As part of the on-going capacity development activities of the Wetlands and Poverty Reduction Project – a project of Wetlands International funded by the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry (DGIS) - two stakeholder workshops were held in March 2006 in Dakar, Senegal and in Naivasha, Kenya. The purpose of these workshops were to undertake a training and skills need analysis for both West and East Africa to improve the mainstreaming of sustainable wetlands management principles into development agendas and such policy instruments as PRSPs (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers).

In addition to training and capacity building, other result areas of the project are focussed on:

For more information regarding the project please visit http://www.wetlands.org/publication.aspx?ID=75b4a7da-d646-4b59-aba3-019c222dbce9

The African workshops were facilitated by professionals from various organisations such as Wageningen International (Formerly IAC), UNESCO-IHE, Oxfam America, Wetlands International, KWSTI and consultants.

Taking part in the workshop were participants from various national government ministries in both sub-regions, regional and local NGOs and CBOs , development aid organisations such as the UNDP, ADB, as well as representatives of the water and wetlands sectors such as water the Niger Basin Authority and Ramsar.

Following four days of knowledge sharing, discussion and deliberation by the participants, it was agreed to make a statement calling on their respective governments to consider Wetlands in their development planning processes. In spite of the workshops being held in seperate sub-regions and on different dates, their individual calls to government were highly consistent with one another, and through further consultation they agreed to the attached common declaration.

Full workshops reports and the subsequent capacity building framework developed from the consultations will soon be available on Wetlands International website.

Furthermore, the WPRP will shortly be consitituting a Training Board to help guide the development of modular training courses aimed at addressing the capacity building needs identified in the workshops. To facilitate the implementation of these courses, the WPRP will develop a Training of Trainers workshop, designed to strengthen local technical capacity to implement these courses through established regional and national institutions. It is expected that the first regional training will be held by January 2007.

For additional details on the Training and Capacity Building activities of the WPRP, or other aspects of the project, please contact:

Tunde Ojei
Capacity Building Coordinator
Wetlands International
P.O Box 471,
6700 AL Wageningen,
The Netherlands

Email: Tunde.ojei@wetlands.org
Direct Tel: +31 317 478866
Fax: +31 317 478850

Workshop Declaration and lists of participants (PDF)