Mali office of Wetlands International organized from 9th to 11th September 2015 in Bamako, the preparatory workshop for the establishment of higher Niger’s Observatory and the Inner Niger Delta. This is part of its Integrated water resources management Program, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mali. The opening ceremony was chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Water Pr. Lamissa Diabaté, assisted by Mr Baikoro Fofana, Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation Sustainable Development, Mr Peter Zoutewelle, First Secretary Water at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mali, and Mr. Bakary Koné, National Coordinator Wetlands International, Mali.
In his welcoming address, the National Coordinator Wetlands International Mali noted that the Observatory is a knowledge feed which will help stakeholders to take appropriate decisions in favor of integrated water resources management in the upper Niger and in the inner Niger Delta.
On his part, the representative of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Mali, stressed the need to capitalize on past data as part of the observatory as a mean to improve their accessibility and reliability while ensuring their regular update. In a similar drive, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Water dwelt on the relevant and beneficial character of the observatory that will provide Mali and Guinea with a support tool in decision making on sustainable management of these ecosystems with major socio-economic and ecological importance at national and international level.
The three day workshop allowed participants to review the observatory’s indicators of the Niger basin and adapt them to the realities of the Upper Niger and Inner Niger Delta shoul the needed arise. But it also developed new indicators from the information needs of Niger’s top players and the Inner Niger Delta as well as it identified the roles and responsibilities of the structures in intelligence gathering and analysis of indicators and information dissemination. The workshop further defined the types of partnership in the context of the establishment and operation of the observatory and provided relevant guidance and recommendations as regards how to conduct process of establishing the observatory.
Participants hailed the satisfactory results achieved by the workshop and pledged to continue to work together throughout the implementation process of the upper Niger and the Inner Niger Delta Observatory.