The Constitutive General Assembly of the Platform of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of the Mono Basin was held on Friday 8 December 2017 in Lomé, Togo. It brought together CSO delegates from Benin and Togo with the support of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), through the Partnership for Environmental Governance Programme (PAGE).

The pilot action on the head source of the Mekrou basin known as PAREM is coming to an end. A delegation of the Ministry in charge of water and the CWP-Benin carried out a mission on December 22nd, 2017 to monitor the activities carried out by PAREM.

The first phase of the Integrated Drought Management Project in West Africa (IDMP-WA) has come to an end last December with very promising results.

In the side lines of the kick-off workshop on Food and Nutrition Security in WEFE in West Africa, GWP WA chair, Pr. Amadou Hama MAIGA accompanied by the GWPO knowledge Management Officer James KENGE, VBA Executive Director, Robert DESSOUASSI, the chair of CWP Mali, Mamadou SYLLA and regional communications and knowledge manager, Sidi COULIBALY together with the technical advisor, Mrs. DIALLO Aissata TRAORE paid a courtesy visit to the Malian Commissioner for Food Security, Mr. Oumar Ibrahima TOURE on 13 December 2017.

After a meeting held with the new Technical Committee (TC) chair in November in Ouagadougou, a larger meeting with the Chair, all Technical Committee members and the staff of the Executive Secretariat was organized in Bamako on 13 to 15 December 2017. The meeting served as a platform for GWP-WA TC members to engage with the Chair and Executive Secretariat on how to work together to advance GWP work at the regional level and in countries in West Africa.

The workshop to kick-off the regional Programme on advancing investment for Food and Nutrition Security (FNS)– in Water - Energy – Food – Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus in West Africa was held in Bamako, Mali from 11 to 13 December 2017.

The regional center AGRHYMET together with NBA, JRC and GWP-WA organized the final workshop for the synthesis of scientific activities of the Mekrou Project. The event took place in Niamey, Niger from 7 to 8 December 2017.

The meeting was held in Léo, Burkina Faso from 19 to 22 December 2017 to draw lessons from the implementation of the first phase (2015-2017) and plan for the second phase focus activities. Main regional partners (VBA, Ministry of Environment of Burkina, ECOWAS/WRCC, CILSS/AGRHYMET, IUCN, WASCAL, SOS Sahel International, WAEMU, 2IE, University of Ouaga 2, CWP Burkina Faso, CWP Mali and CWP Niger) gathered to make a participatory self-assessment of the implementation of the Integrated Drought Management Project in West Africa.

After many years of hesitation, the Country Water Partnership of Guinea held its third partners’ meeting on December 14 in Conakry. The so awaited meeting gathered about sixty (60) representatives of partner organizations in the country and presided by the technical advisor to the Guinean Minister of Energy and Water, Mr. Ismael DIA.

The Country Water Partnership of Benin (CWP Benin) held a two- day partners’ meeting to review statutory texts and renew its organs. The event took place on 14 and 15 December 2017 in Cotonou.