On 22 March 2019, on the occasion of the World Water Day, the DRC/Goma Network of Young Water, Sanitation and Environment Professionals organized the First Kivu Regional Water Conference on the theme: “To achieve sustainable development goals, do not leave anyone behind.” More than 130 people, mostly young ones from Bukavu (South Kivu), Gisenyi (Rwanda) and Rusthuru, gathered in Goma (North Kivu) at the Université Libre of the Great Lakes Countries to seek solutions to the water challenges in Kivu.

“This conference is also part of the implementation of the commitments made at the 3rd Forum of Young African Water and Sanitation Professionals, which we attended last year in Bamako, Mali, on the sidelines of the 19th Congress of the African Water Association. I was very happy to see that some young people have applied through our online form. Although most of them have not had the opportunity to travel to Goma, it has allowed us to discover young people interested in our activities, and with whom we can work towards our goal of expanding the network throughout the DRC," said Mr. Bashonga, network coordinator during an exclusive interview with Kivu Nyota Magazine.

The activity was launched by the Division Chief for Planning and the Executive Secretary of the Provincial Water, Hygiene and Sanitation Action Committee (CPAEHA). Several themes were discussed including: ''The role of women in addressing the water problem: difficulties, contributions and perspectives'', by DFJ (Dynamics of women lawyers). ''Water and conflict'' (Transaqua Project: transfer of water from Ubangi to Lake Chad threatened with extinction), by UCNDK. ''REGIDESO's activities in water supply: difficulties and prospects'', presented by the Provincial Director of REGIDESO SA and former National Chairman of the Committee of Young Water Professionals of the DRC; and finally the theme on ''Water and economy'', presented by the PREMIDIS SARL company.

This was followed by the screening of the documentary film ''The Water War'' by film Director Sergens Gloire Kabika, a member of the network. The day after the conference, a delegation of young professionals, led by Mr. Caleb lwimbo and Miss Joelle Kinja, was invited to the Institut Français of Goma to participate in a scientific exhibition organized by the UNICEF Office of Goma, also as part of the celebration of the World Water Day.

Among the Affiliate Members of the African Water Association, it will now be necessary to include the Federation of Ethiopian Water and Sanitation utilities, which joined AfWA on 26th March, after the visit to Addis Ababa of some representatives of AfWA. Indeed, responding to the invitation from this Federation, some representatives from AfWA including the Executive Director Mr Sylvain Usher, the program director Dr. Simeon Kenfack and the President of the STC, Dr. Papa Samba Diop, participated to the World Water Day and Water and Sanitation Stakeholders' Fair, organized by the Federation of Water and Sanitation utilities, of Ethiopia, from 22nd to 26th March 2019, in Addis Ababa.

AfWA’s representatives took advantage of this mission to introduce AfWA,the pan-African organization leader in capacity building of the African water and sanitation utilities, to the Ethiopia's water sector stakeholders; through a slideshow, Dr Kenfack explained AfWA's organic framework, its vision, mission, implementation strategy and current and future projects and programs.

A presentation very much appreciated by all participants and which resulted to the signing of two memorandums of understanding: The first one, with the Federation of Water and Sanitation Utilities of Ethiopia for the commitment of both parties to undertake joint actions to fulfil their respective mandates for their respective members and the second one with the water and sanitation utility of WolaytaSodo City for its commitment to get involved in the water operators' partnership project to be implemented by AfWA with OFID funding through the Global Water Operators' Partnership Alliance (GWOPA).

The Federation of Water and Sanitation Utilities of Ethiopia and the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy expressed their wish to organize the 82nd session of AfWA’ Scientific and Technical Council in Addis Ababa next July, in conjunction with the National Water Week in Ethiopia.

In addition to these activities, working sessions were organized with the Federation of Water and Sanitation utilities, of Ethiopia, the Commissioner in charge of water resources management and finally a working dinner offered by the Minister Secretary of State responsible for Water.

Under the leadership of Mrs. Robyn Bertholon, Regional Contracting and Agreement Officer, some executives from USAID West Africa Office paid a visit to AfWA Headquarters from April 23 to 24, 2019. This visit was part of the collaboration between both institutions involved since 2015 in the implementation of AfWA Capacity Building Programme (AfriCap).

The overall objective of this Programme is to strengthen AfWA's capacity to coordinate, formulate, adapt and harmonize WASH policies in order to improve sector performance in Africa in general and in West Africa in particular. After about four years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted and the satisfaction expressed has led USAID to engage discussions with AfWA for the extension of this programme for a further four years (2019-2023) amounting to USD 04 million.

