The 3rd Regional Alumni Workshop in the framework of the Sida funded and Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) labelled programme ‘Water Integrity Capacity Building Programme for the MENA Region’[1] was organized by the Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med), in collaboration with Al Akhawayn University, on 23-26 May 2016, in Ifrane, Morocco.
The Benin Youth Parliament for Water established on April 2, 2015, had its first general meeting to take stock of their activities of the first year, to evaluate the implementation of the 2015-2016 work plan, and then develop the plan for 2016-2017.
Since 2015, the Country Water Partnership of Benin (Benin CWP) initiated with the support of the Water Integrity Network (WIN) the development of a charter for good governance in the frame of the Multiannual Programme for the promotion of integrity in the area of water and sanitation in Benin. A working group with the support of a consultant led the drafting process of the Charter. From October 2015 to date, the Charter was developed, and stakeholders were consulted on its contents as well as its operationalization mechanism that was also developed.
The implementation process of national and regional platforms on the Integrated Management of Drought is ongoing. Thus the regional core group as well as the national core group of Niger held their first meeting of 2016 respectively on Wednesday, June 15 in Ouagadougou and Wednesday 22 June in Niamey.
A far-reaching political and technical process towards establishing a joint vision for water security in the Mediterranean towards 2030 and beyond is on-going in the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). It draws on integrated responses, focusing on the feasible and the tangible. Building trust among countries and stakeholders, it aims at linking capacities and financial resources towards addressing needs. GWP-Med contributes to the UfM process servicing as its technical facilitator.
GWP CEE and GWP CACENA held a side event at UNECE’s 8th Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference on 9 June 2016 in Batumi, Georgia.
A GWP delegation including the Coordinator, the Project manager and by the chair met with the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) Executive Secretary and some her colleagues on May 10, 2016. The discussions focused on how to start the implementation of the framework agreement for the promotion of political dialogue in the Mékrou tranboundary river basin signed in December 2015 by the three countries. To start with it was sugggested that the issue be included in the agenda of the next NBA council of ministers.
Nine (9) countries across Africa among which four (4) are from West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria) met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 18-19 May to take a step further on the national consultations carried out in 2015 that led-up to the UN Committee on Food Security’s (UN CFS) 42nd session.
CWP Benin, leading the consultation framework of non state actors of water and sanitation sector has organized on May 3, 2016 a meeting of stakeholders. This meeting was followed by a press conference on the proposal from the civil society organizations asking that the rights to water and sanitation be included in the constitution of Benin. It came out from discussions that a Note should be drafted and addressed for advocacy purposes to the commission set up by the Government on the issue. A team of the civil society was heared by this commission on 23 May 2016.
