The regional secretariat has continued activities to strengthen the collaboration with strategic partners at regional level. After 2017 year ending activities with the Volta Basin Authority, a meeting was held on 31st January 2018 at VBA to exchange on concrete actions to carry out jointly by the two institutions.
On Thursday 11 January 2018, Mr. André TOUPE outgoing chair of the Benin Country Water Partnership has handed over to his successor, Professor Euloge AGBOSSOU.
The Water Management Commission for the Sélingué and Markala reservoirs (CGESM) was in conclave in Sélingué to take stock of the various recommendations of their previous session; namely: the report on the monitoring of the Sélingué hydroelectric dam from 1 to 20 January 2018 and the results of the simulation of storage and filling 2018 of this dam, as well as the monitoring of the management of the Markala dam in response to the water deficit this year.
On 26 December 2017, the Malian Minister of Energy and Water, Malick Alhousseini, opened a three-day workshop to inform and sensitize stakeholders on the state of the Niger River. Organized by the Department of Energy and Water in collaboration with the Department of Environment, Sanitation and Sustainable Development, the workshop aims to inform and sensitize all water stakeholders on the state of the Niger River and the current year's hydrological deficit.
Following a meeting on 12th January 2018, the Executive Board of the Guinea Country Water Partnership (CWP) was mandated to start the implementation of the Action Plan by organizing official visits in order to improve the visibility of the national network.
The Eighth World Water Forum is scheduled to take place from 19th to 23rd March 2018 in Brasilia, Brazil. The Regional Process is one of the key processes used to prepare for the Forum. Among other objectives are to provide opportunity to take stock of achievements and challenges in addressing global targets on water and to provide opportunity for stakeholders to contribute to the dialogue on water.
On January 30 and February 2, 2018, Global Water Partnerships (GWP) talented people at global and regional levels gathered Beijing where is the GWP China Regional Partnership based for an innovative coordination mechanism towards the GWP technical sustainability.
On January 31, 2018, the Chair of Global Water Partnership (GWP) visited the Ministry of Water Resources of China (MWR) in Beijing, China to promote a closer relationship between two parties.
According to the existing statued of GWP -SEA, the governance system consists of partners (through Consulting Partners Meeting), Steering Committtee, and Secretariat. The Steering Committee (SC) will serve as highest policy and decisions making of GWP-SEA, and shall be composed by democratically elected representatives from each Country Water Partnership (CWP) or Country Network. It shall have one member representing their respective CWP plus a Chair. The SC Members will be elected by their respective CWPs or Country Network. One half of the member of the first SC will have maximum term of three years while the other half will have a term of two years.
With the incidence of droughts and flooding increasing, WASH Climate Resilience has been identified as an important priority for the GWP network and its sector partners. In response to this, GWP joined forces with UNICEF to develop a Strategic Framework for WASH Climate Resilience and technical programming guidance to implement the Framework in countries.