The Mékrou Project Manager who took part to the Extraordinary Summit of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA) held in Bamako from 2 to 5 November 2015 as part of the validation of the Project Implementation Committee, to exchange with the executives of the NBA and the various 9 countries delegations, members of the NBA on the modalities for the management of the official ceremony by the Ministers of the NBA.
Preliminary planned Project Manager’s trip to the pilot sites at the end of 2013 could not be implemented due to various organizational, financial and visa problems. Starting from the first quarter of 2014 the familiarization with the ongoing work on the program pilot sites began in coordination with the national project teams.
Representatives of GWP Kenya and GWP Ethiopia recently carried out an exchange visit to share experiences on water resources management practices.
The Integrated Drought Management Project in West Africa (IDMP-WA) made its internal assessment of the first year of project implementation and discussed the existing national plans during a meeting.
The meeting, held in Ouagadougou from 8 to 10 December 2015 was an opportunity to discuss the main actions undertaken during the first year of implementation of the project. Among these actions the review in detail of the initiatives / institutions in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and at regional level, starting the establishment of national and regional platforms of exchanges on integrated drought management, the development by CWP and their partners of demonstration project documents, the identification of training needs for stakeholders and also the preliminary exchanges with the ECOWAS/WRCC to advocate for the development of regional guidelines ondrought.

Global Water Partnership Eastern Africa ( GWPEA)needs to develop a resource mobilization strategy and action plan due to the shift in responsibility for resource mobilization from global to regional and countries. More focus to leverage resource has been shifted to country level while the CWPs do not have capacities. GWP’s role needs to be very visible to development partners and show actual investment on the ground.
GWP held a press briefing at the UNFCCC COP20 conference in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday 9 December. The delegates reiterated the GWP network’s firm support of a dedicated water goal on the post-2015 development agenda. The Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) was highlighted as an important tool to combat water related problems in connection with climate change.