TROSA organized an online Winter School in September with an aim to familiarize and encourage youth participation in transboundary water governance by facilitating interdisciplinary conversation and discourse in South Asia. The Winter School was jointly organized by South Asian University (SAU), UNESCO Chair of International Cooperation, Uppsala University supported by the Government of Sweden.
The Winter School Training sessions were conducted over a period of three months from July-Sep for 20 participants, out of which 17 were women, from South Asia and two from SE Asia region through a screening process focusing on mid-level water governance professionals from civil society including women and youth networks, academia, think tanks, businesses, governments and media. The training sessions examined international, regional and national policy contexts and frameworks on water cooperation; various dimensions of inclusive water governance with a focus on gender and indigenous communities; networks, negotiations and multi-track diplomacy; multi-stakeholder engagement and evidence-informed advocacy; SDGs implementation (SDGs 5 & 6).
The first pre-webinar session was chaired by Jyotiraj Patra – TROSA project Manager and Dr Medha Bisht. Associate Professor from SAU and moderated by Ms Samira Shakya, TROSA. The second pre-webinar featured a keynote presentation by Prof Ashok Swain, UNESCO Chair in International Water Cooperation, Uppsala University, with a focus on one of the key themes, ‘International Water Law and Diplomacy’.
The final and main leg of the webinar featured five themes. The first examined the international water policy contexts and the core principles of water law and global conventions which familiarized the participants on the emerging debates on water and sustainable development and national and regional contexts in South Asia. Likewise, the proceedings also focused on the IWRM- Nexus approaches in water resources management and case studies from Nepal and India. The sessions were led by Prof. Sanjay Chaturvedi, South Asian University, Mr Remy P Kinna, UNECE, Mr Dipak Gyawali Former. Minister for Water Resources in Nepal and Dr Aditi Mukherji from IWMI. Likewise, following sessions focused on the concept of networks, approaches and tools, case studies from the South Asian region and the Mekong. The final day proceedings were joined by representatives from SIDA Ms Åsa Heijne, Counsellor and Programme Manager, Environment and Climate Change for the Swedish Regional Development Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific and Ms Ylva Schwinn.