The Southern African Development Community (SADC), in collaboration with the Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), and with the technical support of the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), is scheduled to convene the 10th SADC River Basin Organisations / Shared Watercourse Institutions (RBOs/SWIs) Workshop on 2-4 October 2023.
The workshop will be held in a hybrid format, and the physical event will be hosted in Maputo by the Government of Mozambique through the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources (MOPHRH).
The theme of the workshop is “Promoting water security through inclusive transboundary conjunctive management and development of water resources.”
The workshop aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas that will enhance effective transboundary water resources planning, development, and management in the region whilst ensuring environmental sustainability and resilience, to improve regional water security towards poverty reduction, and increase regional integration, economic productivity, and industrialisation.
The event is also intended to support the efforts of SADC Member States regarding the establishment, institutional development, and strengthening of RBOs/SWIs, as well as other transboundary water resources development and management mechanisms in the region.
RBOs and SWIs will share various experiences and lessons on strategies on development and implementation of transboundary projects and programmes, best practices on establishing flood forecasting and early warning systems (FFEWS) and decision support systems (DSS) in the SADC region, approaches and lessons learned in the development of RBO information management systems.
Procedures and implementation of the notification of planned measures in SADC as well as strategies towards strengthening groundwater management governance in RBOs/SWIs will also form part of the outcomes of the workshop.The SADC RBOs/SWIs Workshop is a biennial event, which is organised with the aim of engaging RBOs as a vehicle for strengthening regional integration and cooperation.
The workshop further serves as a forum for RBOs/SWIs to share experiences and learn from each other. It is also used to build consensus on the region’s strategic approaches being promoted by SADC to increase water security and resilient development in the region.
This year’s event will bring together representatives RBOs/SWIs, SADC Member States, regional institutions, funders (such as development finance institutions, international financiers, climate funds, official development assistance funders and private financiers) and other key SADC sectors (including energy, food security and trade.)
The base funding support for the workshop is provided by the GIZ through the Transboundary Water Management in the SADC Region (TWM) and Climate Resilience and Natural Resources Management (CNRM) programmes.
Other funding will come from the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the SADC Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI), the Komati Basin Water Authority (KOBWA), RBOs/SWIs and other SADC implementing agencies in the region.
