Dr Adrien Coly, Chair of the Country Water Partnership of Senegal received Mr Ndour Niokhor, Director of Water Resources Management and Planning (DGPRE) of Senegal on Wednesday 13 May 2020 for a working meeting.

Since the end of June 2019, the Global Water Partnership for West Africa is implementing in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Volta Basin Authority (VBA) the project "Integrating Flood and Drought Management and Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Volta Basin " (VFDM).

In spite of the health crisis related to the spread of Covid 19, GWP-WA and its partners in Niger have committed themselves to the implementation of the project kick-off activities with the recruitment of the Project Management Unit staff and the setting up of the tools for the operational implementation of the project.

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting all West African countries and upsetting all activities planned by various communities. Movement is reduced in all countries with harder measures in some.

In March 2020, CWP-Benin, and Speak Up Africa (SUA) signed a partnership agreement for a grant of approximately Three million (3,000,000) CFA francs over a period from March to August 2020. This fund is intended to carry out a plea for a better management of the sanitation issue in Benin.

To contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic currently raging in Togo and around the world, the project brought some support to the Danyi Prefectoral Hospital Center to enable them to minimize the risks of spreading the disease.

GWP held its annual Regional Days meeting on 1-4 June. The virtual event set a record in numbers, with over 120 GWP participants worldwide. While the main purpose is to have a shared understanding of GWP priorities and approaches, one of the highlights this year was the ‘virtual signing’ of a grant agreement between GWP and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on readiness support to the Zambia National Adaptation Plan (NAP).

In response to many requests, we have decided to extend the deadline for the Water ChangeMaker Awards with one week - to 14 June 2020 by midnight CEST - to give those who have not yet finalized their submissions a chance to participate.

Every year, all GWP Regions meet to brainstorm, share knowledge and learn about current challenges and future opportunities for the network at the annual regional days. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s regional days was held virtually for a period of four days, starting June 1st with over 100 participants at the opening plenary chaired by the outgoing Executive Secretary (ES), Monika Weber-Fahr . All regions were fully represented including GWP-CAf which was represented by the Regional Chair, Regional coordinator, as well as the Finance and Communications officers.