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Maximin Djondo is the Executive Director of Benin Environment and Education Society (BEES). For the past 15 years, he has implemented projects in the West Africa region to support national and international strategies and policies related to the sustainable use of wetland and coastal ecosystems resources. In this interview, he shares an overview of BEES and its collaboration with GWP.

2020 proved to be a difficult year for people worldwide, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the cascading effects this brought to every aspect of life, both personal and professional. While 2021 may not seem that different to 2020, there are glimmers of hope that show a light at the end of a dark tunnel. In the ongoing collaboration on youth stories between GWP and the World Youth Parliament for Water (WYPW), we asked young people what gives them hope in 2021.

GWP is coordinating the formulation of a Water Resources Strategy and Action Plan for the Nacaome, Choluteca and Sampile river basins in the Gulf of Fonseca region in Honduras. The Strategy was validated in a series of workshops in December and January and is expected to be finalized during the month of March 2021.

The alternative report is the result of the alternative monitoring done by the civil society and which allows to have a citizens' point of view on the management of the sector, other than the one given by the Decision-Makers.

The Mono Basin Authority (MBA) held its Ministerial council on January 15 virtually. This was preceded by the technical experts meeting with the participation of GWP-WA Executive Secretary in Cotonou from 12 to 14 January 2021.

The GWP-WA Executive Secretariat with the support of Stockholm is working since the beginning of December 2020 to document eleven (11) processes in West Africa including 3 in Benin, 3 in Ghana, 1 in Burkina Faso, 1 in Senegal and 3 at transboundary and cross border level.

In their support to the Government of Togo GWP WA, UNICEF and UNDP have recruited consultants for a mission to develop a high-quality concept note and conduct a pre-feasibility study for the project: "Strengthening the resilience of vulnerable communities in Togo through IWRM and Climate Sensitive WASH Services".

The national technical workshop to present the findings and recommendations of the national needs and capacities consultation mission for flood and drought forecasting and warning system in the Volta basin intended to prepare for the development of risk maps and for the establishment of an early warning system for floods and drought was held on 27 and 28 January 2021 in Accra, Ghana. This Accra meeting is the last of the series of 6 workshops.

The West Africa coordination of the WACDEP-G project with Benin team held on 23 December 2020 the inception meeting of the programme in Cotonou, Benin. This meeting is part of the AIP WACDEP-G. The goal of the Africa Water Investment Programme is to transform and improve the investment outlook for water security and sustainable sanitation for a prosperous, peaceful and equitable society.

In a series of inter-regional discussions, GWP Senior Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist Liza Debevec is investigating what GWP as an institution can do to apply gender equality and social inclusion in its practical work. From the GWP Gender Action Piece, published in 2017, she looks at the 4 action areas that were identified as key to progress. This month, she talked to Colin Herron and Fabiola Tábora about Action Area 2 – gender and inclusion analysis that drives change. Both Herron and Tábora are involved in finalizing complementary gender analyses in their respective areas of expertise – global and regional (Central America) – and they discuss how to use the findings to transform water resources management through gender mainstreaming.