Across the Pond: Recent Episodes
Cooperation in International Waters in Africa
Welcome to Across the Pond, a podcast prepared by the Communications Team of CIWA, the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa hosted by the World Bank.This podcast invites you to discover how CIWA's support contributes to transform transboundary water management through conversations with our water champions all over Africa. READ, WATCH AND LISTEN TO MORE CIWA STORIES. Visit our website: www.CIWAPROGRAM.org and www.CIWAPROGRAM.org/fr ; Follow us on Twitter: #CIWAProgram, #WaterSHEroes, #ProgrammeCIWA, #HérEAUïnes
CIWA is playing a pivotal role by convening stakeholders around the goal of increasing the cadre of Sahelian groundwater specialists and improving their skill level. It supported a weeklong roundtable discussion in March 2022 in Nouakchott, Mauritania, which brought together academics responsible for training groundwater specialists in six countries to identify the main gaps in training and forge solutions.
The countries—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal—made a potentially transformative decision to both improve the quality of undergraduate training to retain students interested in groundwater studies and to create a common master’s degree program in hydrogeology. Because many Sahelians pursuing careers in groundwater must attend universities abroad to obtain advanced degrees and may remain overseas to work, a homegrown master’s degree program could reverse that trend and build up regional expertise.
“This roundtable made it possible to deepen the discussions, share experiences from each country, fill in the gaps, and find solutions,” said Dr. Seynabou Cisse Faye, a senior hydrogeologist and associate professor who is responsible for hydrogeology training in the Department of Geology at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar in Senegal. Listen to her in this new episode of our 'Across the Pond' podcast recorded in French.
The environmental integrity and long-term protection of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin depend on addressing the underlying drivers of poverty. Accelerated environmental changes in the basin are largely driven by four factors – population dynamics, land use change, poverty, and climate change – leading to deterioration in water quality, changes in the flood pulse and diminishing biota. The near pristine nature of the basin is a product of the relatively low level of economic development within the basin – the result of a complex geo-political history and the fact that the basin populations are remote relative to the countries’ capital cities and main centers of economic activity.
CIWA’s Cubango-Okavango Livelihood Enhancement Program is to support the Multisector Investment Opportunities Analysis used to develop long-term investment and livelihood improvement programs. There is an ongoing support for developing the next phase following MSIOA. The anticipated benefit for the region would be: Increased income, access to water, sanitation and sustainable energy, actions to address hunger and disease, and promotion of gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability...Listen to CIWA's Senior Water Management Specialist, Aleix Serrat Capdevila, to know more on this region of Southern Africa and discover how CIWA is supporting the transboundary water cooperation in Cubango/Okavango River Basin and to better understand the importance of preservation and conservation in that region.
Know more on CIWA Program in Southern Africa
https://www.ciwaprogram.org/southern-africa/
Kone Saramatou, Director of Hydrology at the Ministry of Hydraulic Works in Côte d'Ivoire, walks us through the Western African country's experience in being a part of regional cooperative efforts involving transboundary waters management.
The CIWA program is exploring ways to better align transboundary water cooperation efforts with biodiversity conservation goals, such as identifying opportunities at the intersection of transboundary waters management and freshwater biodiversity conservation. CIWA supports a range of biodiversity-related activities and continues to identify ways to further scale up biodiversity safeguarding interventions across the program.
Our guest today is Sarah Moyer, a Senior Environmental Specialist at the World Bank and CIWA. This podcast focuses on how CIWA is avidly supporting biodiversity in its programs and how protecting biodiversity is key to sustainably and cooperatively managing transboundary water bodies. The podcast also focuses on the creation of the Southern Africa Drought Resilience Initiative (SADRI) and how the initiative helps countries to better implement and coordinate drought resilience strategies.
CIWA-funded SADRI conducts analytical work to develop a better understanding of available water resources and how they are being utilized in the Pafuri-Sengwe Node of the Great Limpopo transfrontier conservation area (TFCA). The overarching goal is to support more climate-resilient communities so that they are better equipped to plan for and mitigate drought, which also contributes to a decrease in biodiversity loss.
Welcome to our Across the Pond Podcast. For this second episode, we will spotlight the new Nile Cooperation for Climate Resilience (NCCR) Project. Financed by the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa(CIWA) and approved in April 2021, senior water resources management specialists Jackie Tront and Anders Jagerskog led the team that prepared this US$30 million NCCR Project.
Our guest today is Anders Jagerskog, who will summarize the NCCR Project’s overall goals, thematic areas, and how the project provides a platform for the Nile Basin countries to build resilience in the Basin. The NCCR Project also aims to deepen and strengthen the mechanisms and tools that manage Nile water resources cooperatively.
The NCCR Project is part of the ongoing support provided by CIWA to the Nile Basin region. CIWA’s long-term goals in the Nile Basin region feature multiple initiatives that support cooperative engagements among countries, as well as create a platform for dialogue and stakeholder engagement. This podcast series examines CIWA’s many programs and their goals to boost development, reduce tension, prevent conflict, and foster robust transboundary cooperation throughout the continent of Africa.
Reginalda Joseph, an alumna of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)- Groundwater Management Institute (GMI) ‘s Young Professional (YP) program shares her experience. She explains why more women must take charge and lead the decision-making process in the water sector. Reginalda is now Hydrogeologist at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, in Namibia. Listen to CIWA's first exciting podcast.
https://www.ciwaprogram.org/blog/women-must-lead-africas-water-resources-decisions-for-improving-management/