The event was attended by 670 participants including 211 participants from 53 countries from all continents and 459 nationals. The Kick-off Meeting gave the opportunity for stakeholders to contribute with ideas and experiences at the earliest stages of preparation of the 9th World Water Forum. Besides building upon previous Fora and, in particular, the 8th World Water Forum (Brasilia, 2018), the 9th World Water Forum will go further. Through an innovative framework, it will seek to identify, promote and implement concrete responses and actions for water and sanitation in an integrated way.
The theme of the 9th World Water Forum is "Water Security for Peace and Development". Discussions tend to generate interest for the 9th World Water Forum and its preparatory processes to encourage contributions from a wide range stakeholder. The Forum's strong political and citizen orientations were also underlined.
The official closing was done by the Minister of Senegal and his counterpart from Kenya who brought his government support to the preparation process of what his calls an African event.
The Country Water Partnership (CWP) of Senegal, GWP West Africa and GWP network were represented at the kick-off meeting.
