Covering a geographical area of 20,361 km2 connecting 5 countries and 5 water bodies, the Drin Basin in Southeast Europe sustains unique ecosystems and endemic biodiversity, while supporting the economic activity of over 1.6 million people who call it home. However, four transboundary problems - deterioration of water quality, variability of hydrological regime, biodiversity degradation and disturbance of the natural sediment transport regime - are threatening the basin’s health with a direct impact on both the environment and livelihoods.

Over twenty-one multi-stakeholders met in Yaoundé on December 10th, 2021, to analyze the end of phase implementation of Cameroon’s National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NAP) which ran from 2016-2020, to propose guidelines to be considered in the updated, gender transformative NAP.

The GWP 2021 Network Meeting of Partners took place online on 1 & 2 December under the Theme “Leading Change and Innovation through our Partners”. GWP-Med was actively involved, presenting examples of success stories from its work around the Mediterranean in several Breakout Sessions.

Danube Floodplain Winter Online School was successfully held between 15 and 19 November. The multi-layered programme covered the topics of the scientific methods developed in the Interreg Danube Floodplain project, and the working practices in water and flood management.

A High-Level Water Investment Conference, which will take place in hybrid format in Zanzibar, Tanzania on the 11 March 2022, is set to explore solutions for accelerating and transforming the investment outlook for water and sanitation in Africa.

For the first time, GWP-Central Africa (GWP-CAf) shared experience from the region during the Gender and Social inclusion across the water-food-climate nexus session of the first-ever Water pavilion of this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26).

The world’s most significant annual summit on climate change, COP26, came to an end on 12 November after two weeks of discussions and meetings to tackle some of the globe’s most pressing problems.

The journey of our 2020 Water ChangeMakers came to a powerful end on 8 November at COP26, as they took to the global stage to present messages of urgency – and hope – to world leaders.

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.

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.