The General Assembly of the French Water Partnership took place on the 31st of January 2013. More than 70 of its members were present, representing the 6 colledges of the FWP ( NGOs, private businesses, the state, water agencies, scientific institutions and so on). This assembly discussed the orientation of the work that the FWP will undertake in the coming years and redifined its governance.

Monsieur Henri Begorre, Mayor of Maxeville, was re-elected for a new mandate as president of the FWP, and a new board of administrators and bureau was designated.  

During this meeting the members of the board decided to reinforce  their collaboration, to strenghten  the french voice of water within the international arena, notably for the international year of water cooperation of the United Nations (2013) and the World Water Forum of Daegu, in South Korea (2015).

05/02/2013

I would like to send you my best wishes for the year 2013, a year which will be placed on the path of a more sustainable development, at the professional and personal level.

The French Water Partnership (FWP), of which I have the honor to be the president, will take on new ambitions for this new year, so as to enhance the expertise of its members internationally and contribute to the inclusion of water in the global political agenda.

After a first successful phase of activities, which started in 2007 and ended in March 2012,  with the World Water Forum in Marseille, the partnership has been mandated by its members,  to become an autonomous legal structure in July 2012. This new structure will pursue the work started in the previous years and develop new activities so as to express further the voice of water within European and other international conference than the World Water Forum, start a dialogue with areas where water is a fundamental activity such as agriculture, energy, climate, and ensure the implementation  of the commitments made by French actors at the Forum of Marseille.

The definition of these new ambitions will reflect the will of its members. The 31 of January 2013 the general assembly of the French Water Partnership will be held, and be the occasion to express this will and consult all the FWP’s members. This goes in line with FWP wish to create a strong and sustainable multi-actor platform with strong consensual messages and an integrative framework.

I take the time here to warmly thank all FWP’s members for their implication, contributions and support since 2007 and their will to open up a new page for the issue of water in the international arena.

Henri Bégorre

President of the French Water Partnership

 14/01/2013

The FWP has been mandated to participate in the monitoring of the implementation of the commitments made at the World Water Forums ( starting with the one of Marseille 2012) and  continue the thematic work undertaken during these Forums.

 Thus, the FWP will continue the substantive work led by its working groups and carry their contributions to the international arena.

 January 2013 will be a month dedicated to the consolidation of these working groups, wich will be asked to draw up action plans for the next three years (2013 – 2015) on the way to the 7^th World Water Forum of Daegu.

These plans will be available on the website of the FWP.

Meetings in January:
- January 9, 2013: Water and Food Security
- January 15, 2013: Working groups: The right to water and sanitation and the post 2015 Development
- January 21, 2013: French working group on the issue of water and adaptation to climate change
- January 22, 2013: Strategic meeting co-organized with United Cities France on the 1% Law Oudin Santini on decentralized cooperation

During the World Water Forum of Marseille, the Secours Catholique (member of the FWP), Caritas International and a number of other volunteers have presented WIKIWATER a great tool for water users.

What is it?

According to United Nations’ experts, nearly 2 billion people have no access to potables water and 2.5 billion people are lacking basicsanitation. The result – more than 4 million people ( a majority of them children) die every yearfrom water-born diseases or as a result of improper sanitation.

Poor but rich in talent, these people are willing to take charge of this problem provided easy access to the means best suited and least expensive, with minimal help and advice.

That’s the aim of WIKIWATER which offers simple, clear, precise documentation that encourages action. WIKIWATER contains about 100 files, each one 4 or 5 pages long with illustrations, covering a variety of subjects. The files are organized into four sections: “Water access” (linkage, storage,  distribution), “sanitation” (latrines, wastewater collection, ecological treatment, healthand hygiene awareness raising) and ”financial means” (service pricing, subsidization) and “hygiene education and service governance” (village management committees, user associations, public services, etc.).

Who is it for?

First and foremost, for the populations concerned, their leaders; heads of villages, neighbourhoods, communities, management committees, etc.

Secondly, local officials as well as local, regionalor even national technical departments that are in charge of applying water access and sanitation policies.

