The AWP held a workshop on Tuesday 13 December in Canberra to discuss partner’s engagement in China and to try to identify the nature of future partnering opportunities that might be supported by the AWP. A background paper providing a situation analysis for water management in China and outlining historic engagement by Australia with China in relation to water management was provided to participants before the workshop.
In all, 28 people participated in the Roundtable, representing 22 partner organisations, including 4 AWP staff. Huw Pohlner of Aither facilitated the workshop and gave an introduction based on his experiences living and working in China. Fifteen workshop participants then briefly describe their organisation’s work to date in mainland China. Following this an effort was made to identify ‘centres of gravity’ and ‘preferential pathways’ for Australian engagement in China. The presentations and discussions were then summarised in a workshop report, prepared by Huw Pohlner of Aither.
Based on this information, the AWP is developing a document outlining principles that we will adopt for engaging with China. We will present this at the next AWP Advisory Committee meeting, and expect to release it to partners after that. In the meantime, the background paper and selected presentations from the workshop (i.e. ones in powerpoint format that we have permission to post) are available to partners here. Because of the holidays we have not been able to contact all presenters, so you may wish to check in periodically to see if additional presentations have been posted.
Presentations
Partnering & Project Options for Commercial Outcomes – Austrade China
Engagement with China – Richard McLoughlin, Water Division
China Engagement to date – Jianbin Wang, International Engagement Manager
Training Model for International Water Reform – Darryl Day, ICE WaRM
International Course on River Basin Management (A Joint Initiative of Melbourne & Tsinghua Universities) – Prof John Langford and Mike Stewardson
The UNSW Global Water Institute – Prof. Stuart Pearson and Prof. Nick Schofield
China Engagement – Lu Zhang, CSIRO
China’s Water Management Landscape – Huw Pohlner, Aither
WWF in China – Oliver Maennicke, WWF Australia
Water in China: Key issues for an AWP Strategy
Water Stewardship in China – Michael Spencer, Water Stewardship Australia