The Chair of GWP WAf, Pr. Abel AFOUDA had a working visit at the Secretariat from October 19 to 24, 2015. During his stay on Ouagadougou, the Chair met with the staff to have an update on the implementation of various activities and give his orientations for finalizing pending issues.
He was presented the templates for the monitoring and drafting of the work plans, the draft progress reports of the CORE and the three projects bein implemented (WACDEP, IDMP and Mekrou), the guidelines for elaborating the budgets lines for 2016. On all these Prof. AFOUDA gave some orientations. The decision was also taken to convene the virtual meeting of the Steering Committee to appreciate the various documents and give orientations to the Secretariat. This meeting will be done early in November 2015.
The ECOWAS Water Resources Coordination Center and IUCN have organized on 1 and 2 October 2015 in Abidjan a national workshop on the dissemination and appropriation of the guidelines for the development of water infrastructure in West Africa. The workshop brought together twenty participants from the National Assembly, technical ministries and civil society, having a direct interest in the application of the guidelines. CWP Ivory Coast (PNECI) was represented by its Chair, Mr. Koffi N'DRI and KOUADIO Francis, the Executive Secretary.
A meeting was held on October 27, 2015 in the conference room of GWP West Africa to discuss issues related to the establishment of the regional platform for stakeholders on drought management in the region. During this second meeting a presentation was made on various tools that could be used to ease communication between members of the platform before and when it is set up. Among these tools were social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), Google communication tools, Yammer, etc.
The implementation committee of the youth project in Togo organized a press conference on Tuesday, October 27 to introduce the National White Paper. The event took place in the presence of representatives of the government, development partners, youth organizations and the media. It was an opportunity to initiate other actions, particularly with the Delegation of the European Union in Togo to support the dissemination of the white paper after the COY11.
The Ghana Country Water Partnership (CWP-Ghana) hosted the 7th Technical Coordination workshop of the Water, Climate and Development Program (WACDEP) from Monday 5th October to Wednesday 7th October, 2015 at the La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra. The purpose of the meeting was to share progress, approaches and lessons learnt in delivering the WACDEP outputs in the 8 countries rolling out the program. It also served as a platform to discuss the key constraints and opportunities identified during implementation, and set the stage for scaling up WACDEP implementation.
The young parliamentarians acting through the National Youth Parliament for Water and Sanitation (PNJEA) of Benin, have organized on Thursday, October 29, 2015, in Cotonou an official ceremony to present the White Booklet to the Beninese authorities. The PNJEA also seized the opportunity to distinguish its godfathers and godmothers including the Minister of Water.
The Global Water Partnership – Mediterranean (GWP-Med) has established a long-term, mutually benefitial collaboration agreement with the General Department for Planning and Conservation of Agricultural Lands at the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture on integrating climate change considerations in the latter’s new water and soil preservation planning, as well as on developing a territorial planning methodology using the Douimis basin as a pilot case.
Water Resources Commission of Ghana and Ghana Country Water Partnhip (GWP Ghana) organize on 10 November 2015 a one day meeting in Bolgatenga (Northern Ghana) to validate a two parts study in preparation of the White Volta Basin (WVB) investment Plan. The report updates IWRM plan for the WVB and provides the framework for identifying water resources management and related challenges in the basin. It highlights the socioeconomic trends, population dynamics and the general water resources conditions in the basin.
Bienvenue GBELO wins the 2015 GWP-CAf Media award on “water and climate change”.
Bienvenue GBELO, a journalist reporter for Radio Ndeke Luka in Bangui, Central African Republic wins the Global Water Partnership-Central Africa Media Award on “Water and Climate change” 2015. As winner of media competition launched by GWP-CAf on February 1st 2015, he was awarded a certificate, a recorder and cash prize of 500 euros.
Bienvenue’s submission was based on the theme “Drinking water still a rare commodity in Bangui.” The press article looked specifically at water shortage phenomena in the capital city and dryness of certain streams in the neighbourhood/surrounding villages.
From November 4 to 5, 2015, GWP China Secretariat, in cooperation with GWP China Hebei and Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, with the support of Zhang River Administration that governs all issues related to Zhang River running cross Hebei Province and Henan Province, visited She County of Hebei Province and Linzhou County of Henan Province to get to know how they deal with the challenges of water shortage they faced due to climate change, including water use conflict, integrated use of different water resources and harmonious development between water resources and local eco-society.