Today’s water challenges need all water interests to be at the table to jointly diagnose, discuss, and develop shared solutions – including the private sector. Over the past years, GWP has been able to build experience in engaging the private sector. To further develop this work, engagement with the private sector cuts across all three GWP Anchor Areas (climate resilience, Sustainable Development Goals, and transboundary water cooperation) in the GWP 2020-2025 Strategy.
The Masungi Georeserve was announced winners of the Water ChangeMaker Awards in a ceremony at the Climate Adaptation Summit on 25 January. Their project is about restoring forgotten watersheds through youth-led movements. In a Facebook Live session on 4 March, Billie Dumaliang, representing the winning team, encouraged youth to be brave and creative, and to work together when tackling their climate challenges.
The national technical workshops to review and consolidate the draft baseline analysis on Early Warning Systems (EWS) and related recommendations for the development of flood and drought risk maps and the establishment of an Early Warning System were held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on October 8 and 9, in Bamako (Mali) on October 27 and 28, 2020.
A series of national workshops in the six countries of the Volta Basin were held in Burkina Faso on 23 and 24 June, in Togo and Côte d’Ivoire on 28 and 29 June 2021.
The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is the core United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The 2021 edition takes place on 6-15 July. GWP Executive Secretary Darío Soto-Abril will address a SDG 6 Special Event in connection to the HLPF on 9 July.
Social inclusion and gender equality are long-established, core values of the GWP Network and manifested in the GWP Gender Strategy and the GWP Gender Action Piece. In a series of inter-regional discussions, GWP Senior Gender & Social Inclusion Specialist Liza Debevec sets out to identify what GWP as an institution can do to apply the concepts in these documents. Her first discussion is with Amy Sullivan and Andrew Takawira, who are both involved in a large Pan-African project on gender transformative water and climate investment. The discussion topic is institutional leadership and commitment, which is the first of 4 action areas in the Gender Action Piece. Their message is clear: leadership makes all the difference.
World Water Day is commemorated on 22 March - an annual UN observance to focus attention on the global water crisis. This year’s theme is 'Valuing Water', exploring what water means to people, its value and how we can protect this essential life resource. GWP South Asia, the global GWP office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Netherlands are organising a regional webinar on experiences and lessons at country level.
