Over 70 people attended the workshop, which was officially opened by Ms. Caroline Kayonga, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Rwanda. The workshop consisted of several key meetings which catered to participants in different stages of the implementation process:

WACDEP Country Managers from Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Ghana, Mozambique, Cameroon and Rwanda gave presentations on the progress and outputs towards integrating water security and climate resilience into National Development Plans and developing investments plans.

A full-day session on solving financial management challenges was held by WACDEP Finance Officer Peter Nyman, and a WACDEP communication strategy was also discussed. A capacity building meeting gave the participants an opportunity to discuss the suitability of the learning materials in a real world development context, using Rwanda as a case study.

GWP representatives also had a meeting with Rwanda’s Minister of Water Resources, discussing the next steps for WACDEP in Rwanda. Among the actions agreed was to start the process of setting up a project management office and to recruit the needed staff.

Active Involvement

The WACDEP workshop showed that all the countries involved have made a significant step in implementing the programme. However, it was concluded that there is still a strong need to get further support and guidelines from the main WACDEP coordination unit on all aspects of the implementation process.

In conclusion, Professor Torkil Clausen, Chair of the WACDEP Reference Group, an Advisory team of experts, stated that he was very impressed with the progress made by countries. “Overall the essence of the WACDEP is to apply a ‘water lens’ to development, and the progress by the countries has been good,” he said.

GWP’s Global Coordinator for WACDEP, Alex Simalabwi, stressed the importance of WACDEP for the resilience of Africa’s development and growth.

“Africa is making international headlines on economic growth, but climate change threatens the sustainability of long term inclusive growth, employment and jobs. Investments in water security and climate resilience are key and this is what WACDEP aims to achieve,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of AMCOW, Ms. Laila Lailaoulkacha, AMCOW Programme Officer for climate change, commended GWP for WACDEP, which she said was a flagship programme for AMCOW. She pledged to ensure that AMCOW Ministers are informed on the good progress GWP is making.

The next WACDEP meeting will take place in Accra, Ghana, in June 2014.

A full report on the 5th WACDEP Technical Coordination Workshop will soon be available.