 Lastly, the website is intended for various local or international development players, such as NGos, international solidarity organizations, other international institutions and research.

To know more visit the website :

http://www.wikiwater.fr/

Brochure : wikiwater

20/12/2012

The President of the FWP was present during the High Level Forum 2012 : Water and Sanitation for Africa, WSA on the 12 – 14 of December in Senegal. 

This forum was organised by the Pan-African Intergovernmental Agency, a leader institution in the development of innovating and sustainable solutions in the field of water and sanitation to provide water and sanitation access to all africans.  

High level government representatives attened the meeting from around 20 African countries. The theme of this year’s forum was :  « Innovating financing for access to water and sanitation in Africa » 

The participation of the FWP in this event was an excellent opportunity to be at the heart of exchanges and debates related to water and sanitation in the african continent, a continent of which countries the FWP members work extensively. This participation allowed for the FWP to picture and see opportunities for future collaboration and partnerships.  

Visit the website of the event : http://www.wsafrica.org/

14/12/2012

The French Water Partnership (FWP) took part in the 6^th Africities Summit held in Dakar from 4 to 8 December. This Summit focused on the construction of Africa starting with its regions and local authorities. 5,000 representatives from the public and private sectors, including nearly 3,000 mayors and local elected officials, were in attendance.

The FWP’s participation was an opportunity to learn about the latest changes affecting this great continent in order to define partnerships between French and African water stakeholders to meet the remaining challenges.

The major objective in this sector concerns access to water and sanitation for all Africans.

In Africa today, the objective set by the international community in 2000 for water in 2015 – reduce the number of people without access to water of improved quality in half – will be hard to meet. The objective set for sanitation – reduce the number of people without access to sanitation in half – has no chance of being met.

This situation explains why water is the leading cause of death on the African continent.

Two mechanisms are at the heart of the debates for meeting these objectives:

- Decentralising skills and means and finding a fair balance between the responsibilities of governments and those of local authorities.

Many studies presented at Africities showed that the countries that have made the most progress on the road to decentralisation have moved forward faster than the others toward meeting the development objectives set by the international community. Various initiatives were taken at this Summitfor local authorities in Africa to get organised to put greater pressure on their governments (“decentralisation has to be deserved”).

- Implementing financial mechanisms for solidarity between rich and poor populations in developing countries and between developed and developing countries.

Several examples were given in presentations, such as Greater Dakar and Niger, which plan to set up such mechanisms as a priority to speed up access to sanitation for their disadvantaged populations.

The experience of French stakeholders in favour of such mechanisms will soon comprise the basis for their collective relations with African stakeholders through the FWP:

- responsibilities for public water and sanitation services acquired by French local authorities as part of the decentralisation policy carried out in our country, monitoring the effectiveness of these services and relations with users;

- decentralised cooperation between authorities and water agencies in France and abroad (Thiollière Law and Oudin-Santini Law), domestic solidarity in France (Cambon Law).

On this basis, the Chairman of the FWP, Henri Bégorre, Vice-President of Grand Nancy and Mayor of Maxéville, will take part in the meeting of African Water Ministers to be held inDakarfrom 12 to 14 December. He will notably meet withNiger’s Minister of Hydraulics and the Environment and with elected officials from Dakar.

9/12/2012

As part of the French delegation, the French Water Partnership (FWP) took part in the 18^th United Nations Climate Change Conference held inDoha from 26 November to 3 December.

Water remained a secondary subject in the discussions at the Conference, even though there is every reason to believe that this subject will become a central concern for the future, notably in the context of defining adaptation strategies.

A certain consensus was found at Doha that adaptation strategies should be ramped up alongside mitigation strategies. Many countries from the South expressed their need for short-term national adaptation given the foreseeable rise in temperatures due to the delays observed in reducing greenhouse gases. Water can be seen here as a strong concern in the adaptation policies for agriculture and food safety.

