NEWS

Within the framework of the celebration of the International Youth Day 2016 under the theme “The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production”, some leaders of Cameroon Youth organizations involved in protecting the environment launched on the 13^th of August the process of the establishment of a network entitled “Youth network for wetlands”.

This launching was made during a workshop on the approval of the logical framework document of the network.

The workshop itself was organized by Water For Life Cameroon with the support of GWP-CAf. It took place at the GWP-CAf Secretariat in Yaounde, Cameroon.

20 leaders from 10 youth organizations such as Water For Life Cameroon (W4L), Women In Development (WID), Jeunes Volontaires de l’Environnement (JVE), Centre de Recherche sur la Forêt et l’Environnement, Institut des Relations Internationales du Cameroun (IRIC), AJEVOH Cameroun, Cameroon Youth Initiative for Rural Development (CAMYIRD), Young Professional Platform for Agricultural Development (YPARD), United Voice to Serve Forest and Environment (USFE) attended the meeting.

During this meeting, Global Water Partnership Central Africa (GWP-CAf) shared its experiences on networking: GWP as a multi-players network with a vision and mission. This presentation aimed at strengthening the participants’ understanding of the structure and function of the network they wanted to establish in order to mutualize their effort in protecting the wetlands and underlining the benefits the communities will obtain from wetlands and also guiding youth leaders as a compass in networking.

Within the framework of developing a full project proposal on the establishment of an Early Warning System in the Lake Chad Basin area, GWP-CAf and LCBC organized a workshop on the approval of the inception report on the strategy for conducting the assignment, and the deliverables to be produced by the team of consultants, charged to produce a full-fledged project document.  The workshop was held from 11-12 of July 2016 in Ndjamena, Chad.

The attendees to this meeting were 8 experts (in hydrology, climate change) and 4 support staff from the LCBC executive secretariat, 3 experts from German Cooperation groundwater and climate change adaptation projects, the coordinator of the programme to rehabilitate and strengthen the resilience of lake chad basin systems (PRESIBALT), 2 representatives of GWP Central Africa, and the team of three recruited consultants (2 experts of PEGASYS from South Africa and 1 independent consultant from Chad).

The main objective of this meeting was to present, enrich and approve the inception report on the strategy for conducting the assignment, and the deliverables to be produced by the team of consultants. It was also an opportunity for consultants to meet, share their experiences and strengthen their collaboration. 

Getting the GWP-CAf ready to successfully end the first period (2014-2016) of its regional strategy, also repositioning it to fit for the second half of the regional strategy and for 2030. Yes. But how? It is to answer this question that the GWP-CAf chair convened an extraordinary Steering Committee meeting. This meeting had as theme: “SDGs: Opportunities for changing and redefining the role and business model for GWP-CAf and the CWPs. It was held on June 30, 2016 in Douala, Cameroon.

The attendees to the meeting were the statutory steering committee members notably, 4 chairs of CWPs; Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo and Sao Tomé and Principe; the chair of the technical and Scientific Committee; the representatives of ECCAS and of basin organizations: CICOS; the delegates of Civil Society organizations (REFADD) and the players of water sector (SODECA); the GWP-O executive secretary as well as the GWP Southern Africa (GWPSA) executive secretary.

The overall objective of this extraordinary Steering Committee meeting was to reflect upon and propose a roadmap for the choice of the new host institution for GWP-CAf and to examine the different options of business model and governance for GWP Secretariat at country level in order to apply them in central Africa region.

Through different presentations on positioning the GWP network to fit for future 2030 and its implications as well as on the experience of governance and funding of GWP Southern Africa, the members of steering committee understood that the GWP network needed a double reforms

An internal change that will take into account the improvement of four domains (strengthening the country level; improving sustainability of financing; improving corporate knowledge management and learning and increasing Institutional performance) while external change will cope with a new global water institutional architecture.

The south-south initiative (GWPSA and GWP-CAf) based on experience sharing between regions permitted participants to go through the CWP governance, accreditation process and different managing options for CWP.

In the framework of strengthening partnership, established since 2007, between GWP-CAf and the University of Dschang, oriented towards providing technical support in the delivery of IWRM related courses at the university, GWP-CAf Staff offered course on Water and Socio-Economic Development, at the School of Wood, Water and Natural Resources, Ebolowa Campus, from 27^th -29^th of May 2016.

