CAF to Coordinate Finance Issues at Upcoming World Water Forum

During the 69th edition of the World Water Council Board of Governors Meeting, CAF, the World Bank, FAO, and UNESCO, among others, announced an agreement to work on common projects that strengthen the relationship between science and public water policy. 

WWC President Loïc Fauchon proposed to divide the Work Plan into thematic areas, which will include documents, conferences and coming events, such as the 9th World Water Forum, which will be held in Dakar during the third week of March 2021. The subjects include water security, global changes, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and finance. At the request of the WWC president, the Board of Governors proposed CAF as coordinator of the latter.

CAF Water Agenda coordinator Franz Rojas thanked the WWC’s vote of confidence, and encouraged the other members to join an effort to address this uniquely important issue in order to enable compliance with Sustainable Development Goal No. 3, which urges countries to "ensure the availability of water and its sustainable management and sanitation for all".  

The WWC brings together as many as 376 organizations from all regions of the world and has a Board of Governors that is elected every three years. Elections for the 2019-2022 period were held last November, with CAF the most voted institution.

CAF also participated in the kick-off session of the 9th World Water Forum, which took place Nov. 20 and 21 in Diamnadio, Senegal. More than 600 experts attended this meeting to discuss the structure and content of the Forum. Franz Rojas participated in the "Water Security" and the "Means and Instruments" panels, the latter focusing on central aspects of the water agenda: knowledge, finance, and governance. During the plenary session, Rojas emphasized the need to consider the prerequisites for greater investment, which include planning and final design studies, as well as those necessary to ensure the sustainability of the infrastructure to be built within the framework of the programs and projects financed by the institution, with a holistic approach that takes as its conceptual basis the Integrated Management of Water Resources.

Academic sector representatives, together with public policymakers, international organizations, and civil society and private sector members contributed a variety of innovative perspectives, experiences, and recommendations for building the Forum’s program. The closing ceremony was presided over by Kenyan Water and Sanitation Minister Simon Chelugi and his Senegalese counterpart Serigne Mbaye Thiam, who took the opportunity to urge the mobilization of all involved parties, saying that the well-being of communities deserves that everyone focuses their “best energies” on this process.