Towards an Integrated Drought Management Strategy in Armenia (day 2)

 Knowledge transfer on drought issues due to climate change for Armenia

 

  “Country Water Partnership” NGO, with the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
 Administration (NOAA, https://www.noaa.gov/ ), carried out “Integrated Drought Management”
 pilot project during 2021- 2022.
  The goal of the project was to identify the main stakeholders of the field, collect available
 information on drought in the country, prepare a report on the weaknesses and gaps of the drought
 management system, develop recommendations for implementing integrated drought management,
 as well as the content of an integrated drought management plan for Armenia.
 Based on the project results, in September 2022, the CWP together with its partners in Central and
 Eastern Europe launched the “Knowledge transfer on drought issues due to climate change for
 Armenia" project, which is financed by the Visegrad Fund (https://www.visegradfund.org). The
 goal of the project is the development of drought management capacities and the creation of a
drought platform in Armenia with the support of the CWP CACENA. The project will allow to
transfer the knowledge and experience of European partners to local beneficiaries through training,
as well as to use possible existing platforms for modeling, drought vulnerability calculations through
data download, and obtaining other useful information and experience.
Anna Smetanova presented the goal and actions of the project, after which active discussions began
with the participants on various topics related to droughts:

•  Assessment of Drought Management: Presentation and Key Actions
• Gap Analysis: Drought Management Capacity Building
• Stakeholder consultation, gap analysis, interactive discussion of key needs and priorities regarding the project activities with participants.

Green Climate Fund

The Global Water Partnership (GWP) in close cooperation with the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) support regional and country water partnerships to develop and submit project
proposals to the Green Climate Fund. At the suggestion of the Ministry of Environment, experts
from GWP and WMO (Rene Schieritz, Bob Stefanski) presented a brief overview on the topic of
"Overview of GCF funding windows and how they work together".
The experts presented the following topics:

 Overview of GCF Readiness

• An overview of the GCF project cycle and funding windows (investments, public-private financing, readiness)
• Details of the GCF readiness window: what does it cover, how much, how often?
• General picture of GCF funding in Armenia, including readiness
• An overview of the GWP readiness portfolio

Process of developing a proposal for GCF readiness

• Readiness grant deadlines; proposal submission: mid-June, project approval: end ofyear
• Developing a readiness proposal: actors, roles, process
• What makes a proposal a winner?

Support of GWP in access to GCF readiness

• Available technical assistance of GWP, work models
• GWP-WMO partnership. Technical assistance of WMO during the establishment of an early warning system
• Discussion on moving forward.