In Somalia, water is life - literally. It is also a country where much is happening today. The one-person-one-vote election to take place in early 2021 will be a historic milestone in the country’s road back to security, stability, and wellbeing. The economy is growing, driven by increased confidence, reforms, and bank development, and the business community is resilient, globally connected, and entrepreneurial. New opportunities for economic cooperation and integration on the Horn of Africa plays to the country’s advantage. Still, water remains a critical factor in Somalia’s development pathway. It is a water scarce country, at risk of climate related variability, and has to improve its capacity to manage water well in coming years.

12 November (Pretoria) – Global Water Partnership Southern Africa and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, (DBSA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which seeks to promote investment and collaboration for water and sanitation projects in the Southern Africa region.

From October 12 GWP-WA Secretariat has a new staff. The recruitment process of the WACDEP-G programme manager was concluded by the recruitment Mr. Joseph Yaovi KOGBE, as the Regional Program Officer of AIP WACDEP-G West Africa.

The first phase of the project TonFuturTonClimat funded by the Quebec Government implemented in three West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo) by ISW, GWP-WA, CWPs and Eau Vive Togo is coming to an end. Launched at regional level in March 2017 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the project is aiming at developing the climate resilience capacities of rural and peri-urban youth to become agricultural entrepreneurs that contribute to improve the livelihood of their communities in the three countries.

A one-day meeting on root cause & barriers analysis of select capacity caps to inform Gender Transformative Approaches (GTA) to strengthening water security and climate resilience in Cotonou, Benin on October 13, 2020.

GWP-WA through the Country Water Partnership of Benin (PNE Benin), organized together with the General Directorate of the National Fund for Environment and Climate (FNEC) of the Ministry of the Living Environment and Sustainable Development (MCVDD) the Benin Stakeholders' Workshop on the formulation of the Country Water Climate Development and Gender Equality (AIP WACDEP G 2020-2022) on October 28 and 29, 2020. The main objective of the workshop was to develop the Benin draft document for the AIP WACDEP- G Program 2020-2022.

The national technical workshops to review and consolidate the draft baseline analysis on Early Warning Systems (EWS) and related recommendations for the development of flood and drought risk maps and the establishment of an Early Warning System were held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on October 8 and 9, in Bamako (Mali) on October 27 and 28, 2020.

The Volta Flood and Drought Management Project organized in Loumbila, Burkina Faso on October 26 to 29 the field phase to test the methodology and tools proposed for the conduct of the Flood and Drought Risk Vulnerability and Capacity Mapping mission at the community level in the Volta Basin.

Caribbean WaterNet (Cap-Net UNDP), The Faculty of Food and Agriculture of The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine and the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean (GWP-C), have worked together to produce two (2) Training Manuals intended to be of great value to the Caribbean region.