2015 is a milestone with the new UN Sustainable Development Goals and the upcoming COP 21 on Climate Change in Paris in December. For the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), 2015 is the “water” year. Water is the main agricultural production factor impacted by climate change. In the Global Water Partnership (GWP), partners are joining forces at country, regional and global levels to contribute to sustainable development in the face of climate change. This initiative, in Sub Saharan Africa, will, in an inclusive manner, identify challenges and technical and institutional priority actions, and implement concrete activities at all levels. Read more
GWP Central and Eastern Europe is releasing today two short papers presenting the achievements of two demonstration projects within the Integrated Drought Management Programme in Central and Eastern Europe.
Name: Maria Amakali
Occupation: Director of Water Resources Management
Country: Namibia
Country of Work: Namibia and SADC
What would you say are the main challenges in your work as a woman?
I started working as hydrologist in the Department of Water Affairs in the early nineties. I had studied in the US and was ready to come and work in a newly independent Namibia. My responsibilities included planning and execution of research and investigations regarding sustainable development of water resources; and providing advice on the effective utilization, protection and conservation of such resources. At a time I found a lot of males, in the department. Except for the two women scientist in Hydrology Division, most women were doing mostly secretarial or office administrative work. I remember one day standing outside, waiting for my ride home and this man came to me asking whose secretary I was. In an independent Namibia, I was quite shocked that the old stereotype mentality that women can only be secretaries still exists. Those days there were not many women or black hydrologists, but I was still offended.
The GWP Cameroon hosted in Yaounde, the 8th WACDEP Technical Coordination meeting from the 28-30th September 2016.
Attendees to this regional meeting were the members of WACDEP Coordination Unit, regional and national WACDEP program Managers from the five Regions (GWP Med, GWP SA, GWP EA, GWP WAf and GWP CAf); the GWP-O Head of Program and the GWP-Cameroon Chair who led the GWP-CAf team.
The last technical coordination meeting held in Yaounde over three days had double main objectives. The first objective was to define the approaches for the regions and Country Water Partnerships (CWPs) to better handle the project document preparation process of WACDEP 2 and agree on the timelines of submitting the document to WACDEP Coordination Unit (WACDEP CU) for review. Therefore, two approaches were proposed with regards to the budget constraints: (a) to recruit a consultant for facilitating the process and (b) to constitute a team of experts of the WACDEP Technical Working Group (TWG) to develop the project documentation with a support from the WACDEP CU.
The second one was to agree on the roadmap for drafting the WACDEP (2011-2016) final report to submit it by 15 of October 2016.
The 6th Africa Water Week (AWW6) takes place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 18-22 July. The event is convened by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) together with the African Union Commission and other development partners. GWP will convene/co-convene a number of sessions.
Since 2015, the Country Water Partnership of Benin (Benin CWP) initiated with the support of the Water Integrity Network (WIN) the development of a charter for good governance in the frame of the Multiannual Programme for the promotion of integrity in the area of water and sanitation in Benin. A working group with the support of a consultant led the drafting process of the Charter. From October 2015 to date, the Charter was developed, and stakeholders were consulted on its contents as well as its operationalization mechanism that was also developed.
Conventions have been with the CWP of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to allow the implementation of pilot projects in the countries during 2016 and continue the consultation meetings of national and regional platforms in the area of Integrated Drought Management.
The Project Manager has seized the opportunity and visited the pilot villages in the rural town of Gouendo in Mali where Mr. Boureima DIARRA, the mayor of the rural town said that "It is always better to teach us how to fish than to give us the fish".
Media Advisory:
Monday, August 29 at 16:00
Auditorium, Norra Latin
World Water Week venue, Stockholm
The event is open to all registered World Water Week participants and accredited press. For more information, please visit: www.worldwaterweek.org