In an event on the margins of the World Leaders Summit at COP26, former Tanzanian leader and Chair of Global Water Partnership Southern Africa and Africa Coordination, H.E. President Jakaya Kikwete called on the international community to support the establishment of an International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa, which is urgently needed to accelerate investments in water security on the continent.
The speech below was given by GWPSA Chair, H.E. President Jakaya Kikwete, during the “Towards an International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa” event on 2 November 2021, held at COP26’s first ever Water Pavilion.
With over 54 shared river basins in Africa, 15 being in the SADC regions, cooperation in the management and development of transboundary water resources is key to economic growth and integration.
Back by popular demand, the Transboundary Freshwater Security Governance Train began its ‘Season 2’ in September 2021. This series of online engagement sessions follow a ‘train-like’ approach, stopping at various locations around the world and focusing on topics related to transboundary freshwater security. Each new stop explores a different topic from the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security. The Transboundary Freshwater Security Governance Train continues its journey on 16 November, with a 9th interactive session in the series. The topic for this event is water diplomacy and negotiation in international water law. It is a jointly organized by GWP and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)/International Centre for Water Cooperation (ICWC).
On 21 October 2021, GWP and GWPSA supported the National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP), implemented by UNEP and UNDP with funding from the Global Environment Facility, in convening a webinar which explored Integrating Climate Risks in the Water Sector” with a focus on National Adaptation Plan (NAP) formulation.
Water must be at the core of effective climate action, but many countries are unaware of the powerful water-related solutions that exist. To remedy this, the global water community is speaking with one voice at the upcoming UNFCCC COP 26 Climate Change Conference by hosting a joint Water Pavilion.
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many meetings, workshops, and consultations suddenly went online. In many parts of the world, in-person meetings were impossible for a long time, and only now are slowly resuming. In other parts, hybrid meetings with online presence and in-person participation are becoming the new norm. Each of these formats comes with its pros and cons. In-person meetings allow for broader and deeper discussions, while online meetings are logistically easier to manage and make it easier for more participants to join. A new publication analyzes the impact that different formats can have on the quality of the interaction in the context of multi-stakeholder consultations.
GWP-Med is leading the communication and dissemination component in this new H2020 project which aims to close the gap between science and policy in natural resources management. The REXUS project is bringing the Water-Energy-Food Nexus concept to an operational level as a tool for analysis, planning and decision-making, through an innovative integrated approach applied in 5 pilot sites across Europe and Latin America.
The 2nd Danube Floodplain (Online) Webinar was successfully held on 7 October 2021 with over 50 participants who actively engaged with questions and comments to the discussion.
