‒ Launching of a Strategic Framework at Africa Water Week 2012
In an effort to address the twin challenges of water security and climate change, the African Ministers Council on Water launched The Strategic Framework for Water Security and Climate Resilient Development on May 14, 2012, at the Africa Water Week, in Cairo, Egypt.
Benin and the Netherlands signed a four year Memorandum of Understanding on water and pledged to establish a "technical advisory platform" with GWP Benin and the Netherlands Water Partnership playing the role of secretariat for the platform for 2012-2015. The MOU was signed by Mr. Ben Knapen, Dutch Minister for European and International Cooperation and Mr. Jonas Gbian, Beninese Minister in charge of water on Thursday, January 12, 2012.
“This Partnership is very important and its implementation should support Gambia in the sustainable management of its water resources ... The government and my department will provide all necessary support to do so,” said Mrs Fatou Sosseh Jallow, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Minister in charge of water of the Gambia at the official ceremony establishing GWP Gambia on 20 December 2011.
GWP Benin was established a little over ten years ago. In recent years, it has been credited with helping to steer the new Water Law through parliament (2010), promote acceptance of the Water Policy (2009), and campaign for the national IWRM Plan among the country's water stakeholders (2011).
The Gambia officially launched a new Country Water Partnership (CWP) in 2011, joining the other 12 West African CWPs that have been formed since the beginning of GWP's activities in West Africa. Now, all countries in the region except Liberia and Sierra Leone have set up a CWP.
To enable countries of West Africa to improve the coordination of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), Coastal zones (ICZM), but also taking into account linkages between basins and coastal areas and the linkage between ecosystem-based, land use and water resources management, a regional workshop on climate change and IWRM in West Africa was organized.
Global Water Partnership West Africa (GWP / WA) and a number of partners will launch a "regional dialogue on joint management of groundwater resources of West Africa" .
West Africa has ten aquifers and some countries have no other alternative water resources than groundwater.
At the request of the countries, a mission from GWP West Africa visited Gambia and Sierra Leone 19-28 September 2011, to follow up on the will expressed in 2009, during the development process of the IWRM roadmap, to set up GWP Country Water Partnerships. Exchanges on the importance of transboundary waters and their management mechanisms such as the UN Convention on International Water Courses were also discussed.
The Challenge Programme for Water and Food (CPWF) research in the Volta basin has been developed to respond to challenges in the river basin of “improving rainwater and small reservoir management to contribute to poverty reduction, and improved livelihoods resilience in Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana while taking account of implications for downstream water users including ecosystem services”.