GWP Moving Forward with Africa Partners

GWP Acting Executive Secretary Martin Walshe together with Network Officer Aly Kerdany and representatives of the GWP Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Western Africa & Central Africa regions attended the Joint Meetings of the African Ministers’ Council On Water(AMCOW), African Development Bank (ADB), and UN Water in Addis Ababa 7-9 October 2008.

Three main issues were discussed:

1. Preparing for the 5th WWF in Istanbul and Africa’s contribution.

2. Starting the preparations for the 2nd Africa Water Week scheduled for 2009/2010 in Kenya.

3. How to implement the previous AMCOW declarations, the results of previous meetings and the AU Head of States' declaration of Sharm El Sheikh.

In addition, Mr. Charles Ngangoue, Chair of AMCOW Technical Advisory Committee, called for a meeting with GWP to discuss how to take the MoU signed with AMCOW forward in the context of the AU Declaration of Sharm El Sheikh. There were discussions on ways of working between AMCOW bodies and sub-regional TACs and GWP Africa.

GWP has through its MoU with AMCOW had fruitful collaboration resulting in Financing Water in Africa, trainings, meetings such as the Climate Change Ministerial Conference and also the AMCOW gender program, Survey and Assessment of 12 countries’ water resources. AMCOW TAC and GWP regions decided to make the MoU more practical by working jointly at the sub-regional level.

After the meetings, Martin Walshe and Aly Kerdany attended with GWP Eastern Africa coordinator Simon Thuo, a meeting of CWP Ethiopia Steering Committee members and local donors. The coordinator Jembere Kidanemariam provided a comprehensive overview of the CWP’s activities, and a lively discussion followed on the future directions of the CWP.