Dakar, 24 March
ReNOKA and the Lesotho government joined a high-level southern African delegation at the 9th World Water Forum (WWF) in Dakar, Senegal in March, where they shared best practices in catchment rehabilitation and management.
The event in the capital Dakar was held under the theme Water Security for Peace and Development, the first time in its 25-year history that WWF met on African soil.
One of the key events was the launch of the flagship Team Europe initiative on transboundary water management in Africa, with more than 400 million Euros for cross-border water projects in Africa.
‘We will team up with the African Union, the European Investment Bank and other partners to ensure those projects make a real difference on the ground. This is a success story. And it proves that cooperation works,’ said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in her WWF opening ceremony speech. Delegates from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) included organisations working on the Orange Senqu, Limpopo, Okavango and Zambezi rivers.
The Lesotho government hosted a session on the importance of integrated catchment management to safeguard the its highland wetland ecosystem. Lesotho supplies about 40% of the annual run-off of the Orange-Senqu River, supporting a cross-border economy worth around US$ 116 billion.
ReNOKA also spoke on a panel hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, about how peace and security is promoted by integration of transboundary water resources. WWF was an opportunity for ReNOKA to meet people from across the world, including the leadership of the Water Division at the Federal Germany Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
