The 2023 United Nations Water Conference was successfully held from 22-24 March 2023. The event was held at UN Headquarters in New York, co-hosted by the Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands, aimed to assess the progress of the Water Action Decade 2018-2028 and reaffirm water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The mission of the Global Water Partnership to support countries in the adoption and implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular Agenda 6.5.1 to track the degree of IWRM. Thus, the global office and the regional secretariat of Southeast Asia participated in the main events, and side events (on-site and virtual events).
As a leading authority on water governance, GWP continued to put water at the centre of development at the UN 2023 Water Conference by participating in and leading over 30 events, committing pledges to the Water Action Agenda, and launching a sourcebook on managing multistakeholder partnerships to improve the global management of water resources. But, despite the best efforts of the delegates, was this conference the watershed moment promised?
On March 31, 2023, GWP China and the Shenzhen Dapeng New Area Administration signed MoU to set up the Marine Professional Committee of GWP China in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.
Representatives of government ministries, private sector, civil society, and research organisations met in Yaoundé under the umbrella of a stakeholder consultation organized by GWP-Cameroon in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy (MINEE) on March 23rd, 2023 to verify and finalize the country’s score on the AIP scorecard.
From 20 to 24 March 2023, the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) in collaboration with its regional implementing partners, the Mono Basin Authority and the Global Water Partnership West Africa, organised visits and consultation meetings in the project areas in the two countries concerned (Togo and Benin).
The Sahel region in West Africa is confronted with a rampant terrorism for a decade and continues to bereave nations and families. The inability to cope with the situation has even led to the overthrow of the governments in Mali and Burkina. These two countries are the centre of the terrorist hydra in the Sahel.
The Water Museum of Burkina Faso in Moutili near the capital city Ouagadougou marked the event with a mobilisation of local communities through various recreational and awareness-raising activities. Several schools of Loumbila and Saaba, the women's group of Moutili mobilized to offer a pleasant and inspired show, rich in sequences.
GWP-WA together the VBA and WMO started an online training targeting experts in the six Volta Basin countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo). The distance learning course ''Dissemination, Decision Support and Response to Flood and Drought Early Warning'' takes place over a period of 6 weeks from March 13 to April 21, 2023. The online course is structured around 4 modules.
