About the Partnership for Africa's Water Development

At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, Heads of State and Governments of participant countries committed their countries to prepare Integrated Water Resources Management and Water Efficiency (IWRM/WE) plans. It was agreed to develop the plans by the year 2005. The IWRM/WE plans were identified as a milestone for the achievement of the water related 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Plans are critical to reducing poverty, hunger, disease and environmental degradation.

In December 2003, the Canadian Government, following up on the 2002 WSSD target, initiated financial support, through GWP, to five countries in Africa: Kenya Mali, Malawi, Senegal, and Zambia. Recently, the Government of Netherlands initiated support to six African Countries namely:  Benin, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Eritrea, Mozambique and Swaziland. This support is under the umbrella of the Partnership for Africa’s Water Development (PAWD) project. 

Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP-SA) is facilitating this process in Malawi, Zambia (supported by CIDA), and Mozambique and Swaziland (supported by the Dutch).

The overall purpose of the project is to contribute towards the achievement of water related MDGs and WSSD targets supporting sustainable water resources management in Africa by facilitating action oriented IWRM planning and implementation in selected African countries.

The Canadian supported initiative has three main components:

1. Support to the WSSD Target for the development National Integrated Water Resources Management and Water Efficiency Plans by 2005
2. Support to institutional development of existing, new and emerging Partnerships
3. Support to integration of water into poverty reduction activities

The Dutch support includes a fourth component aimed at “Increasing the understanding of and potential access to a broader range of financing instruments”.

These components are very closely linked. The activities in component 2, partnership-support, are the basis for the components 1, 3 and 4. The IWRM planning process includes formulation of strategies for reducing poverty and using water resources as a tool for economic development. The strategies should be linked to national economic development frameworks and also be taken forward into national budgets.

The basic strategy cutting across these components is to emphasize the development and involvement of multi-stakeholder groups at all levels and support national governments and facilitate processes in which these groups become fully integrated into and active in the management of water resources.

Component 1 of the PAWD programme forms the major component of the process with the following outputs:

1.  Awareness on IWRM raised
2. Political will and support for report process built
3.  Framework for broad stakeholder participation in place
4.  Capacity building activities for initiating the reform process initiated
5.  Knowledge from past and ongoing activities compiled and available
6. WRM issues identified in a participatory way
7.  WRM functions and institutional arrangements identified in a participatory way
8. Action plan and IWRM transition strategy in a participatory
9.  Action plan and IWRM transition strategy adopted at all political levels
10.Detailed program & funding strategy toward reform prepared

Successful preparation of IWRM/WE plans will largely depend on two key factors.

1. Availability of financial resources especially in developing countries
2. Availability of capacity (human resources) with the necessary skills to spearhead the development of the Plans.