14 December 2018 | SADC-GMI
SADC-GMI Hosts Validation Workshop as Part of the GMI-PLI Project
The SADC-Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI) is the implementing agency of the World bank funded project “The Sustainable Groundwater Management in SADC member States”. The project is funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multi Donor Trust Fund Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) through the World Bank . Part of the funding has been dedicated to respond to gaps in existing policy, legal and institutional frameworks for groundwater management in the region towards fulfilling one of the four components of the project: “Enhancing institutional capacity of the governments in SADC Member States and transboundary organizations.
As the result, SADC-GMI is implementing the Policy, Legal and Institutional Development for Groundwater Management in SADC Member States (GMI-PLI) project. The overarching objective of the project is to address the prevailing gaps in policy, legal and institutional framework for groundwater management at national and transboundary levels. The project is being executed in five organized phases: Inception phase which included the design and development of the baseline “the Desired Future State”, Gap analysis & action plans , Targeted advocacy/Training support to SADC-GMI, Groundwater Management roadmap, and Development of 5 guidelines/Tools /Standards.
Since the inception of the project, gap analysis of existing legal, policy and regulatory frameworks and compliance thereof for groundwater management have been undertaken in 15 SADC Member States, culminating in the development of a National Gap Analysis and Action Plan report being produced for each Member State. The Gap Analysis exercise was aimed at identifying weaknesses and strengths through a comparison of the current state against a Desired Future State, and also identified reasons why the gaps existed in order to support the development of appropriate remedial actions for the closing of the gaps. During the Gaps Analysis key representatives from the key institutions that are responsible for groundwater management in each country were interviewed as well as responding to a research questionnaire covering the policy, legal and institutional framework. The Regional Gap Analysis Report was derived from the National Gap Analysis and Action Plan Reports which incorporated critical gaps and weaknesses identified in all the 15 Member States. These reports will inform the Regional Frameworks on Policy, Legal and Institutional Development for Groundwater Management in the SADC region.
On the 5 and 6th December 2018, SADC Member States representatives convened at Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference to validate the national/country reports. The objective of the workshop was to provide Member States with an opportunity to go through the reports, identify gaps in the reports and make further recommendations to ensure that the reports are a true reflection of the current state of affairs in their country. The following Member States attended the workshop and were able to validate their national gap analysis reports: Angola, Botswana, The Kingdom of Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Pegasys Institute project team who are implementing the project on behalf of SADC-GMI will incorporate all the recommendations from Member States and share the reports with SADC-GMI and eventually with the Member States concerned. As part of the project, a Groundwater Roadmap will be developed with Tanzania as the selected pilot Member State for the roadmap.
Following the roadmap process, 5 Guidelines/ Tools/Standards for effective groundwater management, identified through the gap analysis study on existing legal, policy and regulatory frameworks will be developed.
The workshop was moderated by Mr. Micah Majiwa, SADC-GMI Governance and Institutional Consultant and the Project Manager for the GMI-PLI Project.