The African Development Bank (AfDB) has partnered with Senegal to host the world’s largest international water-related event, in Dakar, in March 2021.
As the preparations for the ninth World Water Forum continue, the bank will play an important role in supporting the hosting of the forum, said AfDB water development and sanitation department director Wambui Gichuri.
Organised every three years by the World Water Council, the 2021 edition will be the second time the event is held in Africa, after the 1997 hosting by Marrakesh, Morocco, but the first time it is held in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Our government is counting on the AfDB to help mobilise the enormous resources that will be needed to make this first sub-Saharan-Africa-hosted World Water Forum a great success,” Senegal Water and Sanitation Minister Serigne Mbaye Thiam said.
Thiam had met with the bank’s agriculture, human and social development VP Jennifer Blanke and her senior management team on October 8 to discuss the bank’s participation in the event’s organisation and delivery.
“The forum is a great opportunity for the bank to showcase and advance its water and sanitation agenda, and we commend the government of Senegal for the preparatory work they have done so far,” said Blanke.
The forum’s organising committee executive secretary Abdoulaye Sene added that the forum would be “a focused, inclusive, integrated, open-ended multistakeholder process, interacting and synergising with international events.”
He further stated that the Dakar 2021 forum would address the present and future global issues for man and nature, serving as a catalyst and accelerator of universal access to water and sanitation, as well as for the Sustainable Development Goals for Senegal, Africa and the world.
The theme of the forum aligns with the development finance institute’s ten-year strategy for 2013 to 2022, which states that investments in integrated water development and management are central to sustainable water, food and energy security for green and inclusive growth.
The forum will take place in the Senegalese capital from March 22 to 27, 2021, themed ‘Water Security for Peace and Development’.
More than 20 000 participants, including political and economic decision-makers, multilateral institutions, academia, civil society and the private sector, from more than 170 countries, are expected to attend.
“Awarding the hosting of this forum to Senegal is a testament to the urgency of the water issue for Africa and to the country’s commitment to the water agenda,” Sene said.
The ninth forum aims to build on previous World Water Forums, seeking to identify, promote and implement concrete, integrated responses and actions for water and sanitation.