New Chair and new Steering Committee members of GWP Announced

Letitia A. Obeng is the new Chair of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) it was announced last August 14th. Ms Obeng, a Ghanaian holding a Ph.D. degree in public health and water resources engineering from Imperial College, University of London, has extensive experience in water and sanitation strategy development and service delivery across the African continent. Dr. Obeng has held increasingly responsible positions since joining the Bank in 1982, most recently as Director for Environment, Water Resources, Rural and Social Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region; Strategy and Operations Director in the Office of the Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Director, Office of the President, The World Bank.

Dr. Obeng will assume her duties as Chair of the GWP at the end of the year.

On the other hand, four new Steering Committee members who were approved by the Sponsoring Partners meeting on 14 August were nominated. The new members are: Ms Shaden Abdel-Gawad (Egypt), Ms Nafisa Barot (India), Ms Maria Alegria (Chile) and Mr Albert Diphoorn (The Netherlands). Ms Gawad, President of the National Water Research Center, Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt, has over 30 years experience in water quality management and environmental protection, assuming several leadership positions. She has supervised and managed several foreign-funded projects as well as local programs in the field of water quality monitoring, modelling and assessment. Ms Gawad has published a vast number of technical papers and reports. She is an active member of several international organizations; member of the Board of Governors of WWC and AWC.