News
Nairobi, Republic of Kenya – September 6, 2023 – The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) held a two-day East Africa Sub-Regional Ministerial Consultation and Technical Expert Committee Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The event, which took place from September 6 to 7, 2023, convened key stakeholders to discuss critical water and sanitation issues facing the Eastern Africa region. The Governance Framework of AMCOW requires that its subsidiary bodies such as the Sub-Regional Ministerial Committees (SRMCs) and Technical Expert Committees (TECs), hold annual meetings. This is essential to ensure that the decisions of the Governing Council are informed and influenced by the real needs of the Member States across Sub-Regions. Against this background, the East Africa Sub-Regional meeting was held to discuss key water priorities that are unique to the Sub-Region.
The Director Department of Transboundary Water Resources, Ministry of Water and Sanitation and Irrigation, Mrs Gladys Wekesa chaired the meeting. In her remarks, she stated that the consultation is a significant follow-up to the 13th Ordinary Session of the AMCOW Council of Ministers held from June 13 to 15, 2023 in Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt.
During the meeting, experts discussed vital topics, including AMCOW Secretariat’s financial progress report from January 2023 to June 2023, progress towards the achievement of goals of the 2008 Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration on water and sanitation, the post-2025 Africa Water Vision, and the AfricaSan 7 Conference, Action on Water Adaptation and Resilience (AWARe) Initiative, and Africa’s preparatory process towards the 10th World Water Forum to be held in May 2024 in Indonesia.
This subregional meeting also presented an opportunity for AMCOW to highlight several ongoing initiatives and key events, including the AMCOW Youth and Gender Inclusion (YoGI) Strategy, and AMCOW’s Communications and Visibility Strategy and the Africa’s Voice on Water (AVoW) magazine. Further discussions were on the preparations towards the Africa Water Facility (AWF) Governing Council Meeting, the 5th Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDW), and the Cairo Water Week 2023.
Overall, the consultation is a critical platform for fostering cooperation, sharing knowledge, and making collective decisions to address the water challenges in the regions. AMCOW remains committed to advancing water-related issues for the benefit of the people and the environment across the five Sub-Regions in Africa. The proposed decisions reached by the Technical Experts Committee were documented in the Aide Memoire and recommended for submission for the consideration of the Ministerial Council.