The FWP’s work after the Conference

The Doha Conference brought forward the need to orient work at the FWP and at UNESCO IHP along the following three lines:

- the world of water can act through better systemic management of environments (flows, water quality and regulation) and better management of demand (adaptation of uses) by promoting techniques that are more economical with resources,

- it is of outmost importance to manage and understand climate uncertainties. Once the uncertainties related to the climate are recognised as essential, irreducible parameters, they must be included in forward-looking approaches,

- the question of socioeconomic development in countries of the South and its synergies and antagonisms for adaptation strategies need to be taken into account.

For this, the FWP will:

- pursue the work undertaken at the World Water Forum with UNESCO IHP on defining new tools to strengthen expertise in managing climate uncertainties and global changes in water planning,

- mobilise the French Ministry of Ecology in view of implementing a platform for information exchange on the European level for sharing the experience and knowledge acquired.

 Flyer of recommendations and work undertaken by the FWP and UNESCO IHP regarding Water and Climate Change Adaptation : 2010 10 10 flyer_tsg332

03/12/12

The FWP at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar (COP 18) from 26 November to 7 December 2012.

The French Water Partnership is attending Doha to expand its network of influence and to showcase the work carried out at the Marseille Forum on the challenges of “Water and Climate Change” with its partners, including UNESCO IHP.

Indeed, water does not hold the place it should in climate negotiations given the impact that such changes have on water resources and the adaptation measures to be adopted. Climate change is going to increase the number of extreme events such as floods and harm to populations, as well as droughts making water shortages even worse due to the ever-growing demand.

The FWP will notably take part in the following sessions:

• IPCC report, 28 November
• Policy followed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF/FEM), 30 November
• Adaptation in the agricultural world, 3 December.

The FWP’s participation is part of an approach aiming to bring international stakeholders together to mobilise around the topic of “Water and Climate Change”.

25/11/2012

Oujda (Morocco), 9 and 10 October 2012

At this meeting organised by Global Water Solidarity (GWS), the FWP contributed to the Motion adopted for the wide-scale development and multiplication of innovative Decentralised Solidarity Mechanisms for universal access to drinking water and sanitation in the Mediterranean.

This Motion aims to:

Encourage, at the respective level of institutions, the necessary, relevant actions for promoting the implementation and expansion of Decentralised Solidarity Mechanisms as defined in this Motion;

Promote the emergence of additional financial, technical and institutional resources, as well as improving access to existing financing, to meet the challenges facing infra-governmental institutions to ensure sustainable, universal access to water and sanitation services;

Sharing, throughout the Mediterranean world, the multitude of precious experiences with solidarity mechanisms (international, national, watersheds and local), identifying potential partners and encouraging new partnerships;

Provide support to concerned partners for carrying out projects for access to water and sanitation;

Prioritise actions for the most vulnerable users (women, children, refugees, poor people, people living in war zones, minority groups, etc.), environmentally sensitive areas and rural areas;

Make a proposal to the Global Water Solidarity for drawing up a multi-annual plan of action and integration of a Mediterranean regional platform. The purpose of this Platform will be to share challenges, to unite all stakeholders in the water and sanitation fields (public, private, associations) and to reach concrete objectives, knowledge and supervision for projects completed or to be carried out, evaluating their objectives and impacts, and thus to move on from idle words to real-world achievements.

11/10/2012

The World Urban Forum is a conference organised by UN-Habitat that meets every other year (the last meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2010). This year’s topic is “The Urban Future”.

In this context,  the FWP chose to work with the French Partnership for the City and Territories (PFVT – Partenariat français pour la Ville et les Territoires) to talk about the Right to Sanitation and Decentralised Cooperation.

Henri Bégorre, Chairman of the FWP, will speak at an official parallel event on Decentralised Urban Cooperation organised by Cités Unies France on the 4th of September at 12.00 pm (Pavilion 6 – Room 3). meeting outline

Furthermore, a French Pavilion (located in Hall 3, Room 3B) was set up by the PFVT and the FWP and, on 5 September at 11.00 am,  a discussion panel will be organised on the Right to Sanitation in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, and with participation by the World Water Council, notably including Mr Boubacar Bah, Chairman of the Association of Municipalities of Mali and Mayor of Commune V of Bamako.

3/09/2012