In Somalia, water is life - literally. It is also a country where much is happening today. The one-person-one-vote election to take place in early 2021 will be a historic milestone in the country’s road back to security, stability, and wellbeing. The economy is growing, driven by increased confidence, reforms, and bank development, and the business community is resilient, globally connected, and entrepreneurial. New opportunities for economic cooperation and integration on the Horn of Africa plays to the country’s advantage. Still, water remains a critical factor in Somalia’s development pathway. It is a water scarce country, at risk of climate related variability, and has to improve its capacity to manage water well in coming years.

The ad-hoc Steering Committee for the Nexus activities in the Drina River Basin under the SEE Nexus Project, supported by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), had its first online meeting on 15 October 2020. Representatives from the Ministries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia relevant to the water, energy and environment sectors, were informed about and commented on the project’s objectives and planned activities in the basin.

The 2020 GWP Network Meeting concluded on 22 October, with over 900 GWP Partners signed up for the virtual event and others watching the Facebook Live feed. The overall theme was ‘Bringing the Change’ in the context of the GWP 2020-2025 Strategy and as the world faces a pandemic.

In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” In that spirit, we are delighted to share the personal journeys from 78 Water ChangeMaker semi-finalists who have changed the world for the better.

The Lake Ohrid Watershed Management Plan was presented and discussed with representatives from all related authorities of North Macedonia marking another step towards its official adoption.

Paraguay recently concluded a successful consultation workshop on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.5.1: Degree of Implementation of Integrated Management of Water Resources (IWRM). Paraguay is one of the countries that accepted support by GWP South America to carry out consultations on SDG 6.5.1. The first round of consultations started in 2016, and in Paraguay in 2017. Paraguay's 2020 consultation is one of many taking place worldwide to collect data and measure the progress made on IWRM.

A multi-stakeholder consultation held in N’Djamena, Chad on September 4th 2020 revealed that the level of implementation of indicator 6.5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which tracks the “degree of implementation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)” in the country has increased from 32% (2017 baseline) to 37%.