Born in 1938, at age 84 Dr Motadullah is still fond of reminding the happy memories that he had with GWP as the first Executive Secretary and engaging in establishing Regional and Country Water Partnerships around the world during the inception of the network. He preferred to conduct his value addition come from the perceptive of GWPO as he was heading
For the last three years (2020-2022), GWP and Cap-Net UNDP, with the support of UNEP and UNDP and under the guidance of UNEP-DHI, have implemented a pilot project to help countries protect and restore freshwater ecosystems, with a focus on increasing awareness of environmental data available, capacity development, and action planning through multi-stakeholder engagement.
Mr Nanda Abeywickrama, (former Secretary, Ministry of Lands and Land Development (1978-88) and Director, International Co-operation (1988-94) also worked as a Special Adviser to the Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) from 1997 to 2005. In 1998, Mr Abeywickrama’s name was recommended by the then Director General, IWMI and appointed as a founding member of the Global Water Partnership Technical Advisory Committee for South Asia (SASTAC). Later, he held the position of Regional Chair of GWP South Asia (GWP SAS) from 2005 when the SAS Secretariat was moved to Sri Lanka under the hosting agreement with IWMI. He served as the Chair, GWP SAS from 2005-06 and weaned away from work gradually. Currently, Mr Abeywickrama is in his retirement living with his beloved wife in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sardar Muhammad Tariq, born on 15 May 1939, has over 53 years experience in planning, design,
tendering and construction management of water resources and hydropower development
projects Asia. He was a former Chairman of the South Asia Technical Advisory Committee (SASTAC) and the Regional Chair of Global Water Partnership South Asia (GWP SAS) from 2010 to 2012. Time to time he held the position of Regional Council Member of GWP SAS representing Pakistan and currently holds the position of Executive Director/CEO of GWP Pakistan (Pakistan Water Partnership).
The multi-million dollar, GWPEA-coordinated, four-year-project, “Strengthening Drought Resilience for Smallholder Farmers and Pastoralists in the IGAD Region” (DRESS-EA), was launched on 6 October 2020 on the online platform, Zoom.
There is a decline in the capacity of institutions within the SADC region to produce data for decision making and negotiations. It is, therefore, imperative to develop institutions’ data management capacities as a means of improving the adequacy, quality, and quality of data for decision making in transboundary water management.
