The GCF 2021 Readiness Country Proposal for the Central African Republic has been approved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with a grant of USD 443.130 awarded to the government to advance the country's programme by supporting the National Designated Authority (NDA) and country stakeholders in program development for climate finance.

The UNEP-UNDP National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP) and the Global Water Partnership (GWP) organized a joint webinar on accessing the GCF Readiness Support for National Adaptation Plan (NAP) on Wednesday, 8 December 2021. The webinar was attended by close to 100 participants representing GCF National Designated Authorities (NDAs), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Focal Points, GCF Direct Access Entities (DAEs) and technical advisors, water, and climate specialists.

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.