Network Activities

JULY 2009

Cap-Net newsletter

In this issue:

Cap-Net at the World Water Week;
New Intern at the Secretariat;
First capacity building activity of the Lusophone Water Partnership;
Partnership Agreement with UNESCO-IHE established;
New Training Materials page on the website;
Focus on a network member;
Course on groundwater management, South Africa;
Regional course on WASH and IWRM, Ethiopia;
Training on IWRM and Climate Change, Kampala, Uganda;
Upcoming events.

Cap-Net at the World Water Week

Cap-Net is a convener or actively involved in the following events at the World Water Week:

Seminar on Taking capacity building in IWRM forward in Africa and the Caribbean. The seminar will identify the next priorities for action and the strategies for improving impact for water management capacity building in Africa and the Caribbean. 20 August in room K13 from 14:00-17:00.

Seminar on IWRM as a Tool for Adaptation to Climate Change on 19 August. It focuses on how implementation of IWRM can assist communities to adapt and improve resilience to changing climatic conditions. It falls under a seminar called Focus on Water and Climate. More details>>

Country Assistance for Robust Flood Management Policies: The HelpDesk for Integrated Flood Management. The event will discuss the IFM HelpDesk which is a facility that provides guidance on flood management policy, strategy and institutional development to countries. More details >>

Partnerships for Water and Environmental Sanitation Integrity, Accountability and Transparency on 16 August. The seminar will publicly launch global strategic partnerships for water integrity action and identify or announce new partnerships for country based water integrity action. More details>>

Also take time to visit the UNDP stand, where we will display our latest knowledge products and promotional materials.

New Intern at the Secretariat

Mohammad Fikry Abdullah arrived in Pretoria on 1 August for a 3 month network attachment at the Cap-Net secretariat. He has been at the AguaJaring Secretariat since it was established in 2007. He’s role at AguaJaring includes assisting the Network Coordinator in building and managing networking among capacity building institutions and experts in the South East Asia region and internationally. He has also been involved in the development of work plans and project proposals and the management of capacity building trainings, workshops and meetings.

Fikry has a degree in Information Technology and is currently working as a Research Officer in the Geo-Information Unit, of the National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM). He’s main task is to implement and promote data repository - a combination of ICT technology and human knowledge. This makes him responsible for monitoring the development of IT systems, testing them and providing support for their use in Research and Development (R&D). Fikry is also responsible for promoting Geographical Information System (GIS) technology in R&D. In the next 3 months, Fikry will facilitate network self assessments using network development indicators that have recently been developed by Cap-Net. We look forward to an exciting time with him.

First capacity building activity of the Lusophone Water Partnership

Twenty-two participants from four lusophone countries (Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe) took part in the first capacity building activity of the Lusophone Water Partnership, a special focus partnership of GWP. The activity was a course on IWRM as a tool for adaptation to climate change which was organised by Cap-Net, GWP-SA, WaterNet and the Country Water Partnership in Mozambique. It was held in Maputo from 27 to 31 July. Materials developed by Cap-Net and partners for previous courses had been translated by Cap-Net Brasil and adapted to the needs of the course. The material will shortly be issued on CD in four languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese) together with presentations and resource materials. Other activities are already planned for later this year in Cape Verde. The participants discussed the possibility of establishing a lusophone capacity building network and the joint running of an e-learning programme. It is hoped that other partners from Cape Verde, Guinée Bissau, Portugal and Timor Leste will join in the efforts.For more information on the Lusophone network and its programme, please contact André Pol (andrepol@infolink.com.br)

Partnership Agreement with UNESCO-IHE established

Following a period of continuous cooperation between UNESCO-IHE and Cap-Net, moves have been taken to formalise the partnership. The collaborative advantages for Cap-Net are the access to experienced and respected professionals in water to provide the academic standards necessary into the Cap-Net programme as well as their collected experience from around the world assembled from their students as well as their research and programmatic activities. On the other hand, UNESCO-IHE will benefit from the extensive outreach of the Cap-Net programme, the impacts on the ground and the possibility to take good ideas to scale resulting in greater impact and visibility. The collaboration will immediately focus but will not be limited to the following themes of work: Water Utilities, River Basin Organisations, Water Resources Assessment, and IWRM and Adaptation to Climate Change. Cap-Net and UNESCO-IHE will have a meeting from 12 to 13 October to make more concrete plans for the collaboration and joint activities.

New Training Materials page on the website

A new training materials web page is available on the Cap-Net website where all Cap-Net training materials are listed in a simple format. Each training material's page contains a training manual in word and PDF fomats plus PowerPoint presentations. As before, these materials are freely available for use and adaptation. Also available are training materials from other organisations. Click here to view the training materials webpage.

