Dear partners, let me wish you all a great year 2013 and thank you for your continued cooperation and partnership spirit.
After a few years of suspension, the GWP-WA newsletter The Chronicle is back. As usual, it will keep you informed about the activities of GWP in the region and those of our partners.
2013 is the last of the five years strategic plan of GWP started in 2009 (2009-2013). The implementation of this strategy has enabled GWP to address sustainable development challenges related to water (climate change, urbanization, implementation of IWRM plans, fundraising, etc.).
The next programming phase 2014-2020 is under discussion and GWP/WA will contibute to the global planning before defining the regional strategy.
West Africa has currently thirteen (13) Country Water Partnerships (CWP) and is one of the largest regional partnerships of the GWP family. Of course, that is an asset but the high number of CWP raises many challenges related to governance and funding which must be addressed with great commitment and will. In this exercise, the contribution from both regional and national partners is essential to make these platforms more viable as they should be recognized as public utilities in some countries.
Acting together, we will meet all the challenges facing the region that have been identified in the Water Resources Policy for West Africa (WRP-WA) developed by ECOWAS and whose implementation Action Plan was validated in December 2012 in Abidjan. GWP will be at the front to achieve the West African Water Vision as it has always done since the West African Conference on IWRM held in 1998.
Dam MOGBANTE