On 2 March, 2017, Indus Basin Initiative (IBI) of ICIMOD in partnership with Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) and World Wide Fund for Nature, Gilgit Baltistan (WWF-GB) organized a partnership workshop to prepare a detailed plan of IBI for the second phase (2017-2020) of Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP II) in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The workshop was successfully conducted with more than 50 participants including high ranking officials from the Government of Pakistan and Australian Government, researchers, academicians, development practitioners, development partners and knowledge experts from both the government and non-government sectors. The workshop was aimed at concretizing ideas generated during a previous workshop organised on 4 August 2016 jointly by ICIMOD, PCRWR and WWF-GB, and the event led the initiative towards developing partnerships in the Indus Basin.
Through the SDIP, supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Government of Australia, ICIMOD aims to improve regional evidence-based knowledge on critical challenges faced by transboundary river basins in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) and offer solutions through a river basin approach.
During the March 2017 workshop, the participants shared that the event helped to create a good platform for them to prepare detailed implementation plans for SDIP II. They explained that the challenges in the Indus basin are quite complex, one of the key problems was the knowledge gaps. The workshop had helped to facilitate direct communication between researchers and policy makers.
One of the key outcomes of the workshop was to encourage active interaction between participants from diverse professional and thematic backgrounds. As a result, comprehensive implementation plans have been prepared. The technical sessions of the workshop highlighted on pathways for change and gender integration in SDIP-II. The participants had group discussions and they presented on proposed activities for 2017.