On 6 September 2020, IFSD Australia and Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) organised an online workshop to share urban water management lessons and experiences between the professionals of the two countries. A total of 60 participants took part in the active learning process in which water management experts from Australia delivered presentations. Over a 30 municipality Mayors, engineers, urban water managers, and community leaders from Nepal attended the forum.  Dr Madhusudan Pudasaini and Mr Dhruba Subedi from Sydney presented their Australian experiences, while Dr Basundhara Bhattarai of IFSD co-hosted the program with Dr Dil Khatri, Kamal Devkota and Kaustuv Neupane of SIAS. The sharing event has stimulated new thinking and offered new insights to local governments and professional groups in Nepal to better plan and manage rapidly growing cities of Nepal, while ensuring water security and sanitation services. More about the program will be made available soon.

IFSD has singed a Memorandum of Understanding with Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) to work together on building urban water resilience in Nepal. IFSD is providing technical assistance through global best practices review, designing and implementing locally engaged research, and creating effective science-policy interface. The partnership with SIAS has been an important learning ground for IFSD, and several of the lessons and outcomes from SIAS projects have provided an important basis for IFSD to offer expert assistance to think tanks, policy makers, international programs, and government agencies across Asia and the Pacific.

Australia was quick to launch a COVID-19 response strategy in the context of international development.  

 

Two ministers  – Marise Payne, Foreign Affairs and Women, and Alex Hawke, International Development and the Pacific – have noted in the foreword that Australia’s “neighbors are particularly vulnerable to the health of the economic impacts of the pandemic”. They emphasied neighborhood focus by highlighting that “how our neighborhood emerges from this crisis will determine Australia’s economic and strategic circumstances for decades”.  

The strategy recognises the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the most profound challenges to economic development and human wellbeing in the past century. It also recognises the risks the pandemic has posed to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.  

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The Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD) is register in Australia as a Business Name of SD World Pty Ltd (ABN 91 615 770 28). Its mission is to create positive impact on sustainable development and strengthen climate resilience. IFSD integrates scientific, practical, and policy oriented knowledge for the transformation institutions, practices and human behaviours. It brings together experts with intensive practical experience in various sub-regions of the Asia and the Pacific and Africa as well as Australia. For an overview of who we are and what we do, please download the flyer here.