Responding to the dramatic increase in extreme weather events and mega disasters is one of the great challenges of the Limpopo River Basin. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a top priority for the basin as it seeks to hold back the tide of rising economic and human losses through flood and droughts. To reduce risks from such disasters, GWPSA has over the past 2 years been involved in the development of a disaster risk reduction action plan for the Limpopo Basin. This Plan of Action presents a strategy for integrating disaster risk reduction into the Limpopo transboundary level operations. As part of the process to developing the plan, GWPSA held a workshop on the 5th of April, 2016, to validate the draft DRR action plan of the Limpopo Basin.
The series of themed water discussion under the “Water Salon” has been designed and prepared since October of last year. The first activity was held on May 11, 2015 in Beijing. Water Salon is organized by GWP China and its three regional partners, including the World Resources Institute (WRI) China, the WWF China and the IUCN China.
GWP-Med, representing on occasion also GWP, has been contributing to the OECD Water Governance Initiative (WGI)[1] since its launch in 2013. In this framework, GWP-Med participated in the 7th meeting of the WGI held on 23-24 June 2016, in The Hague, the Netherlands. The meeting brought together some 80 representatives of organizations and institutions, members to the Initiative.
The National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS) that was adopted in July 2014 was officially launched by the Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa on the 19th of November 2015 at Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe. The launch was attended by senior government officials, representatives from different organisations in the water sector and the local leadership drawn from the 9 Provinces around the country. The launch came at a time when Zimbabwe is stepping up efforts towards climate change adaptation and mitigation as witnessed by the development of the Strategy and the Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs) to support the process.
A Regional Training on Drought Risk Management and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is being organized by the Nile IWRM-Net/ Cap-Net and Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa (GWPEA) and will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 15-19 June 2015.
GWP Central America joined two Latin American youth networks in the organization of the Latin American Youth and Environment Conference (#ELACJA), held in Mexico City from October 21-23. GWP supported the participation of six people from each of the countries in the region.