The official ceremony was led by the chair of CWP and the Mayor of the Commune of Kouandé in the presence of the Departmental Director of Water and Mines of Atacora (DDEM) and the chair of the Local Water Partnership (PLE) of the Atacora-Donga.
Introducing the speech, the chair of the PLE, Mr. Théophile DJAGBE welcomed the assembly before the DDEM, Mr. Joachim SAMA thanked the CWP-Benin for this project #TonFuturTonClimat by stressing it is a continuity of the IWRM actions that the CWP-Benin develops in the area.
The Mayor of the Commune of Kouandé, Mr. Abassi MOUSSA, expressed his joy at hosting this project. Mr. SOULEY Sabi MOUSSA, representing the Chair of the CWP-Benin, thanked the various stakeholders of the project in his opening remarks and urged the youth associations to make a real commitment and work for the success of the project through concrete actions.
This workshop contributed to a better appropriation of the project by the various stakeholders and specifically, to improve participants' knowledge of the content of the project, to facilitate the involvement of youth associations and the synergies to be developed with other ongoing initiatives. It was attended by some forty actors from the youth associations selected for the implementation of the project, State structures such as the departmental branch of the Employment Promotion Agency, the Territorial Agricultural Development Agency (ATDA), the Kouandé Communal Hunting and Forestry Structure. Partners with initiatives with young people in the Atacora department such as CARITAS, GIZ/Proseha, the GIZ Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation Project, TANDEME ONG, IDEE-ONG and ALPHA OMEGA ONG etc. and local authorities such as the Town Hall of Kouandé were also in attendance.
The start-up workshop of the country project #YourFutureYourClimate# allowed young people to gain a better knowledge of the project and to learn more about the employment opportunities offered by the ANPE on the one hand; and the training opportunities offered by JCI NATITINGOU BAOBAB on the other hand. Project ideas from the Kouandé Municipal Development Plan were presented by the Executive Director of ALPHA OMEGA NGO to show youth associations other project opportunities that they can develop in partnership with Kouandé City Hall and other stakeholders.
It was also an opportunity for each of the youth associations selected for the implementation of the project to develop their work plan according to the aspect of the country project on which they are involved, on the one hand; and to commit themselves to the effective implementation of the mission to be entrusted to them.
The experiences of the partners present at the workshop on the three components of the project were very enriching for the development of work plans and it was a synergy of action with partners having similar initiatives in the intervention area.
After expressing their satisfaction with the workshop, several recommendations were made for the success of the project including close monitoring in the finalization of action plans, involving women from the beginning of activities and taking into account the training needs of associations.
The workshop ended with the closing remarks by the representative of the chair of CWP-Benin, who stressed the responsibility of all stakeholders for the success of the project. He insisted on the gender approach by asking women to take initiatives. He also urged associations to become members of the CWP and to apply themselves in the implementation of project activities in order to truly benefit from the confidence of partners for other possible opportunities related to environmental protection and IWRM.