The 11th edition of the Festival on the Niger was held from 4 to 8 February 2015 in Segou, Mali. This cultural event on the Niger River has become one of the flagship events of Mali. The theme for this year was "Culture and Employment: What cultural industry for Africa?». The night of the balafon, Festival on the Niger over the river, cultural caravan for peace, concerts on the river, the Segou symposium, professional artistic encounters, visual arts, theater and dance, international fair of Segou, Boromo of puppets Burkina Faso and the assistance of culinary art. These were the main activities that marked this event.
The Local Committees for Water (CLE) are basic links of the institutional framework of Integrated Water Resources Management of Burkina Faso.
The restructuring of the North Massili CLE was made in the context of the implementation of the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) and in all about ten CLE were set up in 2013 by the Nakanbé Water Agency. The joint diagnosis made during the implementation of the CLE has highlighted a number of shortcomings, including that of weak capacity.
During the year, Vietnam Water Partnership reviewed the existing irrigation management status and plan as well as drafted a proposal for new irrigation management plan. Two key government institutions, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Vietnam, are fully supporting the implementation of the activities that are under WACDEP program. Vietnam Water Partnership also coordinated closely with National Focal Point of Vietnam to UNFCCC, which will utilize the results of this program into other program of climate change agenda in the country.
Taking advantage of their presence in Ouagadougou, the GWP WAF chair, Abel AFOUDA and the network officer for West Africa visited with the Executive Secretary some of our partners. In view of getting in touch with the technical and financial partners, a series of meetings were organized.
In Thailand the risk disaster early warning system has been designated by law to the department of the disaster prevention and mitigation. However, the representation of the department is only at the provincial level. The assistance from the department has been seen as not enough and not in time and communities were stimulated to recognize their own risk and the need to work together to solve or reduce the flood risk.
The Water, climate and development programme Lao PDR aims to develop stakeholder analysis and roadmap for capacity development on water security and climate resilience. Series of consultation meetings were conducted from June to September 2014 to gather inputs from stakeholders at national, province and river basin level.
In total 404 people from 55 institutions were involved in the meetings including public, private sector, academia and provinces throughout the country. The main finding from the series of consultations is that the knowledge of local communities in river basin about climate change is still limited. However, most stakeholders consider climate change as a challenge to find appropriate solutions for. Based on the findings, the Lao Water Partnership drafted a National Capacity Building Plan on Water Security for Climate Change Adaptation and Management.
The national workshop to validate the results of three studies carried out on behalf of the Mékrou Project in Benin in 2014 was held on 8 and 9 January 2015 in Cotonou. These studies examined the reports on the National Consultation on the project objectives, on the participatory institutional diagnosis consultation with all major stakeholders and on the participatory assessment of existing capacity and needs in capacity building. This workshop is organized by the Country Water Partnership of Benin (Benin CWP), which, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Water (DG Water) and the National Water Institute (INE), coordinate the project in Benin, on behalf of GWP / WA.
GWP West Africa took part in the regional workshop to validate the sub regional report on the West African process of the 7th World Water Forum on "Risk and uncertainty management for resilience and preparedness to disasters".
Water Security for Development
Water is the key to the world’s ability to cope with climate change. Whether it is food security, poverty reduction, economic growth, energy production or human health – water is the nexus. Climate change is the spoiler. No matter how successful mitigation efforts might be, people will experience the impacts of climate change through water.
GWP is responding to the climate change challenge through the Global Water, Climate and Development Programme that includes a portfolio of programs and projects that aim to build climate resilience through better water management.
The Integrated Drought Management Project in West Africa (IDMP-WAF) was officially launched at the workshop held on 28 and 29 January 2015 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Forty participants including 4 women, mainly from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Sweden, Switzerland and representing regional (CILSS, ECOWAS) and international organizations (ACMAD, WMO and GWPO) took part in this meeting placed under the patronage of the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources, Sanitation and Food Security of Burkina Faso.