion of the first phase of implementation works for the installation of new and the reinstatement of existing greywater reuse and rainwater harvesting systems at public schools and centres of environmental education.
A scholarship is now available for a student from the Caribbean to develop knowledge related to climate change adaptation and water resources management that can be directed back to the region.
South Africa started its internal broad stakeholder engagement process on Water in the Post 2015 Development Agenda earlier this year. The first stakeholder workshop was held in Durban from 19-20 February 2013. A second workshop, was held in Irene, Gauteng on 4th April 2013.