Dear KM4Dev Colleagues,

I am glad to contact you regarding the upcoming Focused Conversation, titled: “Knowledge Sharing around water management innovations in the Andes and Himalayas”. This focused conversation is an KM4Dev project which opens a space to share lessons learnt by communities in both mountain regions around innovative solutions on water management. These communities have found innovative and creative ways to manage their water resources, adapting to harsh environmental hazards and climate changes in mountain regions of the Andes and the Himalayas. 

The HimalAndes team is a small group of experts who are finding ways to bridge distances between the Himalayas and the Andes, focusing on similarities among both ecosystems, and extrapolating valuable lessons across both regions. This focused discussion will use the KM4Dev Platform to share lessons through selected cases from both mountain regions around innovative solutions for water management. These lessons will be shared and debated using a “virtual bridge” during 3 weeks.   The KM4Dev Platform currently has around 1800 members from 104 countries, including the Andean and Himalayan regions.  We expect your active comments and contributions to enrich this focused conversation.

 This focused conversation will be held between Sep. 23 and Oct 10^th 2013 on the KM4Dev Platform. It will be facilitated by a small committee of experts (Felipe Custer, Alejandro Camino and Ana Maria Ponce). Experts from both regions are being contacted in advance to submit case studies.  Weekly summaries will be posted on the KM4Dev Wiki, and the final report with a general overview and future recommendations will be compiled by Dr. Alejandro Camino, founder of the HimalAndes Initiative.

The HimalAndes team will be happy to receive short (max. 3 pages) case studies by September 7^th for their pre-selection in this upcoming focused conversation. Kindly send them to the e-mail: ponceanamaria80@gmail.com.

Selected case studies will be shared in the list, published in the KM4Dev Wiki (http://wiki.km4dev.org/Discussions) and will be submitted to the KM4Dev Journal Editorial team for future issues of the KM4Dev Journal.

We look forward to a rich debate and active participation of KM4Dev members in this focused discussion!

Sincerely yours,

HimalAndes Coordination Team:

-          Ana Maria Ponce, KM4Dev Core Group member

-          Felipe Custer, CEO Equilibra Consultants             

-          Alejandro Camino , Director of Global Heritage Fund in Peru,  HimalAndes Initiative Founder