While the activities of the first programme were mainly focused on West Africa, those of the new programme over the next four years will be open to other regions of Africa.

This USAID support, through AfriCap programme, will enable AfWA to better fulfill its mandate as the Pan-African Support Association for Water and Sanitation Sector Organizations to improve their performance in providing water and sanitation services to populations.

Thus, at the end of these two days of meetings, both parties expressed their satisfaction regarding the discussions and in particular on both the technical proposal and the budget. Recommendations made will allow AfWA to submit its full proposal by May 10, 2019.

It should be noted that one of the key outcomes of the implementation of the first phase of AfriCap programme was the development of AfWA Strategic Business Plan 2018-2022 (SBP 2018-2022). Thus, the extension of this programme will help facilitate the implementation of this business plan, especially the components on membership service improvement (knowledge sharing, development of peer-to-peer partnerships on several themes) as well as improving governance and management of the Organization.

 At the initiative of the President of AfWA, Mr Abderrahim El Hafidi, the Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) of Morocco initiated, on Thursday 4 April 2019, a meeting between national and international donors mainly based in Morocco and the African Water Association. This meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the 81st meeting of AfWA’ Scientific and Technical Council, brought together 9 potential financial partners as well as members of AfWA governance bodies (Executive Committee, Scientific and Technical Council and Executive Directorate) to discuss the financing mechanisms to build the capacities of WASH stakeholders .

The working session started with the sharing of ONEE's strong experience in terms of mobilizing fundings and cooperation for the water sector in Morocco. To allow donors to better know AfWA, the Executive Director, Mr Sylvain Usher,then made a presentation of the Association's missions and activities while stressing its representativeness in Africa (200 members representing 43 countries) as well as the impact of its actions across the continent (nearly 350 million indirect beneficiaries). He also focused on its evolution and perspectives.

Following the Executive Director, the Director of Programmes, Dr Siméon Kenfack presented 5 concept notes for which AfWA is currently seeking funding. These include: 1) the MALIWI project, which refers to learning and mobilizing investment through peer to peer partnerships, 2) the project for paradigm shifting in terms of innovative and inclusive sanitation models, 3) the Bi_WASH project to improve water quality, 4) the Geneva project for gender promotion and 5) the African Academy for Water and Sanitation project, which is one of AfWA’s key projects in the near future.

Discussions that follow highlight the donors' interest and their willingness to support AfWA in implementing its actions. Thus, the African Development Bank requested AfWA to make a grant request for its various projects for which it's seeking funding, bearing in mind the for the AfDB fiduciary funds. For World Bank, a request is to be submitted to the unit in charge of Africa. The French Development Agency (AFD) is ready to support AfWA in all aspects of access to climate and gender funds. At the commercial bank side, ATTIJARIWAFA and the Banque Centrale Populaire are willing to assist AfWA in structuring and identifying potential financing partners.

Despite failing to have concrete promises of funding, , AfWA appreciated the President's initiative and, especially, with the donor statements which, if turned into concrete actions, will help to increase its efforts to strengthen access to sanitation and drinking water for the African population and strengthen its leadership position in capacity building of water and sanitation operators in Africa.

Thus, it is the responsibility of AfWA Director of Finance and Strategy to regularly monitor these pledges so as to achieve the expected results.

The 9 financial partners attending the meeting were: the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the Spanish Embassy, the West African Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Delegation of the European Union for the Middle East, the French Development Agency, Morocco section, ATTIJARIWAFA Bank and the Banque Centrale Populaire.

Under the leadership of Mrs. Robyn Bertholon, Regional Contracting and Agreement Officer, some executives from USAID West Africa Office paid a visit to AfWA Headquarters from April 23 to 24, 2019. This visit was part of the collaboration between both institutions involved since 2015 in the implementation of AfWA Capacity Building Programme (AfriCap).

The overall objective of this Programme is to strengthen AfWA's capacity to coordinate, formulate, adapt and harmonize WASH policies in order to improve sector performance in Africa in general and in West Africa in particular. After about four years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted and the satisfaction expressed has led USAID to engage discussions with AfWA for the extension of this programme for a further four years (2019-2023) amounting to USD 04 million.

While the activities of the first programme were mainly focused on West Africa, those of the new programme over the next four years will be open to other regions of Africa. This USAID support, through AfriCap programme, will enable AfWA to better fulfill its mandate as the Pan-African Support Association for Water and Sanitation Sector Organizations to improve their performance in providing water and sanitation services to populations.

