The Executive Secretary of GWP West Africa was part of a joint mission from December 3 to 10, 2012 including LIV Consulting and the University Gaston Berger (UGB) of Saint Louis to study the possibility of formulating an academic training programme on IWRM in West Africa. Initiated by the Water Resources Coordination Center of ECOWAS (WRCC / ECOWAS), the objectives of this mission were first to establish the situation of the IWRM network derived from the International Training Programme (ITP) on IWRM, and personal projects with an overall view to draw attention on the commitment of WRCC / ECOWAS to support the whole dynamic of the network. The future training project will build on the results of the ITP courses on IWRM organized by RAMBOLL Natura and SIWI in collaboration with GWP / WA from 2005 to 2010.
The mission led to an updated database of West African participants of the ITP on IWRM, a compilation of synthesized individual projects and the interests for the coming training programme, and also gathered the first reflections to be considered in the second phase of the programme at regional level in West Africa. Partners have to be satisfied regarding the approach and obvious interest of the UGB to take part in the process as noted through the strong mobilization of the members of the host institution. It was an opportunity for the participants of the mission to discuss with three students on their research topics and their relevance to IWRM indicators. The next steps will be to finalize a training course similar to ITP IWRM in our sub-region.