WACDEP Reference Group Country Missions Held in Mozambique and Zimbabwe

The WACDEP Coordinating Unit, under GWP SA has been working with stakeholders in and the WACDEP Program Managers in Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the preparation of the Reference Group Country Missions scheduled for March 2014. The Reference Group meetings were held from 23-25 March in Mozambique and 26-27 March in Zimbabwe among other things provided opportunities to exchange experiences, lessons, and challenges with the WACDEP team in Mozambique on WACDEP implementation and generate perspectives for enhancing progress in all components of the programme.

Specifically, the aim of the Reference Group was to provide demand driven technical oversight and support to the implementation of the WACDEP. Under demand from the GWP SA, the visits provided some perspectives on the following issues:

  • Revitalization and strengthening of the Country Water Partnerships , its governance structure and autonomy;
  • Lessons learnt on investment planning with regards to a basin plan as opposed to a national plan as Mozambique is focusing on implementing WP 3 in the SAVE River Basin (shared with Zimbabwe).
  • Provide advise to the WACDEP teams on how to best integrate the capacity building programme into the WP3 to ensure that investment appraisal knowledge is taken on board when investment plans are developed.
  • Provide lessons learnt from other contexts that can be applicable in Mozambique´s context given the intricacies and complexity of the institutional framework and multitude of simultaneous initiatives;
  • Share experiences on how to mobilize and motivate interest for investments in water related projects with climate resilience component;

The team that traveled to Mozambique and Zimbabwe comprised Torkil Jonch Clausen, Alan Hall and Belynda Petrie from the Reference Group. They were accompanied by Andrew Takawira from the WACDEP CU; Ruth Beukman and Michael Ramaano from the GWP Southern Africa Regional Office.