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South East Asia
Progress in Malaysia
The Malaysian Capacity building network MyCapNet was established in 2002 as a wing of the Malaysian Water Partnership. In the first few years the focus was on development of a national Masters programme on IWRM. It was felt necessary that expertise from several universities was required and to develop the right framework for the course with several universities commitment was an initial challenge. The problem was solved by issuing the degree through the open University of Malaysia and the course has now been running since 2005.
 Briefing NGOs
Recently MyCapNet with Lestari, WWF and Wetlands International have developed a programme, "MyIWRM, What can I do" to promote commitment of NGOs and civil society to support water resources management on the ground at river basin level. Training for NGOs was held in April to familiarise them with IWRM and explore where they can contribute. A total of 46 persons participated in the training course, consisting of representatives or staff from various NGOs related to environment and water resources management, and also representatives from community associations.
Coming activities.
The AguaJaring network is creating awareness of the importance of Economic and Financial Instruments for water management with a training course being held in Thailand in June at the Mahidol University.
A one day conference followed by a four day training course on vulnerability assessment and adaptation to climate change is being planned for August. Climate change is gaining increasing attention among all of the Cap-Net partner networks and we will address that in the next news letter.
Whats happening on the Nile?
Training in IWRM for Southern Sudan.
 Southern Sudan had its first introduction to Integrated Water Resources Management in April. A training programme of Nile IWRM-net was organised in Juba by the NGO, Magwi Action for Self Reliance, in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Government of Southern Sudan. The course created much interest in the subject and committment to follow up by the Government.
Coletha Ruhamya: Facilitator (with support staff).
Coming activities.
Nile IWRM-Net members are very active with three training courses coming up soon.
In Kenya (23rd to 27th June) a regional training course will be held on "Factoring in Hydro-climatic Disasters in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)". The meeting will be held at the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research (IMTR). The training is supported by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) and benefits from the experiences of the National Disaster operation Centre in Office of the President, Kenya.
Rwanda is holding a training course on IWRM principles in July to be hosted by Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Collaboration with Rwanda Ministry of Natural Resources, 14-18 July 2008. Support is coming from the Gender and Water alliance and SNV as well as Cap-Net.
In Tanzania the University of Dar es Salaam, Nile-IWRM Net in collaboration with the EU Water Facility Project (Capacity Building in Integrated Watershed Management in Eastern Africa) is organizing a short training course in IWRM Planning. The course will take place in July.
People interested in any of the above courses can find more information on the Cap-Net web site or click on the link in the news.
Arab Region changes faces.
Visit from AWARENET manager.
The new manager of Awarenet, the IWRM capacity building network for the Arab Region, visited the Cap-Net secretariat from 7 to 11 April. Wael Hmaidan took up the assignment of regional expert in network development to coordinate the Awarenet programme in February of this year and visited the Cap-Net secretariat to discuss the network governing structure and activities planned for this year. Facilitated by BGR, the position of Awarenet manager is based at ESCWA where Wael took over from Roula Majdalani who was promoted to the department of technical cooperation within ESCWA. Within the ESCWA water team, Roula's responsibilities are taken over by Paul Hanna (hannap@un.org).
The visit of Wael resulted in exchanges on various options on how the network would best be governed and the development of several immediate capacity building activities for the region. Wael can be contacted at hmaidan@un.org.
Rafik, a first trip to Africa.
Network Attachment.
Mr. Rafik Jehi from Awarenet was welcomed to Cap-Net as a network attachment in May. He is providing support with the implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Strategy and gaining experience of how networks operate. Upon completion of the three-month internship Mr. Jehi will join the Awarenet Secretariat where he will support network activities in the region.
Water. Improving integrity, accountability and transparency.
Decentralisation of water management with the introduction of IWRM can provide the opportunity to improve transparency and accountability.
The UNDP Water Governance Facility at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), WaterNet and Cap-Net commissioned a study mapping Integrity and Accountability in Water Activities in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. The study was followed in April with a workshop on this critical governance issue in Cape Town, South Africa. Cap-Net networks and partners participated.
The study found that the region has existing measures that promote transparency but these remain limited, need to be improved and better coordinated. Current water sector reforms provide a window of opportunity to address this.
At the workshop the research results were discussed resulting in the identification of common interests and a comprehensive capacity building programme and commitments to take the subject further at different levels.
For more information, please contact: Håkan Tropp of SIWI (hakan.tropp@siwi.org), Themba Gumbo at WaterNet (bgumbo@waternetonline.org) or Kees Leendertse at Cap-Net (kees.leendertse@cap-net.org).
Coming soon
IWRM Masters Workshop
Cap-net will be hosting a workshop in June to examine and share experience on how new Masters level education programmes for IWRM are performing. The workshop will look at student demand, employment opportunities, curricula, research and other factors to determine the success and whether they are meeting the needs of the sector. Representatives from the following programmes will meet in Pretoria MyCap-Net, Saciwaters, WaterNet, Arg-Cap-net, Awarenet and Cara. They are expected to improve networking amongst the different programmes.
Knowledge Management Workshop
A number of Network Managers will meet in the Caribbean in July to discuss Knowledge Management in the capacity building networks and in Cap-Net as a whole. Over the last five years Cap-net has supported many knowledge generating activities such as case studies and training materials development. These outputs can be used to improve capacity building activities and strengthen IWRM implementation. The working group will explore ways in which the global network can improve in communicating IWRM, share the research and providing the private and public sectors with appropriate capacity building materials and services.
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