Global Water Partnership - GWP

The Water Changemaker Innovations Award 2023 is a global initiative co-convened by GWP, K-Water, the Continental Africa Water Investment Programme, and the World Bank. The award showcases the most promising climate-resilient innovations with the greatest potential for scale, replication, and further investment for a water-secure world. 236 entries were received from 76 countries for the 2023 competition. 

The winners of the 2023 competition were announced in December by H.E Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, President of Botswana and Chair of the Water Changemaker Awards, during the launch of the Africa Water Investment Action Plan at a side event at COP28, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.   

The winners were:  

 
Earlier in March, the Water Changemaker Awards recognised six current and former Heads of State as recipients of the Presidential Global Water Changemakers Awards, presented during the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York, USA:  

  • Four co-chairs of the International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa – H.E Macky Sall, then President of the Republic of Senegal; late H.E Hage Geingob, then President of Namibia; H.E Mark Rutte, then Prime Minister of the Netherlands; and H.E Jakaya Kikwete, Former President of the Republic of Tanzania – were each recognised for demonstrating high-level political commitment and leadership for climate-resilient water security in Africa.  
  • H.E. Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Republic of Zambia, and H.E. Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar, received the award for local country leadership following the launch of the Zambia Water Investment Programme and the Zanzibar Water Investment Programme.  
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Redeveloped and relaunched in 2022, the IWRM Action Hub is a global knowledge and learning platform that supports and connects water professionals and decision makers in designing and implementing IWRM action towards a water secure world. 
 
In 2023, six IWRM tools were added and updated, covering: 

  • Water allocation regimes 
  • Customary water law 
  • Institutional mapping 
  • Multistakeholder partnerships 
  • Corporate stewardship 
  • Nature-based solutions 

The IWRM Action Hub also expanded its scope and number of Communities of Practice, including: UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s Communities of Learning and Practice on Drought Management; the Community of Practice on Drought Management in Armenia; the Nature-Based Solutions Community of Practice; and the WEFE4MED Community. 

Five new case studies were also added in 2023 through a competition on the theme of overcoming gender-related challenges in the water sector in the Pan Africa region. 

The IWRM Action Hub is also being used as part of SDG 6 monitoring efforts. Together with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP-DHI Centre on Water and Environment and Cap-Net UNDP, through the SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme, GWP assists countries to facilitate multistakeholder consultations to assess and report on their progress on SDG indicator 6.5.1 (the degree of implementation of IWRM). In the reporting round in 2023, 13 countries used the newly introduced online survey for monitoring SDG 6.5.1 available on the IWRM Action Hub. 

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Cap-Net (which is hosted by GWPO) and the broader GWP Network have collaborated for several years in capacity development for sustainable water resources management and to design and implement needs-based knowledge for water professionals around the world. 

Collaboration examples in 2023 included: 

  • Joint organisation of the distance learning course on decision support and response to flood and drought and early warning in the Volta Basin, in collaboration with the Volta Basin Authority and WMO.  
  • Collaboration on the second edition of the virtual training course on monitoring of IWRM at municipal level in Central America.  
  • Co-convening of the third WEF Nexus Winter school in Southern Africa, along with several partners, which targets early career researchers, postgraduate students, managers, and practitioners in understanding the WEF nexus as a transformative approach to sustainable natural resources management and socio-economic development.  
  • Joint moderation of the Community of Practice Gender and Water Resources Management.
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The GWP Technical Committee contributes to global knowledge and advocacy on integrated water resources management (IWRM) – supporting capacity building and implementation throughout the GWP Network. 

In 2023, the Technical Committee achieved the following priority actions: 

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