One of the challenges of financing water resources projects has been the lack of innovative and strategic packaging of investments to attract the investors and financial development partners. It is against this background that the training on financing of sustainable water resources management and development: economics, financing opportunities and project preparation is being held for 5 African Regions, 17 African countries and 7 African Lake and River Basin Organizations. It follows the francophone one held from 21st – 24th April 2014 in Dakar, Senegal. Both regional training workshops being the first of a series of trainings that will continue for the next two years and beyond.
The Anglophone Regional Training being held from 21-24 July is targeted at 5 African Regions, 17 African countries and 7 African Lake and River Basin Organizations. To run this training and the one held in from 21st – 24th April 2014 in Dakar, Senegal, GWP has teamed up with a number of partners namely; African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), African Network of Basin Organization (ANBO) SITWA Project, African Development Bank (AfDB), Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), EUWI Africa Working Group (EUWI AWG), UNDP-Cap-Net and SIWI.
The Regional Training Workshop was officially opened on Monday 21st July 2014 by GWPSA’s Executive Secretary and Head of the Africa Water Climate and Development (WACDEP Africa) Coordination Unit, Ms Ruth Beukman. On behalf of the partners, Ms Beukman in her opening address emphasized the importance of economics, environment, equity, and equal life and livestock in managing transboundary waters. She further elaborated that some countries, including many African countries, must be termed “water-stress economies” as to cover their water needs, they are forced to fall back on water reserves generated outside their own national territory. An emphasis was made on the central role of water to development being essential to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and more later to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2016-2030.
The Executive Secretary of the GWPSA highlighted that the Africa Water Vision 2025 and the GWP’s new Strategy towards 2020 emphasize the significant importance of transboundary waters and their management for the sustainable development. She recognized that the basic problem in the management of infrastructure development of water is underinvestment in four key water related activities namely: (i) water Information as an input to decision making, (ii) water governance setting right policies to plan, allocate water and build Institutions; (iii) water services/ Infrastructures including multipurpose water development and storage and the delivery of energy production, primary production, industrial and domestic water use and ecosystem services; and (iv) water Investment that needs to take place to ensure good water management such as information gathering, investment planning, environmental monitoring, desiltation of rivers, etc. and delivery development outcomes in particular for water supply, irrigation and energy services.
At the end of this Regional Training Workshop, it is expected that capacities of African Governments, River Basin Organisations and Regional Economic Communities to attract investors and financial development partners for both water governance and infrastructure development in Africa are increased. In particular, it will contribute to: (i) equipping participants with enhanced skills in the various ways of financing sustainable water management and in terms of the use of economic instruments; (ii) enhancing capacities of countries, RBOs and regions to ensure financing water resources management and development: preparation and packaging of Transboundary Water Resources Management Projects and access to existing and future financing opportunities; (iii) drafting Strategic actions-on the areas that key partner institutions would want more support in order to deepen the understanding and application of economic and financial instruments.
Participants at the workshop comprise the 5 African Regions: Central Africa, Eastern Africa, Northern Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa; (ii) 17 African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe; and (iii) 7 African Lake and River Basin Organization: the Lake Victoria Basin Commission Executive Secretary, the Komati Basin Water Authority, the Zambezi River Authority, the Tano River Union Secretariat, the Volta Basin Authority Executive Secretary, the “Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Senegal-OMVS-”, the Nile Basin Initiative and the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program; and (iv) the SITWA-ANBO and the GWP – WACDEP.
Further information may be obtained from:
Innocent Kabenga Project Manager GWPO/ANBO-SITWA-EU Project – innocent.kabenga@gmail.com
Andrew Takawira WACDEP Africa Senior Programme Officer- a.takawira@cgiar.org
Armand Houanye Innocent WACDEP Africa Capacity Development Programme Manager a.houanye@cgiar.org
Lumba Patricia GWPSA Communication Officer p.lumba@cgiar.org