Dear Partners and Friends 

We’re now well into the second quarter for 2023 and the AWP team is working hard developing and delivering activities, sharing knowledge and participating in events. We’re moving into the final year of Phase 2 and are looking forward to a period where we can reflect on what’s been achieved as we prepare for a potential Phase 3 in the future.   

I want to say thank you to partners who contributed data towards our annual performance reporting. It’s difficult to overstate how important this is in demonstrating our collective impact. We are creating impact stories from some of this data for our Annual Report, which will be published in Q3. Keep an eye on our social media as we plan to share these in the latter half of the year.  

Our recent Partners Workshop in Adelaide was a highlight and it was wonderful to see so many of you in person. COVID taught us that much of our business can be done online, but when we do gather in person we want to get the most out of it.  The AWP team put so much thought into the Partners Workshop and created an event that allowed a good balance of reflection, connection, learning, important conversations and fun. I thought it was excellent and hope you enjoyed it too.  If you missed it, you can check out the resources on our website.

The development sector is awaiting a new Development Policy, to be released very soon, but we anticipate that our work in sustainable and climate resilient water management will continue to be seen as impactful, valuable and strategic. Our increased focus on the Pacific and deepening of longstanding ties to the Mekong region reflects Australian government policy, as does AWP’s work on GEDSI and on linking water and climate in ways that lead to greater resilience. We welcome the recent appointment of the Australian First Nations Ambassador, Mr Justin Mohamed, and hope to continue to deepen our partnerships on Indigenous water management.

AWP finalised a new strategic plan at the beginning of this year, and I thank partners who were involved in the process of drafting this. The strategic plan states where we, as AWP, think our resources and partnerships can achieve most impact, based on 8 years of learning. With a possible Phase 3 on the horizon, we hope the strategic plan is a helpful input into the design process. We’ll be sure to update you all once we have more news on this.  

For now, you’ll find links to our recent news items and information on recent and upcoming events in 2023 below.  

Sincerely 

Sarah