Thus, at the end of these two days of meetings, both parties expressed their satisfaction regarding the discussions and in particular on both the technical proposal and the budget. Recommendations made will allow AfWA to submit its full proposal by May 10, 2019.

It should be noted that one of the key outcomes of the implementation of the first phase of AfriCap programme was the development of AfWA Strategic Business Plan 2018-2022 (SBP 2018-2022). Thus, the extension of this programme will help facilitate the implementation of this business plan, especially the components on membership service improvement (knowledge sharing, development of peer-to-peer partnerships on several themes) as well as improving governance and management of the Organization.

"Financing, Cooperation and Capacity Building, Powerful Levers to Improve Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation Services in Africa". This is the theme that guided the 81st meetings of AfWA Scientific and Technical Council, held from 1st to 5th April 2019 in Rabat, Morocco, under the auspices of the Office National de l'Electricité et de l'Eau Potable.

At the opening ceremony, the Managing Director of ONEE, President of AfWA, Mr. Abderrahim El Hafidi, presented the alarming situation of access to drinking water and sanitation in the world, pointing out that 2.1 billion people, representing 30% of the world population, still lack access to domestic drinking water supply services and that 4.5 billion, representing 60%, lack safe managed sanitation services. Regarding Africa, he said that half of the people who drink water from unsafe sources live on the continent. He also pointed out that the coverage of safely managed drinking water services is only 24% in sub-Saharan Africa, and the access rate to sanitation services is 28%. Mr. El Hafidi then outlined ONEE's action strategy for drinking water and sanitation in Africa, mainly based on support and technical assistance for African water operators and the strengthening of their technical and managerial capacities to enable them to improve their performance for ensuring access to drinking water and sanitation to their users.

Morocco is a source of inspiration for the sector stakeholders, said Dr. Papa Samba Diop, President of the Scientific and Technical Council, in his speech. "There is so much to discover, so much experience to share to strengthen the capacities of the members of our Association which, for 40 years now, has been working to accelerate access to water and sanitation services for African populations". The STC President urged the 200 delegates attending the meeting to update themselves on technical and technological innovations to effectively address the needs of the population; he also asked them to focus on cooperation to reduce investment and operational financing needs.

The Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development of Morocco, Mr. Aziz Rabbah, for his part, pointed to the paradox of water management that is unequally accessible on the continent. He invited the main stakeholders to find the best technologies to manage water, which is abundant in some places and scarce in others, while ensuring its quality. Talking about the conflicts between some African states arising from the construction of dams that impacts access to water for other countries, the Minister said: "we need technological solutions to manage these political conflicts; how this resource shared by many African countries can, through appropriate technological solutions, serve everyone without prejudice to other countries?". He called on delegates: "We need your managerial intelligence to find right technological solutions to resolve these political conflicts". On the issue of financing, the Minister said that traditional financing schemes, namely borrowing and call for tenders are obsolete and delay the response to people's needs; he invited stakeholders to adopt innovative partnership solutions between public-private-financial institutions that will enable a rapid response to the growing and urgent demand for access to water and sanitation.

According to Mr Mohcine Jazouli, Minister in charge of Financial Cooperation of Morocco, this demand "should continue to rise until 2050 by 20 to 30% more than the current level". Water stress directly threatens many areas in Africa; it is often due to the lack of infrastructure and many times the required facilities are expensive and cannot be handled by only one country, hence the need to "think about the development of new cooperation schemes to bring together all key actors, to pool countries' resources and initiatives to be able to meet this major challenge". In this sense, he called for "making sustainable and equitable access to water and sanitation a priority at the continental level".

Finally, Mr. Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, expressed his regret that water supply is lower than its demand, despite the stakeholders' constant efforts to make it available to all. Yet "Africa is a waterlogged planet", he added. He then pointed out the demographic growth as well as the increase of the living standards which "require increasing amount of water every day". Since the major responsibility of water operators is "to secure, treat, distribute and finally purify water", he suggested diversifying available resources as a solution to satisfy agricultural, industrial or domestic demand. Apart from pumping and transfer, Mr. Fauchon advocated for water desalination and water reuse, which represent " great sources of water for the future". Addressing the issue of dams, he acknowledged the negative feedback about their existence despite their absolute necessity. That is why he called on scientists and inventors to build new-generation dams that are more respectful of people, nature and ecosystems, which will not only make it possible to store water in a sustainable way but will also help to end local crises caused by the lack or low storage capacity.

It should be noted that the opening ceremony of AfWA 81st Scientific and Technical Council Meetings ended with the opening of the exhibition of hydraulic equipment service providers.

