29 January 2013: The inception workshop of the Water, Climate and Development Programme (WACDEP) in Burkina Faso took place on 14 December 2013, in Ouagadougou, and validated a study carried out by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) office in Burkina Faso that finds that climate change will have a strong impact on the country’s water security and negatively impact most economic sectors.

The study also stresses that water security in the country remains precarious, and notes that capacity to respond to climate change-related risks is weak and limited.

The workshop, which was presided over by Sabné Kouanda, representative of the Ministry for Agriculture and Water of Burkina Faso, brought together stakeholders in the water, agriculture and environment sectors, as well as the country’s strategic partners. The workshop also saw the setting up of the Monitoring and Guidance Committee of the WACDEP in Burkina Faso by the Paul Savadogo, representative of the Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development.

According to GWP, the launch of the WACDEP in Burkina Faso provides an opportunity to make progress towards a greater water security through options that enable the adaptation of technical and socioeconomic systems to a changing climate.

The implementation of WACDEP in Burkina Faso for the period 2012-2016 is already supported by approximately 400 million CFA Francs. The implementation will focus on: support to the integration of water security and climate adaptation in development planning and decision making; support to the development of financing and ‘no regret’ investment strategies; the selection and financing of pilot projects; the awareness raising of actors involved in the monitoring and follow up, with a focus on sustainable water management; and the strengthening of the national partnership for water of Burkina Faso.

The WACDEP stems from the Declaration of the Summit of African Heads of State of Sharma-el Sheikh (Egypt, 2008) and translated into a programme of action by the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) with the collaboration of GWP. It aims to integrate water security and climate resilience in development planning, develop partnerships and capacities to build resilience to climate change through better water management, and develop ‘no regret’ financing and investment strategies for water security and climate change adaptation. The programme is carried out by GWP and covers eight African countries, four transnational water basins, and one aquifer shared between two countries (Burkina Faso and Ghana), as well as the Volta basin in west Africa.

GWP was founded in 1996 by the World Bank, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) to foster integrated water resources management (IWRM). [GWP Press Release (in French)] [WACDEP Website]