{"id":1116,"date":"2026-03-16T14:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/?page_id=1116"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:02:06","slug":"global-water-leadership-programme","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gwpo-gwp.org\/mediterranean\/work-areas\/thematic-areas-and-key-projects\/climate-and-water-investments\/global-water-leadership-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Water Leadership Programme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GWP-Med in partnership with the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) led activities in Palestine for the GWL Programme, a global initiative supporting emerging leadership for improved water, sanitation and hygiene services, and climate resilience. GWL was funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What was the GWL Programme<\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A ground-breaking global initiative, the FCDO-funded \u201cGlobal Water Leadership in a Changing Climate\u201d (GWL) programme provided critical support to governments in seven low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to become international models for water leadership and to demonstrate the socio-economic transformations that can be accomplished by making climate-resilient and gender-transformative water management including water and sanitation, health and hygiene (WASH) services a political priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since launching in April 2021, GWL has been working to strengthen national support for integrated water resources and services management, provide critical information and analysis to identify, prioritise and resolve barriers through developing national response strategies, input into water (and\/or climate) policies, and help governments access financing to transform the sector and bolster its climate resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the core of this success is a commitment to breaking down the siloes in which integrated water resource management (IWRM) and WASH operate for the development of holistic and climate-resilient solutions. To that end, GWL was implemented through a collaboration comprising GWP, UNICEF, SWA, WHO and JMP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the sole IWRM implementing partner, GWP has designed a set of work packages to contribute to Output 1 (Strengthened Leadership and Collaboration), Output 2 (Evidence, Norms and Standards) and Output 3 (Identifying systemic and financial constraints) for IWRM, and, where possible, climate-resilient WASH services. These Outputs contribute to generating political leadership for water at the national and international levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The programme was conducted in seven GWP countries spread across five sub-regions<\/a>: Central African Republic in Central Africa; Rwanda and Uganda in Eastern Africa; Malawi and Tanzania in Southern Africa; Nepal in South Asia; and the State of Palestine in the Mediterranean.
The flagship product of the GWL programme is government-validated Response Strategies for addressing the most critical barriers to climate-resilient water management. Barriers have been identified by national stakeholders, who have prioritised the top 3 barriers in their respective country. Multistakeholder working groups (WGs) have been formed \u2013 one per barrier \u2013 each tasked with developing a Response Strategy to address their respective barrier. A Response Strategy contains two components: an Action Plan and a Finance Plan, and local finance consultants were engaged to assist working groups in costing their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A snapshot of GWL in Palestine<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Country Context: Water and Sanitation<\/em>

Palestinian territories continue to face significant and growing shortfalls in the water supply available for domestic use. The two main regions in the State of Palestine, West Bank and Gaza, are very water-scarce with a water-dependent economy. Nearly 660,000 Palestinians have limited access to water, with 420,000 persons obtaining less than 50 litres per capita on average daily. According to the Water Sector Regulatory Council (WSRC) in the State of Palestine, 33 per cent is the median rate. Non-revenue water is responsible for $45 million of the more than 85 million cubic metres of freshwater that are lost annually and might have been used to alleviate water scarcity and inadequate supply. Most of these losses are absorbed by water service providers, threatening their financial viability, operational performance, and service delivery quality. Limitations exist in scaling up the use of treated wastewater for technical and social reasons and, responding to that, GWL assisted in addressing the social resistance to reuse the treated wastewater by conducting root-cause analysis and agreeing on community engagement activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the national level, a multi-stakeholder Policy Dialogue was organised aiming to strengthen cooperation among government agencies, agricultural associations, technology providers, and relevant NGOs for the wider adoption of sustainable agricultural practices along the WEFE Nexus approach. The project developed a common vision and framework among key stakeholders for the wider adoption of sustainable agricultural practices using the WEFE Nexus approach in the country; formulated realistic policy recommendations and built a collaborative Action Plan to scale up smart irrigation technologies and renewable energy solutions; discussed financial incentives and opportunities for farmers along with public policies for replication in other regions in Tunisia, and strengthened the institutional support for the application of smart irrigation and the adoption of the WEFE Nexus approach in agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were the major barriers that were identified?<\/em>
Originally, around 35 bottlenecks were mentioned, reflecting the root causes, and three major bottlenecks were prioritized for Palestine:
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