The GWP West Africa’s Mrs Félicité VODOUNHESSI, project manager for the Integrated Drought Management programme (IDMP) West Africa shared the regional experience on IDMP during the Forum in Praia, Cape Verde from 18 to 23 March 2019.
She made an intervention during the session on drought preparedness on the 3 pillars of the IDMP programme, namely drought monitoring and early warning systems (EWS), impact assessment and measures to adapt drought-related risks. Specifically, she put an emphasis on the challenges of drought monitoring, EWS and prospects for strengthening them. Drought risk mitigation measures implemented in agriculture based on experiences from the implementation of pilot projects in West Africa were presented. The session also discussed the needs of countries in terms of capacity to develop national drought policies and how to fill gaps and the potential of South-South cooperation to improve drought resilience.
This first International Forum on Water Scarcity in Agriculture brought together more than 200 specialists in agricultural water management from around the world. According to Cape Verde's Director General of Agriculture, José Teixeira, the forum will be "useful" for his country, which is facing drought for the second year running. "Cape Verde will benefit from the presence of international experts, companies, knowledge and experience in water efficiency to learn from the lessons," he stressed.
GWP is a member of the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG)) which organized the International Forum.
