Global Water Partnership (GWP) was represented by Mr. Samuel Bota, Malawi Water Partnership (MWP) Chair, and Mr. Elton Laisi, MWP Steering Committee Member and GWP-SA Board Member.
The NAP launch was presided over by the Principal Secretary responsible for Environment and Climate Change Dr. Yanira Mtupanyama. It was attended by a wide range of 41 stakeholders from government, Civil Society Organisations and Networks in the relevant sectors. The MWP Chair presented some remarks on behalf of GWP as one of the partners of the Global Support Programme Consortium. In his remarks, he highlighted GWP’s long term engagement with the Malawi Government through the facilitation of the 2010-2015 Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Plan for the country. He also pointed out that the IWRM Plan highlights Climate Adaptation as one of the key strategies for Integrated Water Resources Management for Malawi.
During the workshop, GWP through MWP was identified as one of the key stakeholders and players that will be involved in the water-related climate adaptation issues.
Overall, the Malawi Government acknowledged GWP’s contribution of €15,000 towards the NAP workshop as a timely contribution and important gesture of partnership in the NAP process.
The workshop came as a result of the launch of the National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPA) that was officially launched in February 2008 by the Government of Malawi with the aim of addressing immediate and urgent adaptation needs that were aimed at assisting vulnerable communities and ecosystems to have enhanced resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. The NAP process in Malawi is and will be led by a core team of 12 adaptation experts from various sectors whose mandate is to spearhead the whole process and provide technical backstopping and lead of the process. In addition the Government of Malawi has engaged a National Facilitator to facilitate the NAPs preparation process under the supervision of the Director of Environmental Affairs, under the guidance of core team members and with expert input drawn from key sectors.
The workshop resulted in providing a platform to exchange knowledge and activities that are being implemented by various institutions in the country. It was highlighted that a lot of adaptation related activities are already taking place that could provide experiences and lesson learnt and inform the NAP process. Additionally, awareness was raised among stakeholders on the elements of the NAP process, where many participants indicated that they will develop sector and area specific concept notes to broaden the awareness in their specific areas of work. Participants also identified various entry points for NAP processes in their areas of work that indicated a need to undertake a compressive adaptation stock taking to advance the NAP process.