INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE 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

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE OUTLINE What is PAGEV? Focus on Volta River Basin Multi-level stakeholders’ approach Governance structure Achievements Lessons learned Key Challenges

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE 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

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE 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 km 2 ; 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

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE The Volta River Basin CountrySA (km 2 )% SA (Basin)% SA (country) Côte d’Ivoire 9, Mali 12, Bénin 13, Togo 25, Ghana 165, Burkina Faso171, Total398,390100

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE Multi-level stakeholders’ approach NGOs & technical Structures National and trans-boundary fora At Community level Steering Committee Key partners at local, national, trans- boundary levels: joint management of WR

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE Governance structure Multi-stakeholders forums for IWRM at the community, national and trans- boundary levels established to promote cooperation Local Trans-boundary Committee (14) DGREWRC Code of Conduct Trans- border Guideline s JTC- IWRM/ PAGEV White Volta Basin Board Nakambé Water Agency Country Committee BURKINA FASO Representatives of the Communities + Technical Services + Administration +NGOs/Civil Society (31) Country Committee GHANA Representatives of the Communities + Technical Services + Administration +NGOs/Civil Society (30) Grassroots Communities 4 villages BF (12) Grassroots Communities 4 villages GH (12) VOLTA BASIN AUTHORITY MMEE MEEF TOGOBURKINA FASO BENINGHANAMALIIVORY COAST MAHRHMWRWH Local and National fora of stakeholders Linked to the transboundary structure

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE Achievements  PAGEV supported the organization of the 1 st meeting of the VBTC held in Ouagadougou on 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;

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE  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 Achievements (cont’d)

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE  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

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE  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)

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE  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

INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE Thank you for your attention