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Multi-level stakeholders’ participation in trans-boundary water management:

Experiences from the “Project for Improving Water Governance in the Volta

River Basin” (PAGEV)

By Ousmane S. DIALLO,

Regional Coordinator, Water & Wetlands Programme

Session on Managing Africa’s Trans-boundary Waters

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OUTLINE

What is PAGEV? Focus on Volta River Basin Multi-level stakeholders’ approach Governance structure Achievements Lessons learned Key Challenges

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What is PAGEV?

PAGEV: to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Burkina Faso and Ghana on shared water resources of the Volta Basin

Water and Nature Initiative (WANI): a worldwide initiative of the IUCN that seeks to demonstrate how to mainstream the ecosystem approach into river basin planning and management

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Focus on the Volta River Basin

West Africa : Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Togo (Ghana and Burkina Faso share ~85% of the basin area)

SA: 400,000 km2 ; Pop: 19 millions; increasingly becoming stressed as result of human activities

Enormous development challenges : need for trans-boundary coordination and cooperation on the management of the Volta Basin waters

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The Volta River Basin

Ghana

Burkina Faso

Mali

Benin

Cote d'Ivoire

Togo

Niger

Wa

Pô

Baï

Koro

Lomé

Bouna

Accra

Doropo

Tamalé

Ouankoro

Bondoukou

Lama Kara

Tanguieta

Ouahigouya

Bolgatenga

Natitingou

Ouagadougou

Bobo Dioulasso

­80 0 8040

Kilometers

MAP OF VOLTA BASIN SHOWING POLITICAL BOUNDARIES

Legend

Cities and Towns

White_Volta

Black_Volta

Oti_Pendjari

Dams and Lakes

mali

togo

benin

burkina

cote d'ivoire

ghana

Country SA (km2) % SA (Basin) % SA (country)

Côte d’Ivoire

9,890 2.48 3.1

Mali 12,430 3.12 1.0

Bénin 13,590 3.41 12.1

Togo 25,545 6.41 45.0

Ghana165,830 41.6 70.1

Burkina Faso 171,105 42.9 62.4

Total 398,390 100

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Multi-level stakeholders’ approach

NGOs & technical Structures

National and trans-boundary foraNational and trans-boundary fora

At Community level

Steering Committee

Key partners at local, national, trans-boundary levels: joint management of WR

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Governance structure

Multi-stakeholders forums for IWRM at the community, national and trans-boundary levels established to promote cooperation

Local Trans-boundary Committee

(14)

DGRE WRC

Cod

e of

C

ond

uct

Tra

ns-

bo

rder

Gu

idel

ine

s

JTC-IWRM/PAGEV

White Volta Basin Board

Nakambé Water Agency

Country CommitteeBURKINA FASO

Representatives of the Communities+ Technical Services

+ Administration+NGOs/Civil Society

(31)

Country CommitteeGHANA

Representatives of the Communities+ Technical Services

+ Administration+NGOs/Civil Society

(30)

Grassroots Communities4 villages BF

(12)

Grassroots Communities

4 villages GH

(12)

VOLTA BASIN AUTHORITY

MMEE MMEE MMEE MEEF

TOGO BURKINA FASO

BENIN GHANA MALI IVORY COAST

MAHRH MWRWH

Local and National fora of stakeholders

Linked to the transboundary structure

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Achievements

PAGEV supported the organization of the 1st meeting of the VBTC held in Ouagadougou on 14-15 March, 2005;

Bilateral Agreement: JTC-IWRM signed by the Ministers of the two countries in December 2005

Protocol establishing the VBA signed in July 2006;

Four (4) states among the six riparian countries have ratified the VBA Convention;

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Code of Conduct for the development & management of the shared waters and basin’s NR drafted by a working group and finalized by the JTC-IWRM in May 2006;

Establishment of national and trans-boundary fora and trans-boundary committee for the management of WR of the Nakanbe River in April 2008.

Achievements (cont’d)

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The MSA: slow, expensive and time consuming; but contributed to establish partnership between ministers, decentralized governmental structures at local levels, NGO’s and communities;

Community-level participation is powerful when outcomes are clearly and directly linked to the improvement of livelihood of participating communities;

Lessons learned

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Language barrier can be overcome with the commitment of stakeholders and governments to strong capacity building;

New approach for more sustainability by bringing national structures at the forefront of implementation of the activities and building capacity of water users committee.

Lessons learned (cont’d)

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Levels of decentralization in the countries;Changes of political leadership at local level; More integrated institutional framework ensuring

sustainability of actions;Expansion to new communities (3 in BF and 9 in

GH); Scaling-up of achievements in the Oti-sub-basin in Togo;

Development of partnerships with GEF-Volta, Volta-Hycos, MOB, PROGEREF, EU/IWRM-Volta…).

 

Key challenges

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Thank you for your attention