Gambia: SC meeting and support for the accreditation process

The Gambia Country Water Partnership (GCWP) is the youngest of the CWPs in West Africa (officially launched in December 2011) is yet to complete its accreditation process as a partner of Global Water Partnership (GWP). Some actions were undertaken since 2014 which didn’t get through. To facilitate the exchange process with country partners in The Gambia, the Executive Secretary decided that the Communication manager goes to Banjul and prepares with them all the needed documentation for the accreditation to be done as soon as possible.

The mission took place from 22 to 27 April 2016 in Banjul. During his stay, the communications manager met with the chair to discuss issues related to the GCWP including the accreditation, the information sharing with regional level through the monthly reporting, the projects the CWP is involved in or developing with partners at country level. He exchanged and shared information with the coordinator of the GCWP and the IWRM Focal point who is very supportive of all CWP process and actions in The Gambia.

Other actions included the updating of documents and the development of missing ones (annual work plan, list of partners, etc.), the registration of partners’ application forms online to become partners of GWP.

A meeting of the Steering Committee of the GCWP where lively debates took place was held in the conference room of the Department of Water Resources (DWR). Stakeholders showed a great commitment to the partnership and many suggestions for joint actions were made by Government and private sector organisations.

During his stay, the Communication Manager had a meeting and discussions with the Water and Environment Journalists of the Gambia; with the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry in charge of Water at his office. The PS expressed total support to the CWP and ongoing advocacy processes for the ratification of the UN 97 Convention and the adoption of the three bills on the water sector reform.