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West Africa

Follow up on training programme on IWRM to build capacities of actors in West Africa

An International Training Programme on Integrated Water Resources Management (ITP/IWRM) carried out between 2005 and 2010 was funded by the Swedish cooperation to train about 150 West African professionals on IWRM. The training covered 6 successive promotions and was led by Ramboll-Natura (now NIRAS), SIWI and GWP-WA as co-organizer and "regional anchor" of the ITP IWRM courses.

This programme has had a significant impact for capacity building and promotion of IWRM in the sub-region, as pointed out in the assessment report carried out in 2012. GWP-WA, with the support of LIV Consulting, has worked with the group "management of water territories" (GTE in French) of the Gaston Berger University of St Louis (Senegal) to draw up an inventory of the network, as well as the participants' personal projects and their evolution in order to facilitate and inform the ECOWAS involvement through its Water Resources Coordination Center (WRCC) in this dynamic. The action is an important contribution to the strengthening of capacities on IWRM in ECOWAS member states.

The Lomé meeting held on 23 and 24 October 2017 aimed to involve the former participants (Alumni) from the past programme, and the National IWRM Focal Points who are ECOWAS respondents in the countries in the formulation of a new training programme as a follow-up to the ITP IWRM courses. The workshop brought together around thirty participants consisting mainly of a selection of seventeen (17) ITP-IWRM Alumnis with national focal points and WRCC staff members.

The results of the workshop include the validation of:

  1. the strategy for capacity building in water for West Africa;
  2. the updated summary document of the results of the survey conducted on the IWRM Alumni network in West Africa;
  3. the proposed ITP module presented.

Former GWP-WA Executive Secretary, Mr. Dam MOGBANTE, who was one of the main actors in organizing the six ITP-IWRM sessions from 2005 to 2010 on behalf of GWP-WA, was the moderator of the Lomé workshop. He has:

  • pointed out that 4 of the IWRM National Focal Points present in the workshop were also ALUMNIs;
  • noted the importance for ECOWAS of helping to finalize a Capacity Building Programme like ITP IWRM and to seek funding for its implementation in the framework of the regional strategy currently being validated;
  • reiterated the availability of GWP and CWPs to support ECOWAS in the implementation of its capacity building programme.

Mr. Dam MOGBANTE emphasized on the need to finalize the new Capacity Building Programme, in order to increase the technical capacity on IWRM to implement the new international commitments such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) 2015-2030 and the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in ECOWAS members states. This should make it possible to improve knowledge of the financing mechanisms/ instruments and/or promotion that are generally not well known in the sub-region, to obtain the means and political commitment necessary to implement these commitments.

This activity is part of the implementation of the IWRM project in West Africa, financed by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and GWP-WA has contributed to its development. 

Page last edited: 11/14/2017