Even though they are based in Stockholm, Sweden the members prefer to promote their global aspect. "I hesitated when you asked me where we were based because we have programs everywhere," Meike van Ginneken, a network officer at GWP, told Conference News Daily. GWP has nine regional groups in South and South East Asia, Southern and Western Africa Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and Central and South America. They are in the process of setting up several more.

The World Bank, Swedish Development Agency and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) collaborated to form the GWP in 1996. Currently their major donors are The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and other bilateral donors. The partnerhsip was created to encourage Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

IWRM is an approach to land and water management that aims to balance human, industrial, agricultural and environmental needs. In order for this to be successful parties involved in water use, such as government departments, academics, communities groups, agricultural and business interests, NGOs and other interest groups, must "joint forces to share information." GWP promotes IWRM and encourages people to implement it in practice.

"It is a network so there is more exchange between nations. For example, experiences in Chili can be used in Morocco and experiences in Morocco can be used to Chile," said Ginneken.

The regional groups have encouraged the formation of a number of regional water partnerships, over twenty country water partnerships and ten area water partnerships. Ginneken is proud of her organizations success. "We combine political will on one hand and on the other hand, because we are an informal network, civil society takes part. It is a success to bring the two together and produce a document," she said.

The Freshwater Conference is an important event for the organization. They are set to launch a Toolbox on IWRM, later this evening. The Tool Box offers practical tools and policies. It also contains 55 case studies which can be used as example in achieving IWRM. The Toolbox is being officially launched by the Crown Prince of the Netherlands, Willem Alexander, who is also a patron of the organization.

According to Ginneken, this is one of the reasons that the organization is attending the conference. They want to bring the Toolbox into the limelight.

Despite the agenda to promote their Toolbox, the Freshwater Conference is still of great importance to GWP. "We are hoping that this conference will put water higher on the agenda for the Johannesburg conference. We hope that water will be given appropriate weight in discussions next year," said Ginneken.