Global Water Partnership

21/10/2026

Shared basins have no shortage of agreed priorities. What they lack is a reliable path from those priorities to committed finance.

At the 11th GEF International Waters Conference ( ) in Bali, Global Water Partnership Organisation (GWPO) co-led the session "From Investable to Bankable: Financing Transboundary Water Solutions" with The World Bank Group-hosted Global Facility for Transboundary Waters.

Decades of Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses, Strategic Action Programmes and basin plans have strengthened cooperation across shared waters.

Yet few of these priorities reach the point where a government, development bank or private investor commits money, and basin institutions too often depend on short project cycles that make long-term planning harder to sustain.

GWPO's Global Head of Transboundary Water Governance, Dimitris Faloutsos, moderated a panel on how to turn priority water resources management actions agreed by riparian countries into financed interventions.

GWPO supports project preparation, technical assistance, investment structuring and de-risking, and investment mobilisation through innovative blended public-private finance to meet these needs. GWPO intends to build these elements into the design of its transboundary projects from the outset to:

🔹 Support river basin organisations and countries put fit-for-purpose, long-term financing mechanisms in place for cooperation, including pooled funds and blended structures.
🔹 Turn basin priorities into structured, financeable investment opportunities through a staged process of screening, assessment, country endorsement, feasibility work and financing strategy.

The approach draws on GWPO's investment programming, including the Continental Africa Water Investment Programme - AIP and on the Okavango's Cubango-Okavango River Basin (CORB) Fund, where GWP Southern Africa has acted as interim fund manager.

The session's recommendations for GEF-9 include funding the preparation work financiers require before they commit, setting out a financing route beyond the grant from day one, and bringing governments, banks and private investors in early.

Blended finance that brings public and private capital together is central to closing the water investment gap, and to making cooperation over shared waters last.

Thank you to our co-leads and speakers from the World Bank, International Sava River Basin Commission, OKAVANGO, CORB Fund and Global Water Partnership Southern Africa speakers and everyone who joined us.

Global Environment Facility Iwlearn

20/10/2026

19/10/2026

This week in Nanjing, GWPO CEO Alex Simalabwi, and Professor Dai Jiqun, President of the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI), signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance climate-resilient water security.

NHRI was founded in 1935 and is China’s oldest hydraulic research institute. It has delivered more than 300 overseas research and consultancy projects across Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America. GWP brings 13 Regional Water Partnerships, more than 75 Country Water Partnerships and over 2,800 partner institutions that support countries in the financing, governance and management of water resources.

The partnership reflects a core idea of GWP’s strategy: closing the $140 billion annual water investment gap takes more than capital. It takes well-prepared, bankable projects grounded in sound science and in what countries say they need.

Together, we will:
🔹 Connect NHRI’s scientific and engineering expertise with investment preparation in GWP countries
🔹 Bring public institutions, investors and technology partners together to finance climate-resilient water projects
🔹 Scale up innovation in flood and drought forecasting, early warning, and AI-enabled decision support
🔹 Co-create training to strengthen risk assessment and resilience of water infrastructure
🔹 Advance Integrated Water Resources Management and dialogue on climate-related water risks

As we head toward the UN 2026 Water Conference in Abu Dhabi, partnerships like this are how GWP turns knowledge into investment, and investment into water security.

The signing was witnessed by Atem Ramsundersingh, Chair of GWP’s Programme Sub-Committee, and Eng. Sun Feng, Director of International Cooperation at NHRI.

Our thanks to Professor Lee Hong Yuan (National Taiwan University), Eng. Sun Feng and colleagues at NHRI, and the GWPO team.

15/10/2026

Global Water Partnership Organisation (GWPO) is happy to announce that Thanos Katsantonis has joined as Global Head: Blended Finance and Private Sector Investments.

In this role, he will lead work with the private sector, including water replenishment, and blended finance.

Thanos is based at the new GWPO Water and Investment Headquarters in Cape Town, South Africa, which complements the Primary Headquarters in , .

