IAH’s global efforts in 2021, as always, stretched beyond United Nations and established partnerships. Some highlights included:

• In Africa, regional initiatives supported by IAH featured the Intergovernmental Authority on Development water forum ‘Dealing with water scarcity – the role of groundwater’. IGAD comprises representatives of governments from the Horn of Africa, Nile Valley and the African Great Lakes. A keynote presentation was given for the 4th SADC-GMI Groundwater Conference – and IAH provided additional support through the review of abstracts and conference proceedings.
• In Europe, IAH joined the EU Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform. This group promotes the development and adoption of best-practices, technical solutions, guidelines for resource availability protection and management, with a focus on urban areas, as part of the Zero Pollution Action Plan and the Green Deal launched by the European Commission.
• Also in Europe an IMPEL (European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law) project was begun on ‘Tackling Illegal Groundwater Drilling and Abstraction’ began, with IAH participation.
• IAH members from several of the EU member states played a prominent role in supporting the European Commission in preparing the Water Framework Directive and Groundwater Directive and the associated guidance documents.