The Regional Council was held on the 28 October with the participation of Regional Chair, members of the RC and Country Chairs representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The Head of Network Operations and Senior Network Officer for South Asia participated the meeting representing GWPO as well as the Regional Coordinator, GWP SAS. The Country Coordinators of the respective countries and some other dignitaries representing Bangladesh Water Partnership (BWP) attended the meeting as observers. The representatives from Pakistan were unable to attend the meeting whilst they have shared the inputs to the meeting beforehand.
The Regional Coordinator updated the RC on progress made by GWP SAS in terms of its programmes, Core, Water and Climate Resilience Programme, GWP Youth Portfolio, Pan Asia collaboration and Learning Deltas Asia Initiative Programme until third quarter 2017. Region’s audit and financial overview was presented and workplan and budget 2018 were discussed in addition to conversing about key governance deliberations.
The second day was dedicated to the 7th GA where one partner representing each country except Pakistan participated. The partners were briefed on the financial and technical progress of GWP SAS since 2014 to today as the last GA was held in 2014. They were also given an overall idea about the upcoming activities and expected budgets.
The Sub Regional Coordination Group Meeting Leading to 8th World Water Forum (WWF) to be held in Brazil 2018 was held on the afternoon of 29 October with the participation of all the guests. Need for a such consultation was raised at the Asia Pacific Water Forum (APWF) held in Singapore in July 2017, in preparation to the upcoming 8th World Water Forum scheduled for 2018. The discussion identified several case studies aligned with climate, urban people and development themes which will be refined further and shared with the theme focal points.
The series of meetings ended on the 29 October and the RC decided to held to 24th RC meeting - 2018 in Sri Lanka.