The Chair of the GWP Technical Committee, Dr. Mohamed Ait-Kadi is happy to announce the arrival of three new members on the committee, appointed by the Steering Committee: Mike Young, Nicole Bernex and Dan Tarlock. In addition, Dr Thomas Panella has been appointed as the Asian Development Bank representative.
Water is a source of conflict around the Berki River Basin in Ethiopia, predominantly a consequence of a lack of IWRM awareness and an institutional framework. Action was taken to implement an IWRM pilot project to account for different stakeholder interests, resulting in the development and adoption of the Berki Basin IWRM. Key lessons drawn from the project include the importance of capacity building, consensus building, and the importance of decentralised multi-stakeholder platforms for conflict management.
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.
GWP Southern Africa has for the first time entered into a USAID competitive bidding process led by a US private sector firm.
The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP SA) partnered with UNDP to follow up with a set of national dialogues on water. The water dialogues form part of the 11 thematic consultations now underway by the United Nations (UN) in preparation for developing Sustainable Development Goals (SD) in 2015. GWPSA engaged stakeholders from three countries to organise consultations during the months of February – April 2013. These are South Africa, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
The Nile Council of Ministers (NILE-COM) meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda on 5th July 2012, commended Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) projects specifically Bugesera Transbandary Project implemented in the framework of WACDEP, and Adapting to Climate Change Induced Water Stress in River Nile Basin, a SIDA-UNEP funded project.
Lake Chad is an important resource, both in terms of economic development and biodiversity. However, unsustainable management of natural resources, population increase and desertification pose severe challenges. Action has been taken by the WWF and its partners to promote sustainable management. This case illustrates that independent organisations, such as WWF, can play a unique role as a catalyst and facilitator for change.
GWP China Regional Partnership Secretariat organized capacity building session for the Secretariats at provincial/river basin water partnership level, on April 12, 2014 in Longyan, Fujiang Province.