Facilitated by the Central African Republic Country Water Partnership (CWP-CAR) , Central African Republic is the first country in the region to hold a stakeholder consultation workshop to validate the national monitoring report on indicator 6.5.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The workshop was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Water resources Development and GWP-CAR on July 1st,2020 in Bangui.

Mindful of the SDG 6.5.1 reporting deadline of July 31st, GWP-CAf and its five CWPs have been fully engaged with country focal points to ensure that the ongoing monitoring and reporting process is conducted as per the UNEP guidelines.

Hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Hydraulics for the Republic of Congo (MEH) and facilitated by Country Water Partnership Congo and the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP Congo), the validation workshop for the national report on SDG 6.5.2 for the country took place in Brazzaville, Congo on the 22nd of June, 2020. The workshop had as objective to discuss on the state of Congo's water resources and cooperation in the field of transboundary waters and validate the draft report on SDG indicator 6.5.2, which assesses cooperation on transboundary rivers, lake basins and transboundary aquifers.

On May 28, the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Focal Point of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Environment (MARENA) and the IWRM Commission, with the support of GWP, held a national consultation for the SDG 6.5.1 baseline - the degree of implementation of IWRM. This is part of GWP's global efforts to assist national stocktaking and reporting on IWRM.

GWP held its annual Regional Days meeting on 1-4 June. The virtual event set a record in numbers, with over 120 GWP participants worldwide. While the main purpose is to have a shared understanding of GWP priorities and approaches, one of the highlights this year was the ‘virtual signing’ of a grant agreement between GWP and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on readiness support to the Zambia National Adaptation Plan (NAP).

Every year, all GWP Regions meet to brainstorm, share knowledge and learn about current challenges and future opportunities for the network at the annual regional days. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s regional days was held virtually for a period of four days, starting June 1st with over 100 participants at the opening plenary chaired by the outgoing Executive Secretary (ES), Monika Weber-Fahr . All regions were fully represented including GWP-CAf which was represented by the Regional Chair, Regional coordinator, as well as the Finance and Communications officers.

Trinidad and Tobago held a virtual consultation on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.5.1 – which tracks the degree of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) implementation. This is the first in a series of 60+ in-country consultations coordinated by GWP this year, in collaboration with the UNEP-DHI Centre and Cap-Net UNDP, under the guidance of the UN Environment Programme. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the planned workshops will be held online. “We firmly believe that an integrated approach to water resources management is needed now more than ever”, says GWP Senior Water Resources Management Specialist Colin Herron.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has awarded the Government of Zambia a grant of USD 2,184,555 for the development of a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for Climate Resilience.

For the second part in our series of partners speaking about why their communities should submit their change journeys to the Water ChangeMaker Awards, we spoke with WaterAid’s Dr Virginia Newton-Lewis, Director of Policy and Advocacy at WaterAid Sweden, highlighting the role of the WASH community.