The Water and Investment HQ in Cape Town will lead GWPO's support to all regions on blended finance, financial structuring and de-risking of projects pipelines developed with GWP Regional and Country Water Partnerships, connecting them with multilateral development banks and private investors, and supporting the GIP Global Blended De-Risking Facility hosted in Windhoek.

Thanos is a blended finance and investment professional with over 15 years of experience across emerging markets. He previously served as Investment Officer with the Green Climate Fund's Private Sector Facility and more recently Senior Director and Investment Lead at Conservation International. He holds an MPA from UC Berkeley's Goldman School.

13/10/2026

📌 Save the date for the next Virtual Exchange!

For the second consecutive , negotiations on have been particularly challenging.⚡

In the upcoming Virtual Exchange, “From COP17 to COP18 and Beyond: Finding Common Ground on Drought,” we will take a closer look at the latest negotiations and explore how we can move forward together towards COP18.

The discussion will focus on constructive approaches to building common ground and will feature experts who participated in the COP17 negotiating teams.💡

The event will also host a marketplace segment where you can present your drought-related project or initiative.💫

📅 14 October 2026, 13:00 - 14:30 CEST

More information and registration 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ebr26nQX

World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Flood and Drought Management Programmes

12/10/2026

The DRESS-EA project, coordinated by Global Water Partnership Organisation (GWPO) and Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa, is strengthening the capacity of institutions, communities, and smallholder farmers in 4 countries to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to drought.

This past week, our team led by Dr. Valentin Aich, Senior Water & Climate Specialist & Raunak Shrestha , Knowledge, Innovation, & Capacity Specialist was in Kenya supporting a simulation exercise that brought institutions from Kenya and Sudan together to move drought information from monitoring to interpretation to decision, and finally to coordinated action and planning. Information sent through communication and feedback platforms such as HUSIKA – shown in the photo below – is used to shape planning.

Over the exercise, participants explored:
🔹 How drought information and advisories are interpreted
🔹 How early warning reaches decision-makers and communities
🔹 Who does what, and when, under Drought Management Plans
🔹 How institutions coordinate and activate preparedness and response

Unlike traditional emergency simulations, which often focus on rapid-onset hazards such as floods, a drought blank operation reflects the slow-onset and evolving nature of drought.

Building institutional readiness is also the groundwork for investment: coordinated, tested drought plans give governments and financiers the confidence to back resilience at scale.

The DRESS-EA project is funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented through the Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel (OSS) Sahara and Sahel Observatory.

08/10/2026

Yesterday, GWPO's Global Head of Water & Climate Resilience Investments, Anjali Lohani, opened the webinar on cascading flood risks in mountain regions, organised under the Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM), the joint WMO–GWP programme.

Climate change is reshaping mountain risk. Glaciers are retreating, frozen ground is thawing and rainfall patterns are shifting. Hazards now combine in new ways: a landslide can block a river, water builds up behind it, and the flood is felt far downstream. The lessons from Blatten in Switzerland and from this August's devastating floods in Nepal show how quickly these risks can overwhelm the systems that manage them.

With limited resources and terrain as vast and remote as the Himalayas, where should investment in monitoring, early warning and preparedness go first? And how can more resources be raised to protect communities where monitoring is still incomplete?

APFM takes an integrated approach across the whole catchment, connecting monitoring and forecasting with governance, planning and community preparedness. GWPO is now adding the missing link: investment planning. Through the APFM community, GWPO and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are working on a pipeline of projects that connect flood preparedness to finance, particularly climate finance. The aim is to turn identified gaps in monitoring, warning and preparedness into investable projects that countries can take forward.

The return on these investments is avoided losses: lives and livelihoods protected, less damage to infrastructure and businesses, and lower recovery costs. Combining early warning with water storage, catchment restoration and coordinated water management extends these gains, helping communities cope with both floods and drought. Assessing these benefits together directs scarce funding where it delivers the greatest resilience per dollar.

Thank you to WMO, our speakers and everyone who joined.

