The National Adaptation Planning for Climate Resilience (NAP4CR) Project in Zambia will strengthen systems for integrating climate change adaptation into planning and budget processes.

On 21 October 2021, GWP and GWPSA supported the National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP), implemented by UNEP and UNDP with funding from the Global Environment Facility, in convening a webinar which explored Integrating Climate Risks in the Water Sector” with a focus on National Adaptation Plan (NAP) formulation.

The Executive Committee of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has formally noted and welcomed the nomination of His Excellency Dr. Hage Gottfried Geingob, the President of the Republic of Namibia, and the current host country of the Presidency of AMCOW as Co-Chair of the International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa.

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.

The second virtual consultation on the development of the AIP Water Investment Scorecard took place on 16 September 2021, under the leadership of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), and supported by Global Water Partnership Africa.

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.