MASTER CLASS : PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND FEMALE LEADERSHIP

 CONTEXT

In line with its mission to promote exchanges and cooperation in the field of water and sanitation professional training, the African Water Association (AfWA) has been allocating efforts to gender mainstreaming since February 2016, with the creation of the African Women’s Network of Water and Sanitation Professionals. Thus, through its Scientific and Technical Council (STC) and its Specialized Commission "Administration and Management", the Association ensures members’ capacity building through master classes, symposia, training sessions, conferences or even field trips. In that light, the African Water Association has partnered with SOMAGEP SA/ SOMAPEP to organize a five- (05) day master class for a female audience on the theme: "Personal Development and Women’s Leadership" in Mali, from 29 april to 03 May 2019. The focus will be on the role and responsibilities of women and their ability to assert themselves as leader within a company through performance.

OVERALL OBJECTIVE

This training aims to provide participants with the key for improved self-confidence, for adding value to their skills and asserting themselves as women and leader in a company.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The participants at the end of this training will be able to:

• Dare asserting their ambition to become a woman leader;
• Identify and clear the hurdles to women's leadership in a company;
• Increased assertiveness and marketing one’s skills;
• Build self-confidence, and learn how to assert oneself;
• Build their capacities and resources through an increased knowledge of oneself;
• Assert oneself as a manager without appearing aggressive or being cunning;
• Manage conflicts and tricky situations with collaborators;
• Set up an organizational management system;
• develop an effective team management system;
• to understand the organizational, social and cultural aspects related to team management.

EXPECTED RESULTS

After having participated in this Master class, professional women will be able to:

• Overcome difficulties they encounter while moving up the job ladder and be aware of key milestones for a successful and well-handled career management for a woman;
• Develop qualities such as autonomy and accountability;
• Develop their capacities and resources through increased self-knowledge and confidence;
• Position oneself validly and with confidence to access leadership positions within the water and sanitation utilities in Africa.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target Audience shall not exceed 30 learners, and will specifically consist of water and sanitation professional women:

• Directors;
• Deputy Directors;
• Heads of Departments;
• Managers and other staff.

COST OF THE MASTER CLASS:

• Room rental fees, the coffee break and lunch are borne by potential sponsors.
• Costs incurred by media coverage will be borne by SOMAGEP SA/ SOMAPEP, which are the host utilities organizing the training.
• Participants to the Master class take care of their flight tickets, the expenses of hotels and food, except for official lunches or dinners offered during the training period.

TRAINERS

Trainers chosen and paid by the donors in agreement with AfWA, will be experts with required skills to carry out the master class. In addition to their resumes, the trainers will have to provide a curriculum (training program) for the Master class while submitting their application.

DATE AND VENUE

The Master Class will take place in Bamako, Mali from 29 april to 03 May 2019.

LANGUAGE

French and/or English.

The theme of World Water Day 2019 is " Leaving no one behind ".

Sustainable Development Goal 6 is crystal clear: water for all by 2030.

By definition, this means leaving no one behind. But today, billions of people are still living without safe water – their households, schools, workplaces, farms and factories struggling to survive and thrive. Marginalized groups – women, children, refugees, indigenous peoples, disabled people and many others – are often overlooked, and sometimes face discrimination, as they try to access and manage the safe water they need. This World Water Day, 22nd March, is about tackling the water crisis by addressing the reasons why so many people are being left behind.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, water is your human right.

Read more : https://www.worldwaterday.org

Started on Tuesday, February 19th, the joint Africasan 5 / FSM 5 conference ended on Thursday, February 21th, 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa with a call for action issued to governments and other stakeholders in the sanitation sector. Co-organized by the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) and the Alliance for Sustainable Sanitation (SuSanA), the conference addressed the theme: "Transforming sanitation in Africa: Accelerating progress towards the Ngor commitments to achieve the SDGs".

This conference was attended by about 1,500 participants from all over the world, including a strong delegation from AfWA. They were all committed to continuing advocacy mission and sharing best practices and innovations to improve feacal sludge's management and help meet the needs of 4.5 billion people who lack access to sustainable sanitation services. During the 3-day meeting, industry professionals, governments, decision-makers, public services, development partners, investors, industrialists and service providers had the opportunity to work together to coordinate, develop and share their knowledge to provide accessible and achievable solutions on a continental scale that would transform the sanitation environment in Africa.

The conference focused on practical solutions to sustainably manage the entire chain of autonomous sanitation services, including toilet, storage, emptying, transport, treatment and valorization of by-products, as an essential component of urban sanitation services at the urban level.