DAY1 - Monday 21st of March

The Occitanie Region is present in Dakar both on the business side with its attractiveness agency and its Aquavalley competence pole, but also on the political level with its Vice-President in charge of water resources. It also has many cooperations with actors / NGOs that will be present. The side-events aims at gathering and networking the "Occitanie family" present in Dakar. Format: exchange + cocktail

Objectives:
(i) To report on the progress made in access to water and sanitation in the 5 G5 Sahel member countries;
(ii) Present the level of technical and financial mobilization of the Sahel Alliance;
(iii) Hear the vision of each Minister to accelerate mobilization for the sector.
Expected outcome: roadmaps for sector reforms to be implemented in order to meet the challenges of the sector

Objectives :
• Share experiences and good practices in the design and implementation of shared-benefit projects (adaptation and mitigation) in the water sector,
• Promote the integrated management of water resources in the various economic sectors while taking into account climate change;
• Identify and prioritize actions, projects and financing tools for ensuring water security and climate change adaptation and mitigation;
• Identify Capacity needs of countries for achieving SDGs 6 and 13 through the implementation of water-related NDCs.

The objective of this panel is to allow participants to discuss the challenges and issues related to water security in Senegal and to formulate concrete recommendations for a better integration of the water security approach in policies, strategies and programs. The panel will present:
- The challenges and issues related to water security in Senegal;
- The issues of governance of BR and sectoral policy for a good IWRM;
- The organizational and legal framework of IWRM for a good implementation of water security;

The "Dakar 2021 Initiative" aims, during the preparatory phase of the Forum, to select, label and popularize relevant, innovative, structuring and replicable national, regional and international projects, producing short-term results with a sustainable impact around the Forum's priorities, and whose purpose is to contribute to the acceleration of the achievement of the SDGs, and more particularly of SDG6.
The Dakar 2022 Initiative is the materialization of the vision: "From commitment to implementation of concrete actions on the ground".

The EU-WOP Programme is a four-year initiative, led by UN-Habitat’s Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) and funded by the European Commission IntPA. The program is enabling twenty-two international Water Operators’ Partnerships projects, involving over 50 partner organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the coming three years, in boosting the capacity and performance of utilities with the support of their peers.

Objective:
This is the public launch session for the Nature for Water Facility, a technical assistance facility designed to provide a suite of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) consultancy services for water security. The session will highlight why NbS matter, provide case studies of their successful impact, describe the value proposition of this new program, and showcase how members of the global water sector community can partner and deliver on-the-ground watershed results.

The African Ministers responsible for water critically examining the global water situation and its implication for Africa in 2002 adopted the "Abuja Ministerial Declaration on Water – a key to Sustainable Development in Africa". This declaration established the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW). AMCOW is an intergovernmental institution of the African Union. The vision of AMCOW is an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional co-operation and the environment.

In 2017, the Global High-Level Panel on Water and Peace launched its report “A Matter of Survival” with recommendations on how to promote water as an instrument for cooperation and peace, including through innovative financing for water cooperation. At the 9th session (2021) of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1992 Water Convention, the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) launched the publication on Funding and Financing transboundary water cooperation and basin development, also presenting innovative Financing Initiatives, including the Blue Peace Financing Initiative.

The session seeks to engage to the voices of rural communities, youth, mayors and other local actors, as well as the financial sector in order to include their perspectives into the dialogue on financing water.

These shared perspectives can help shape and influence global initiatives, including the Roundtable on Financing Water and the OECD Global Observatory on Financing Water Supply, Sanitation and Water Security