🖥️ Link to webinar recording: https://youtu.be/1tcAsQdGsSY



Flood and Drought Management Programmes

05/10/2026

In August 2026, Nepal was hit by a devastating flash flood that caused severe loss of life, widespread displacement, and extensive damage to property and infrastructure.

This tragic event is a stark reminder of the growing and increasingly complex climate-related risks facing high-mountain regions. It is also a call to action to close gaps across the warning value chain, from resilient observing networks and timely detection of emerging hazards to integrated information, data sharing, and effective early warning.

But how can we reduce the risk of disasters like this happening again?

Join our upcoming webinar, “Cascading Flood Risks in Mountain Regions: Early Warning, Governance and Resilience.” We will bring together perspectives from multiple regions to examine the challenges posed by high-mountain floods and cascading hazards, and discuss how stronger monitoring, forecasting, governance, preparedness, and anticipatory action can build resilience.

📅 Date: 7 October 2026

🕐 Time: 13:00-14:30 pm CEST

🔗 Register here: https://tinyurl.com/yc75v92m

Session by the Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM) by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Global Water Partnership Organisation (GWPO).

Flood and Drought Management Programmes

02/10/2026

GWPO is pleased to announce the appointment of two Global Technical Envoys, Dr Alex Money and Kelly Ann Naylor, who join us in part-time strategic advisory roles to help shape the future of global water investment and diplomacy.

Dr Alex Money – Global Technical Envoy, Finance & Capital Markets

As a principal advisor to the CEO, Alex will support the establishment and scale up of the Global Water Investment Platform (GIP), as well as the Global Blended De-risking Facility. Working with multilateral development banks, climate finance institutions, investors and the private sector, his mandate is to help mobilise finance for climate-resilient water infrastructure and the sustainable provision of water services.

Alex is an internationally recognised expert on water, finance and sustainable development, with over 30 years of professional experience. Formerly an emerging markets equity fund manager at Citigroup and Bessemer Trust, he has since worked closely with various development finance stakeholders on valuing water. This includes specialist assignments with multilateral development banks, philanthropic institutions, government and non-governmental organisations, and the corporate sector. Alex is the founder and CEO of Watermarq, and Founder in Residence at the University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. He holds master's and doctoral degrees in water from the University of Oxford.

Kelly Ann Naylor – Global Technical Envoy, UN Water & Climate Multilateral Affairs

Working closely with the CEO, Kelly Ann will lead GWPO's engagement with the UN system, intergovernmental bodies and multilateral partners, and support GWPO at summits, UN meetings and high-level water and climate dialogues. Engaging governments, senior diplomats and global partners, she will help shape water, climate and finance policy and position water as a priority for climate resilience and sustainable development.

Kelly Ann brings over 25 years of experience in international water and sanitation policy and programming. A civil engineer by training, she was UNICEF's Global Director for Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Climate and Disaster-Risk Reduction from 2018 to 2022, and served as Vice Chair of UN-Water, the UN system's coordination mechanism for water and sanitation, from 2020 to 2022. Most recently, as a freelance consultant, she has supported flagship UN system reports on SDG 6 and Member State-driven processes related to the UN Water Action Decade 2018–2028 and the 2026 UN Water Conference.

02/10/2026

💡 Upcoming GWP Caribbean Annual General Meeting 2026.

Please note that the signup deadline has been extended, so you can still secure your spot.

🌊 GWP-C ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2026

The Global Water Partnership–Caribbean (GWP-C) will host its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on:
📅 Sunday, 11 October 2026
🕔 5:00–7:00 p.m. AST
💻 Hybrid Meeting
📍 St. George, Grenada (venue to be confirmed)

The AGM provides an important opportunity for GWP-C Partners to come together, engage in discussions on the Partnership’s governance, and consider key matters, including the renewal/appointment of Steering Committee members and the position of Chair.

🔗 Partners who cannot make it to Grenada are invited to register to participate virtually:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/h18VM2hOT8egbLZK2ytsgQ

Deadline for registration Friday, 25 September 2026!

🌊 Your participation matters. We look forward to your engagement at the GWP-C AGM 2026!