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”.

GWP West Africa played a key role in a series of meetings that agreed on a training module for water science for higher degrees – bachelors, masters and doctorates – throughout Francophone Africa.

In 2010, the Togo Parliament passed a new water law that embraced IWRM principles. Adoption of an IWRM plan to turn words into action is pending. These milestones on the path to better water management were achieved in part as a result of sustained effort by GWP Togo.

Sustainable development requires multi-stakeholder partnerships. That is the message of a new report on water security in Africa published by the Global Water Partnership. (Photo: GWP Executive Secretary Dr Ania Grobicki and Hon Buyelwa P. Sonjica, AMCOW President and Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs in South Africa)