Since 2014, on the invitation of the School of Wood, Water and Natural Resources, GWP-CAf have been facilitating the delivery of the course on Water and Socio-Economic Development (LPEE 233) for 1^st year students of the School at the University of Dschang satellite campus in Ebolowa, South Region in Cameroon.

The School of Wood, Water and Natural Resources is part of the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Dschang.

Global Water Partnership Central Africa (GWP-CAf) and Lake Chad Basin Commission  (LCBC)are re recruiting  two experts  (an Expert in Project Development and an Expert in Hydrology / Meteorology) to work on the “ Development of a full project proposal on the establishment of an Early Warning System within the Lake Chad Basin Area “

The closing date for applications is 30 April 2016 at 5 pm. More infos please download the ToR here . Good luck!

GWP-CAf Staff made a four days working visit to the Executive Secretariat of Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), which took place from 22 to 25 of March 2016, in Ndjamena, Chad.

The main objective of this visit was to finalize the ToRs and tender document for the development of a project on the establishment of an Early Warning System. The visit ended with the approval of the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the project entitled “Strengthening Climate Information and Early Warning Systems (EWS) for Climate Resilient Development and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Chad Basin area”. 

In the run up to the World Water Day 2016, GWP-CAf partners, like Cameroon Ministry of water and energy, private sector, NGOs and civil society organizations, organized the national water week 2016, in Yaoundé, which had as theme “water and jobs” and took place over seven days, from March 17-22, 2016.

Several events took place during the national week. Among which, there was a media workshop; two site visits, conducted, one to the wastewater treatment plant and the other to water treatment plant; a campaign for the dissemination of knowledge and legal text on water sector and sanitation; an exhibition fair; football and power walking and a forum on water jobs. All of these activities ended with a competition for a best poem written and cartoon on “water and jobs” for pupils of 5 schools in Yaounde.

Within the framework of the implementation of the programme for “Water and Youth”, GWP-CAf and its partner Water For Life Cameroon, a youth led-organization held from February 6th - 27th 2016 a series of four traineeship workshops on hygiene coaching  for the primary schools of Yaoundé II.

The traineeship was included in the line of the hygiene promotion project in primary schools entitled “ soap for healthy lives” developed by NGO Water For Life Cameroon.

The kick off ceremony was championed by the new GWP-Chair on February 6th, 2016 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. 13 participants, representing 10 youth led-organizations, attended the different training sessions.

The workshops centered their deliveries on four main modules like: Water-borne diseases: Transmission, Demonstration and Preventative measures; WASH in schools and rights to water and sanitation; the academic environment and the child psychology finally the class animation techniques.

Reflection workshop on « Sustainable livelihoods in wetlands in developing countries: the vision of the African youth” initiated by Water For Life Cameroon within the context of the celebration of World Wetlands Day and in partnership with  GWP-CAf was held on February 3^rd, 2016 in Yaoundé, Cameroun.

21 Participants drawn from 13 Cameroon youth led-organizations working for the protection of environment and research centers attended the workshop on wetlands.

The objective of the workshop was to raise awareness on the position of youth on the importance of the interdependence between human livelihoods and wetlands in urban and rural areas in order to catalyze change in the utilization of resources offered/generated by the wetlands.

From the 4^th to the 8^th of December 2015, GWP-CAf had offered a course on the module entitled “Water and Socio-Economic Development” (LPEE 233) to 2^nd year students of the School of Wood, Water and Natural Resources of the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Dschang , the Ebolowa Branch in South Region of Cameroon.

This activity is related to GWP-CAf strategic goal n°2: “Generate and communicate knowledge” developed in the implementation of the collaborative partnership established since 2007 between Global Water Partnership Central Africa with the University of Dschang, and thus oriented towards providing technical support in the delivery of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) related courses.

Within 5 days, 65 out of 77 students attended the lectures which were organized and articulated on Definition of keys terms; introduction to IWRM, IWRM concept and principles, importance of monitoring water resources and river basins, Water and Environment, Economics and financing of water supply/virtual water concept as well as  the Concept and implementation of participation.