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.

The 9th session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP9) to the UN Water Convention concluded on 1 October after a week of sessions, all serving to review and propose action towards transboundary water cooperation. GWP Executive Secretary Darío Soto-Abril was a panelist in a high-level session on the theme of 'Water and Peace'. One of his key messages was on the importance of turning challenges into opportunities.

Water projects are six times more efficient when women are part of the team. Yet there are still massive gaps in the employment of women in the water sector, particularly for jobs that are onsite or require a strong science background. On 22 September, GWP collaborated with Community of Women in Water (CWiW) and World Bank Equal Aqua on a virtual event that discussed how to support women to join and thrive in the water sector.

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security has entered its second year, and coinciding with this, the interactive series of sessions that explore related topics resumed on 21 September. Over 100 participants joined the event on the topic of international water law and dispute settlement. The speaker presentations highlighted the complex and long-running nature of international water disputes.

Photographs of women walking down dirt roads with jugs of water on their heads – cast in roles as water carriers instead of water managers – is not yet a thing of the past. A new report launching on 16 September shows progress has been slow and the management of this vital resource is still male dominated. 

How well is the world managing its water resources? To answer that question, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), with the UNEP-DHI Centre and Global Water Partnership (GWP), have analysed the responses from 186 countries to the survey instrument on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.5.1 – the degree of implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) – showing that the world as a whole has advanced from 49% in 2017 to 54% in 2020. While this does show definite progress, 107 countries are currently not on track to meet the target of implementing IWRM by 2030, and to reach the global goal, the current rate of implementation would need to at least double.

Investments in water security must be at the center of solutions for both climate change and post Covid-19 economic recovery. Specifically, investments in water information, institutions, and infrastructure encompassing all levels are essential.

The 2021 edition of World Water Week concluded on 27 August after a packed week of digital events. As in previous years, GWP was engaged in many sessions. One of the milestone announcements of the week was the UN-Water release of the SDG 6 Progress Reports, based on the 2020 Data Drive initiative, which GWP contributed to through the SDG 6 IWRM Support Programme. The message from the launch was clear: we are not on track to meet the 2030 Agenda water goal so we need to urgently accelerate progress. Throughout the week, GWP presented several of its initiatives that aim to do just that.