“International Training Workshop on Adaptation to Water Scarcity and Basin-connected Cities” 8th Asian G-WADI & 2nd IDI Expert Group Meetings

Two international training workshops entitled as “Adaptation to Water Scarcity” and “Basin-connected Cities” were held as side events of the 2^nd International Drought Initiative (IDI) expert group meeting and the 8^th Asian G-WADI meeting in Mashhad, Iran, by Regional Centre on Urban Water Management (RCUWM-Tehran) under the auspices of UNESCO, Science Department of Iran National Commission for UNESCO (NATCOM), UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office (UTCO) and under the UNESCO-IHP framework, on 10^th to 12^th of December 2018. These events were held in order to transfer and exchange the international experts’ knowledge, latest methods and scientific innovations on adaptation to water scarcity along with best practices and lesson learned on basin-connected cities. More than 200 experts from Iran as well as 19 international experts from 14 countries, including Afghanistan, Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mongolia, Niger, Oman, Slovenia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and also other international organizations and entities namely, GWP, WMO, UNESCO-IHP participated in these events, 46% of which were female. One of the most important outcomes of these events was gathering different countries’ experiences and lesson learned on adaptation to water scarcity and latest methods of urban water management, to be published in 2019 by RCUWM-Tehran (under the auspices of UNESCO). There also have been some negotiations on IDI secretariat activities improvement through synergy among related international organizations, and a regional monitoring programme for scarcity during the meetings.