The development of the thematic content of the Forum is proceeding well thanks to the strong involvement of the members of the working groups. Following the establishment of the 23 action groups in March 2020, actors from all over the world (Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia) and from different sectors (Governments, private sector, civil society, universities, financial institutions...) have worked hard.
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, the action groups took advantage of the 9th Forum's Digital Collaborative Platform "Disso", which means consultations, exchanges in Wolof, to discuss the actions to be promoted towards Dakar 2021. Following the discussions, the first proposals for actions were submitted to the pilot groups for advice and suggestions on 15 July 2020. They cover the 23 sub-themes of the Forum and constitute a synthesis of types of interventions targeting a wide range of stakeholders with a potential for innovation, replicability and sustainability.
They may also refer to projects or activities related to: (a) awareness-raising; (b) capacity development; (c) dialogue; (d) sharing of good practices; (e) partnership for action; (f) infrastructure/service development, etc.; The objective is to arrive at tangible responses that can contribute to the objectives of the various global water agendas related to SDGs, the Sendai agreement on natural risks and disasters, the Paris agreement on climate, the OIC water vision, the African agenda 2063, etc.
To this end, the first proposals are currently being reviewed by the pilot groups for :
-Alignment of actions in relation to the SDGs ;
-Coherence between projects/activities within the same action ;
-No overlap with other actions and duplication of projects ;
-Representativeness of the stakeholders and actors involved ;
-Regional representativeness ;
-Duplicabilty of the project.
Following this evaluation, the DISSO platform will be open to the respective consultative grups of the 23 action groups for more inclusiveness. To this end, the consultative groups will be able to :
-Give feedback on the actions;
-Ask to contribute to a project;
-Suggest other projects/activities to integrate an action through the specific framework.
Prior to the conclusion of the consultation process and the finalization of three actions, a series of webinars will be organized for each priority. Thus, under the chairmanship of the co-chairs, the webinars will be facilitated by the coordinators of the action groups. The objective of these webinars will be to share the outcomes of the reflections already carried out and to collect opinions and suggestions of other stakeholders.
In addition to the members of the working groups, the webinars will be open to all interested stakeholders, in order to collect expectations, suggestions and contributions from as many people as possible with the aim of enriching the content of the Forum and to ensure broad participation and inclusion. Congratulations to the members of the working groups who are showing great commitment to ensure that the thematic content of the Forum is of high quality.
