Burkina Faso - IWRM Support Project in the Mouhoun Basin
The Mouhoun Water Agency (AEM) and the Seine-Normandy Water Agency (Agence de l'eau Seine Normandie, AESN).) signed in 2013 and renewed in 2017 a cooperation agreement for the development of joint actions in the field of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and decentralised cooperation. This protocol promotes: "exchange and technical cooperation between the two signatory parties in the area of IWRM and decentralised cooperation, based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit, and concerted efforts to create and implement programmes, projects and joint actions".
The areas of cooperation concern :
- Consolidating IWRM governance and planning
- Improving water data management
- Strengthening sustainable financing mechanisms
- Capacity building of water policing services
- Organising meetings and study visits in Burkina Faso and France
Providing an expert on site to coordinate and support the activities.
Through capacity building and technical assistance, support is transversal focused on the IWRM issues in the priority area: development and implementation of the Samendéni-Sourou SAGE, Basin Committees and Local Water Committees stakeholders’ mobilisation, water knowledge management and sustainable financing mechanisms.
The support programme aims for the following main results:
- The AEM and AESN experiences sharing at priority area level will bring a concrete and operational dimension to the approach.
- To allow complementarity of the action implemented at the pilot area level, the work to forge links with the initiatives of regional, national and international stakeholders (decentralised cooperation agents in particular) will be consolidated.
- To facilitate skills sharing and local relay, the activities will be systematically carried out through coupling Burkinabè and French expertises (experts work in tandem).
- Sub-regional activities will consolidate experiences sharing on IWRM mechanisms in West Africa (floods, drought, preservation of ecosystems, sustainable financing mechanisms).
- Capacity building and communication on the project will be done with several categories of stakeholders: AEM General Management experts, Local Water Committee members, as well as members of the Basin Committee and the Board of Directors.
