Pr. Abel AFOUDA visited the secretariat from 21 to 26 March 2016. He discussed with the personnel all issues from traditional running ones to project technical and planning issues.
A regional water youth network was created by participants to the recent Youth for Water Conference organised by GWP Central America, Movimiento de Jóvenes por el Agua (Youth Movement for Water, MOJA) and La Ruta del Clima (The Climate Route) and supported by GWP South America, UNICEF-Nicaragua, Reforestamos Mexico, and IUCN.
Dr. Nicole Bernex is a Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a Member of the GWP Technical Committee. She has been active in the GWP network for many years, the past ten of them through GWP Peru. When asked to talk about a topic close to her heart, Dr. Bernex chooses a project that GWP has been running successfully in Peru for the past two years, the Santa Eulalia Water, Climate and Development Programme.
In the 2015accounts audit report, the auditor's conclusion was the following: "We believe that the financial report of the Regional Water Partnership for West Africa (GWP/WA) and the CWPs (Burkina and Ghana) accurately reflect the statement and financial position of the Regional Water Partnership for West Africa and the CWPs (Burkina and Ghana) as of 31st December 2015, consistently with the GWP financial procedures.”
The way forward in 2016 is to strive to implement all partially implemented recommendations including those made in 2014 and those made as of 31st December, 2015. It should be noted that almost all new recommendations dating from 31st December 2015 have already been implemented prior to the finalization of the audit report in 2015 in Burkina Faso and for the region.
Ivory Coast has celebrated World Water Day 2016 and the second edition of the National Water Week from March 22 to 24. The topic of celebration was inspired from the global theme: "Ivory Coast, emerging in 2020: what contributions of the water sector to creating jobs and wealth? »
The Country Water Partnership of Burkina is looking for a site for its Integrated Drought Management Project (IDMP) pilot demonstration action. On March 21, 2016, a meeting was held with the authorities and technical services of the municipality of Komki –ipala to discuss the modalities, strategy and project start-up timing. After discussions it was agreed that the CWP should meet the Village Chief and landowners to explain the content and expectations and get their commitment despite the initial introduction that was already done. This meeting was done on March 25 in collaboration with the IDMP project Manager at reginal level.
Development of a roadmap to implement recommendations of the national consultation on water and food security in support of agriculture development programs in Africa
The Country Water Partnership of Benin, with financial support from the German technical cooperation agency GIZ through the ProSEHA Programme, organized from 24 to 25 March 2016 a restitution workshop of the results and the development process for the implementation of the roadmap recommendations of the national consultation on water and food security in support of agriculture development programs in Africa (PDDA).
Cooperation between GWP Slovakia and the Eastern Africa region has been in existence for quite some time. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Khartoum in March to outline the next steps of collaboration.
Responding to the dramatic increase in extreme weather events and mega disasters is one of the great challenges of the Limpopo River Basin. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a top priority for the basin as it seeks to hold back the tide of rising economic and human losses through flood and droughts. To reduce risks from such disasters, GWPSA has over the past 2 years been involved in the development of a disaster risk reduction action plan for the Limpopo Basin. This Plan of Action presents a strategy for integrating disaster risk reduction into the Limpopo transboundary level operations. As part of the process to developing the plan, GWPSA held a workshop on the 5th of April, 2016, to validate the draft DRR action plan of the Limpopo Basin.