The Transboundary Freshwater Security Governance ‘train’ stopped at its second destination in the new season on 19 October, where webinar participants discovered linkages between transboundary freshwater systems and the marine environment in the framework of the Source-to-Sea approach (S2S). This topic was introduced by speakers who provided a comprehensive overview of this approach, and highlighted challenges with possible solutions.
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.
The Executive Committee of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has formally noted and welcomed the nomination of His Excellency Dr. Hage Gottfried Geingob, the President of the Republic of Namibia, and the current host country of the Presidency of AMCOW as Co-Chair of the International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa.
Albania has made significant improvements in advancing the normative framework for gender equality in recent years. An online Technical Workshop on Gender Equality (GE) and Sustainable Development in Nexus attempted to discuss how gender is addressed in Nexus sectors’ strategies and policies and bring some concrete best practices on how gender issues can be addressed in development programmes.
Gender equality and sustainable development are inseparable. Addressing gender inequalities —including access to and control over natural resources— accelerates the impact of policies connected to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
An online Workshop on “Gender Equality (GE) for Sustainable Development in Nexus sectors in Drin Riparians” took place on 12 October 2021 with the participation of around 55 representatives from different gender related institutions and nexus related sectors, gender focal points, civil society, academia, women empowerment activists and experts from Albania, Kosovo* and North Macedonia. Its overall purpose was to bring these actors together to discuss challenges and opportunities for promoting gender equality as a driver for sustainable development in Drin Riparians.
A new online course on Gender and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) opens on 15 October. It is available on the Cap-Net virtual campus and has been developed in partnership with GWP and Gender and Water Alliance (GWA). The course aims to improve practitioners’ understanding of the benefits of integrating gender meaningfully in water resources management.
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.
A Learning exchange on gender mainstreaming in water resources management (WRM) was organised on September 16th, 2021, to present the findings of the study on that topic. The event was also used as a platform to better understand and discuss how to advance on the key enablers and overcome common bottlenecks for gender mainstreaming in WRM, for those working on SDG 6.5 and SDG 5; and to understand the need for support from national governments and other stakeholders to advance in this key area for sustainable development.
