How many GWP Partners are there?

By Alan AtKisson, GWP’s Executive Secretary & CEO 

Note that phrase, “registered partner”. This is to distinguish formal, registered partners in the GWP Network of Partners from other the kinds of partners we have (and there are many of these). These other kinds include: 

Here is the background on the update to this number. 

 
As part of a current governance reform GWP is undergoing, our Steering Committee assigned the GWPO Secretariatto update, also known as “clean”, the GWP partner database, which at the end of 2023 stood at 3,561. Even if we check the database regularly with our regions (most recently in 2022), we knew that there were organisations on that list of formally registered GWP partners whose emails no longer worked. But we did not know whether those organisations no longer existed, or had not updated their data, or were simply no longer contactable for other reasons. We could not suddenly “drop” an organisation from the list just because an email bounced. We needed to do our homework. 

Recently,the GWPO Secretariathas been doing our homework, together with the regions, and working on that “cleaning” process. It is very detailed work. It involves coordinating with the Regional Water Partnerships and, through the RWPs, their Country Water Partnership colleagues. These are the people who work directly with partners in each country and know best whether an organisation in their region or country – especially a small organisation – is still viable and active. 

It also involves going through the so-called “global” list of organisations that are not in a country currently covered by a Regional Water Partnership, such as countries in North America, western Europe, and Oceania. In some cases, we will need to reach out personally to some of the institutions on that list that have been registered as partners for a long time, and make sure that they still know that they are partners, and that they still want to be. 

 
All that takes time, of course, and also careful planning. And we were making progress. 

But prodded by a media inquiry about the old number, we decided to further accelerateour clean-up and review process,in order tocome up with a more accurate estimate to replace that older number. We have not yet had time to check every registered partner, but we have done enough checking to have a statistically relevant sample, which allows us to make a more confident estimate about how many registered partners we actually have. That’s where this new number, 2800+, comes from: by being a bit tough on what constitutes a valid entry in our database, and by being conservative in our estimates (which are based on a lot of review work already), we can be quite sure that we have more than 2800 registered partners. 

That new number on our website, 2800+, is smaller than it was before, but it is still impressive, as well as being a reflection of enormous global diversity. More importantly, it is also more accurate – despite being an estimate. And we will keep working on it to get as close to “exact” as is possible when dealing with such a dynamic sector as water. And keep in mind that when you add the other kinds of partnerships we work with, the “real” number is surely up over 3000 again. 

But for now, if anyone asks, please point them to this new number on our website: 2800+. In the end, of course, it is not the number of partnerships that matters. It is how we work in partnership, throughout the entire GWP network, to help move the world closer to the vision of a water-secure world, for people and planet.