The Valuing Water Initiative Pitch-a-thon
Since July 2020, Wetskills, Young Expert Programme (YEP) and the Dutch Wavemakers (DWM) have been working together on securing funding for their International Wavemaker Academy expected to be launch in 2021. After digitally submitting their project pitch via a three minute video; the team was selected as one of the four finalists to keep working on their idea, prepare a pitch and a presentation for the final round on 13 October 2020 where project ideas were assessed by a jury panel of experts and the public. During this preparation period, each team was assigned a mentor and the Wavemakers United were mentored by Pieter van Der Zaag: Professor of Integrated Water Resources Management at IHE Delft, Netherlands.
The pitch was centred around coming up with an innovative project that address local to global water challenges and how best can we value water today. As the winning team, Wavemakers United won 5,000 EUR from the NL IHP- HWRP Committee to implement their project.
Wetskills Foundation is a proud key stakeholder of this global initiative which is a collaboration between Wetskills, DWM and YEP. Mr Odwa Ntsika Mtembu is the Wetskills representative for the soon to be launched International Wavemaker Academy. Congratulations to the Wavemakers United team and we wish them well for this project.
To learn more about the Pitch-a-thon and youth as champions for valuing water, visit this link by the Netherlands National IHP-HWRP Committee. More updates about the academy will be made available online and through the social media accounts of Wetskills, DWM and YEP.
More information: Odwa Mtembu (Odwa.mtembu@wetskills.com) and see leaflet Wavemakers United – Wetskills.
