The organisation of an extraordinary session of the SRCC is in line with this, with the main objective of reactivating the Sub-Regional Consultative Council on IWRM in West Africa.
This was an opportunity to update participants on the institutional framework governing the regional IWRM process in West Africa (missions and objectives of the PFCM, organisation, functioning and financing); to take stock of the state of implementation of the regional IWRM process in West Africa (activities carried out, achievements, constraints, challenges and prospects); to present the main initiatives underway in the field of IWRM in West Africa.
Dr Boluwaji Onabolu of Nigeria, President of the Network of Female Professionals in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (FEMinWASH), was elected to head the SRCC.
Recommendations were made for greater involvement of civil society organisations in the regional IWRM process in West Africa.
The IWRM process in West Africa was born out of the West African Ministerial Conference on Integrated Water Resources Management held in Ouagadougou from 3 to 5 March 1998.
During this Conference, the 16 ECOWAS countries at the time made a firm commitment to move from sectoral and technocratic water resource management to integrated and participatory management, in accordance with the principles adopted by the Preparatory Conference in Dublin in January 1992 and endorsed by the UNCED in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.
The implementation of the recommendations of this Conference led, in particular, to the adoption of the Regional Action Plan for Integrated Water Resources Management in West Africa (RAP-IWRM-WA) by the ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State and Government in December 2000 and to the creation of a Permanent Framework for the Coordination and Monitoring (PFCM) of IWRM in West Africa by decision of the ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State and Government in December 2001.
The regional IWRM process in West Africa is fundamentally implemented through the Permanent Framework for the Coordination and Monitoring (PFCM) of IWRM in West Africa.
Under the terms of Decision A/DEC.4/01/06 of 12 January 2006, the PFCM-IWRM/WA is structured around four statutory bodies, including the Sub-Regional IWRM Consultation Council (SRCC), which is the representative assembly of all categories of actors involved in water resource management in West Africa (States, Basin Organisations, Local Authorities, Civil Society, Private Sector). It is an advisory body that meets once every two (02) years.