The annual meeting of partners of the GWP Network was held in a hybrid format with some GWP staff joining online from Stockholm and partners joining online from across the globe. In his opening speech , GWP Chair Howard Bamsey said, “This is a fantastic opportunity to get together and share experiences and points of view.” He further highlighted GWP’s key accomplishments in 2021, which he described as “a year of achievement for GWP.”
In Central Africa, partners from Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Sao Tome, and Principe took part in the meeting and discussed opportunities for climate financing to improve climate resilience during the breakout group session. Overall, some partners from the region noted that the financing of the water sector is fundamental as it determines the sustainability of ongoing actions to foster IWRM. Discussing the challenges related to mobilizing adequate internal resources, it was noted that the water sector in Central Africa has for a long time been dependent on international financial resources mobilized as part of international cooperation for development.
Although this external funding has enabled significant progress in the sector, it must be recognized that the long-term sustainability of external funding is not guaranteed and mobilizing external funds is still a challenge for most entities. Partners applauded the AIP-PIDA Water Investment Scorecard which aims to track water investments in Africa, as a key step toward to right direction to addressing the finance gap in the sector.
Some recommendations from the Central Africa partners include;
- Stir private sector interest to finance investments in the water sector through the Public-Private Partnerships
- Ensure the full implementation of the tax charge to high polluters to mobilize funds internally for water management and reduce the dependence of this management on external funding;
- Engage local authorities, who are also stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector in the financing of investments in the sector
The 2022 Network meeting ended on a high note with partners applauding GWP’s efforts to foster collaboration with multi-stakeholders to achieve water security across the globe.
GWP – Central Africa at the 2022 GWP Regional Days
This year, the annual GWP Regional Days were held in a hybrid format with GWP Staff joining from Stockholm and online to share experiences and discuss ways to achieve GWP’s vision of a water-secure world.
GWP-Central Africa was represented by its regional chair, Mr. Sylvain Guebanda in Stockholm while some members of the regional secretariat joined online. Over the course of the regional days, thematic leads of GWP intervention areas (Transboundary Cooperation, Climate Resilience through water, SDGs, Gender, and Youth) made presentations on achievements in the first half of the GWP Strategy and perspectives for the last part of the strategy.
During the session on regional highlights in the past year, GWP-CAf shared three success stories with a zoom-in on the next steps for the WACDEP-G pilot project on the prevention of dental fluorosis in the Far North region of Cameroon.
In a discussion on advancing the network especially through strengthening Country Water Partnerships (CWPs), GWP-CAf shared experience on managing CWPs with practical examples of what has worked so far and common challenges like limited funding, host institution, and part-time staff.
The regional days ended with staff expressing their appreciation for the work done so far within the different anchor areas resulting in great progress towards achieving the set goals for GWPs 2020-2025 Strategy.