African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW)

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African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW)
Dr. Jaiafar Abubakar Sedeeq, Head
AMCOW Secretariat
Federal Ministry of Water Resources
PMB 159 Garki, Abuja, Nigeria

Tel. 234 9 2342891
Fax: 234 9 2342895

E-mail: amcow2@yahoo.com

Hon. Maria Mutagamba, Council President, maria@mwle.go.ug

Description

Ministers responsible for water in 41 African countries formed AMCOW to promote cooperation, security, socio-economic development and poverty eradication through the management of water resources and the provision of water supply services. AMCOW aims to:

• Keep the state of Africa’s water under review and promote desirable actions of common interest to Africa;
• Facilitate regional and international cooperation through coordinating policies and actions among African countries on water resources issues;
• Support transnational cooperation on water-related issues through developing common positions on matters of global concern and cooperation in implementing relevant conventions and international agreements to encourage mechanisms that promote best practices in water policy reforms, IWRM, food security, water supply and sanitation;
• Promote participation in regional studies on climate change, develop observation networks, encourage information exchange on strategies for managing water resources during droughts or floods and develop policies and strategies to arrest the water crisis in Africa; and
• Review and seek strengthening water sector financing in Africa.

UNEP’s Regional Office for Africa supports AMCOW, including via the AMCOW Trust Fund to which it has contributed US$100,000.UNEP also collaborated with AMCOW to review implementation of water policies in preparation of the thirteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-13) and has international partnerships with a wide range of External Support Agencies (ESAs) like the World Bank, EIB, EC, African Development Bank, and bilateral agencies of Canada, Japan, the United States and France.

Track Record

Since its establishment, AMCOW has won international recognition for its efforts to address water challenges in Africa. The goals and objectives of continental bodies have provided inspiration for its work. It has established the AWF, with targeted funding of over US$600 million for medium-term projects on water and sanitation. At the Pan-African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water (PANAFCON), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in December 2003, AMCOW endorsed the portfolios of key water initiatives submitted by each of the five sub-regions. This constituted the first consolidated portfolio of priority water initiatives from the sub-regional to regional levels and provided a stronger basis for engaging development cooperation partners.

Additionally, AMCOW has endorsed the Water for African Cities Program and the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) supported by the African Development Bank. It has also entered into a strategic partnership with the European Union (EU) to support programs in the areas of river and lake basins; water supply and sanitation; finance; research; and, monitoring.

The major AMCOW achievements include the following:

• Compilation of key water portfolios for Africa’s five sub-regions
• Establishment of the African Water Facility (AWF) hosted and managed by the African Development Bank, the Rural Water and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) for Africa targeting attainment of 80 per cent access to rural water supply and sanitation by 2015.
• Water for African Cities (Phase II) which implemented by UN-HABITAT in partnership with UNEP
• The European Water Resources Initiative (EUWI) for Africa
• The German G8 Project for Water Resources Management for Africa
• The African Ministers Initiative for Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (AMIWASH)
• The African Water Journal launched in December 2003
• Establishment of a Trust Fund under UNEP

AMCOW is actively engaged in keeping the state of Africa’s water under review and promoting actions of common interest by stakeholders. AU heads of state and government, at their second Extraordinary Session in 2004, declared support for AMCOW and its role in developing plans and policies on the management of Africa’s water resources. The Sirte Declaration also recommended integrating AMCOW into the AU as one of its Specialized Technical Committees.

Challenges

According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the African continent is the most vulnerable to climate change. Runoff and water availability are expected to decline in the northern and southern regions of the continent; and the frequency of floods and droughts will increase. As a result, 25 African countries will experience water scarcity or water stress over the next 20–30 years. Some of these changes are already happening. The flow of Africa’s rivers has been declining over the past 10 years. Large donors like USAID and DFID are funding projects on managing the impact of climate change in the developing world. However, these are unlikely to have any major impact while political will to reduce CO2 emissions in the North is weak. However, while it is clear that climate change is going to impact on water resources worldwide and thus create considerable potential for conflict, there is consensus among researchers that “poverty and the lack of institutions to manage conflicts are more important reasons for conflict than actual scarcity”.

Opportunities

In addition, the role of informal customary water management at the grassroots level should not be ignored, though poorly understood. In most sub-Saharan African states, statutory law coexists with (although it does not acknowledge) traditional customary law (and, in many areas, Islamic law) that regulates access to and distribution of water resources. Traditional actors and institutions have received little attention by state agencies and international organizations occupied with IWRM. However, in order to build trust and understanding (and project sustainability) it is necessary in the interests of conflict prevention, to recognize and include them.

Although institution-building and (trans-boundary) water management have come a long way in Africa giving reason for optimism with regard to water-related CPMR, major shortcomings could spark conflict, and will have to be addressed more vigorously in the future. The key to addressing some of these shortcomings, lies in developing meaningful structures for stakeholder participation at the local level.