The Volta Basin Authority (VBA), in collaboration with the Global Water Partnership in West Africa (GWP-AO) and the National Focal Point-VBA of Mali, organised a series of regional workshops in Bamako from 4 to 12 November 2025 to strengthen transboundary water resource governance in the Volta Basin.
These meetings are part of the project ‘Reversing the trends of ecosystem and water resource degradation in the Volta Basin’, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and jointly implemented by the VBA and its member states as well as the GWP-AO.
The overall objective of this series of workshops was to review and validate the results of the study on environmental capital and ecosystem services, to validate the constituent texts and to establish bodies to improve participatory governance of water resources and related sectors in the Volta Basin. The joint opening ceremony for these meetings was chaired by Mr Boubacar DIANE, Minister of Energy and Water, Minister of BVA in Mali.
In his opening speech, the Minister emphasised the scope of REWarD-Volta River Basin, stating: “The REWarD-Volta Basin Project is a regional initiative serving the people and constitutes a concrete response to the common environmental challenges shared by the countries of the Volta Basin … By placing participatory governance and ecosystem-based planning at the heart of its approach, the REWarD project helps to strengthen the role of the ABV and make it a key instrument for regional integration and local resilience.” He also welcomed the Bamako meetings, which are of paramount importance for several reasons: ‘they mark the technical and scientific validation of fundamental work on environmental capital and ecosystem services and enshrine the democratic construction of users’ voices and actions’.
For his part, the Executive Director of VBA emphasised the results to be achieved through these regional workshops and the scope of the tools developed collaboratively as part of this project. ‘These tools will improve joint planning, climate risk management and reduce tensions related to the use of natural resources in the Volta Basin,’ he said.
These meetings, which brought together more than 120 participants from the six (06) member countries of the VBA, began with the regional workshop on Environmental Capital held from 4 to 6 November 2025. It provided an opportunity to review and validate deliverables 2 and 3 of the mission to assess environmental capital, ecosystem services and functions, and socio-anthropological impacts in the Volta Basin.
As for the second workshop, held on 7 and 8 November, it led to the establishment of the Regional Coordination of Users of Natural Resources in the Volta Basin. Through this Coordination, the VBA aims to strengthen the effective involvement of local actors in water resource governance. Following a democratic and inclusive process, Mali, represented by Mr Etienne BELLO, has the honour of leading this Regional Coordination, which is composed of 13 members from the six National User Coordination Committees established between May and August 2025 in the VBA member states.
From 10 to 11 November 2025, a workshop was also held to validate the advisory texts of the Volta Basin Parliamentarians’ Network. This meeting with parliamentarians provided an opportunity to:
- Share governance issues and the provisions of the Water Charter;
- Define a roadmap for the establishment of the network of parliamentarians;
- And finally, identify the needs for parliamentary capacity building.
This series of high-level meetings concluded with the third meeting of the Regional Steering Committee for the REWarD-Volta River Basin project. The aim was to review the previous RSC meetings and make recommendations to the partners for the better continuation of the project at local, national and regional levels.
