The Director General expressed gratitude for the efforts and praised the partnership for its achievements despite working with very limited resources. He promised to ensure that both the radio and the television services support the partnership in its advocacy and awareness raising activities. He explained that the institution is not receiving any subvention from the central government but will ensure that he can slot GCWP programmes in some of the national programmes such as Hello Gambia which provides a platform for discussing development issues on both the radio and television and Women’s magazine programme as well. These two programmes come once every week. He asked to draft a Memorandum of Understanding indicating what areas GCWP can collaborate with GRTS.
The CWP team visited the Gambia Bureau of Statistics on Monday 16th August 2018. A meeting was held in the Statistician General’s office and present were the Statistician General, Director of Statistics, Principal Statistician National Accounts, Environmental expert. After the introductory remarks by the Chair, The ES explained the purpose and roles of GWP, GWPWA and GCWP in promoting IWRM at global, regional and country levels for a water secure world for sustainable development. The meeting discussed possible areas of collaboration and the way forward.
The team was informed that an Environmental Action Plan is in the making and a study was conducted to that effect. A draft report was made available to the team for review and comments. It is observed that some issues are not drawn in line with IWRM principles and practices. The ES sent in the team’s observations to the environmental expert. The suggestions are said to be included in the draft which will be presented for validation at a workshop to be organised.
The Statistician General promised that GBOS will work closely with GCWP in promoting IWRM especially in the areas of research and information sharing.
The GCWP is following on the preparation of the network meeting and invitation letters were sent to stakeholder institutions for a planning and preparatory meeting for the proposed virtual meeting. A meeting was held at GCWP Secretariat to discuss issues.