VFDM / Volta Basin, continuation of the national workshops on flood and drought management strategy

After the meetings of the stakeholders of Côte d'Ivoire, Benin and Ghana, those of Burkina Faso met from 14 to 16 December 2022 in Ouagadougou and those of Mali from 21 to 23 December 2022 in Bamako for the national workshop of the stakeholders for the planning of the flood and drought risk management strategy in the Volta basin.

These two workshops are respectively the fifth and the sixth in the series of six workshops in the VBA countries.

Like the previous workshops, the overall objective of the national workshops is to contribute to the development of the Volta Basin Flood and Drought Risk Management Strategy.

More specifically, the workshops allowed to:

- To present and then have the national stakeholders amend and validate the methodological approach for the elaboration, validation and adoption of the flood and drought risk management strategy in the Volta basin;

- To deepen the state of play of flood and drought risk management with good practices, gaps and major challenges to be taken up for a substantial reduction of the said risks in terms of loss of human lives, damage to livelihoods and health of people, as well as to economic, physical, socio-cultural and environmental assets in the countries of the Volta Basin;

- To develop, in response to the gaps to be filled and the major challenges to be addressed, the different components of the strategy for flood and drought risk management in the Volta Basin, namely: the vision, the horizon, the strategic orientations, the guiding principles, the means of implementation and the budgeted medium-term action plan for the implementation of the strategy;

- Formulate recommendations to be taken into account for a smooth conduct of the process and an effective implementation of the strategy following its validation by the stakeholders and its adoption by the decision-making bodies of the VBA.