Focus on a network member

Glen Khan has expertise in banking, financial institutions operations and management and economic regulation. He is currently employed as an Economic Regulator for public utilities (electricity and water sectors). He has formerly been employed at a local Commercial Bank and as a Research Fellow at the University of the West Indies. His research interests are in financial sector issues.Glen has been active in Carribean WaterNet.

What is your role in your Carribean WaterNet?
I have been facilitating aspects of workshops hosted by Carribean WaterNet that involve economic and financial issues as well as case studies on tariff setting.

What benefits do you get from being a network member?
These include; meeting persons involved in the water sector throughout the Caribbean and sharing experiences and information with them. I believe that I am contributing to improving the flow of knowledge and capabilities of those persons by sharing information with them.

What could be done better?
I do not think that enough people benefit from these activities. Greater participation would be extremely beneficial to the local communities.

Would you recommend it to your friends?
I would recommend it to friends and the wider community.

Course on groundwater management, South Africa

The African Groundwater Network (AGW-Net) held a Course titled "Groundwater management for water managers: A role for hydrogeological science" at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa from 6-10 July. The purpose of this short course was to describe the role of hydrological science in supporting emerging issues and practices in the management of groundwater for the non hydrogeologists.

A total of 13 participants from 10 African countries attended the course. Many management problems were identified including the lack of coordination and integration and different laws on groundwater among the different ministries that use or manage the resource. One solution commonly identified was the development of a common database of information to be used by the different groundwater users and management agencies. It is expected that participants will disseminate knowledge in a standardized format that will lead to common management strategies for groundwater in Africa were appropriate.

For more information contact Tamiru Abiye (Tamiru.Abiye@wits.ac.za) or Richard Owen (richardo@zol.co.zw).

Regional course on WASH and IWRM, Ethiopia

Ethiopia Nile IWRM-Net in collaboration with Cap-Net, WSSCC and a local Ethiopian WASH coalition held a training workshop on IWRM and WASH from 6- 10 July in Addis Ababa ,Ethiopia. The course was held in response to the recognition that the WASH /IWRM interface is important for both the management of the water resource and for meeting the MDG goal 7 on access to improved water and sanitation. The actitvity was also held to support the Ethiopian water sector reforms associated with development and implementation of country IWRM plans and the challenges in meeting the MDG targets on water and sanitation. It also aimed at creating awareness on how the use of IWRM can advance the objectives of WASH. The major outcome was that participants identified priorities for action in order for WASH and Water Resources Management planning to be integrated in their countries.

Participants were drawn from Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, DR Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and Cameroon. The facilitators noted that while participants valued the sessions on the WASH IWRM interface, these could be substantiated with more case studies and examples of policies that have taken the issue on board. Using the lesson learnt from this course, WaterNet will be implementing a similar national course in Zimbabwe in August. For more information contact Kidanemariam Jembere (k_jembere@yahoo.com).

Training on IWRM and Climate Change, Kampala, Uganda

Nile IWRM-Net held this course from 25-29 May. The participants were largely middle managers drawn from national water authorities of Nile IWRM-Net member countries. The objective of the course was to build the capacity of managers and local authorities to apply sustainable water management principles and instruments to adapt to climate variability manifestations. A total of 35 participants attended. Participants identified forestation, water harvesting and the use of renewable energy as locally appropriate actions for adaption to a changing climate. A lot of debate centred on uncertainties and how these could be managed as well as climate change finance. The most significant outcome was that most of the countries have planned to carry out awareness creation campaigns on Climate Change -targeting policy makers, politicians and community level stakeholders. This will be done through conducting workshops and writing publications for a wider circulation. The course was funded by Cap-Net, UNEP-DHI Centre for Water and Environment and Nile IWRM-Net.

Upcoming events

Pilot training on water safety plans: Cap-Net has initiated a programme on Water Safety Plans together with UN-Habitat, IWA, African Water Association (AfWA) and Rand Water. Under this collaboration, a training course on Developing a Water Safety Plan (WSP) will be held from 21-25 September in Johannesburg, South Africa. The purpose of the course is to enable participants to return to their utility and lead the process of development of a WSP. It will also provide a great opportunity to initiate partnerships. Read More>>

SaciWATERs (in collaboration with NetWWater, Sri Lanka, and Women for Water Partnership -WfWP) will convene a seminar at the World Water Week in Stockholm. The seminar is on Crossing Gender Boundaries in the Water Sector: The Status of Women Water Professionals in South Asia. 19 August from 0900-1230 in Room T6. Contact Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich (chanda@saciwaters.org). Click here for the programme (PDF).

Call for applications: The third Gender, Water, & Equity Training Workshop in South Asia by Crossing Boundaries Project, SaciWATERs. Last date for submission of applications is August 30, 2009 at 1700 hours Indian Standard Time. Click here to download the Programme Scheduler (PDF) or contact Dr. Anjal Prakash (anjal@saciwaters.org)