Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity, were identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed every year on 17 May to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification.
The Central Africa Republic Country Water Partnership (CWP Central Africa Republic) has designated a new Chair for its Technical and Scientific Committee.
The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) convenes the 2020 edition of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) from Tuesday 7 July to Thursday 16 July. The event will mainly be in a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some limited events held for New York-based participants.
On Friday 29th May 2020, the official ceremony for the presentation of the master’s level module on Governance and Integrity in the water sector to the Rector of the University of Abomey-Calavi took place.
Dr. Adrien Coly, Chair of the Country Water Partnership of Senegal (PNES), Lecturer at the Gaston Berger University of Saint Louis was elected to the bureau of the Basin Committee of the Organization for the development of the Senegal basin (OMVS) as representative of the scientific community college.
Since the end of June 2019, the Global Water Partnership for West Africa is implementing in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Volta Basin Authority (VBA) the project "Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin " (VFDM).
In spite of the health crisis related to the spread of Covid 19, GWP-WA and its partners in Niger have committed themselves to the implementation of the project kick-off activities with the recruitment of the Project Management Unit staff and the setting up of the tools for the operational implementation of the project.
The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting all West African countries and upsetting all activities planned by various communities. Movement is reduced in all countries with harder measures in some.
To contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic currently raging in Togo and around the world, the project brought some support to the Danyi Prefectoral Hospital Center to enable them to minimize the risks of spreading the disease.
GWP held its annual Regional Days meeting on 1-4 June. The virtual event set a record in numbers, with over 120 GWP participants worldwide. While the main purpose is to have a shared understanding of GWP priorities and approaches, one of the highlights this year was the ‘virtual signing’ of a grant agreement between GWP and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on readiness support to the Zambia National Adaptation Plan (NAP).