The regional workshop involved twenty (20) international, regional and local experts from seven countries, including representatives of governments, WUAs, regional organisations and donors in addition to non-governmental organisations involved in the establishment and empowerment of WUAs in the region.

Among outcomes, the workshop identified gaps and concrete follow up actions for the SWIM-SM Project to undertake, including targeted capacity building and trainings in order to improve local water management and reinforce users’ participation in irrigation management.

The participatory nature of the workshop, comprising of countries’ presentations and breakout workgroup sessions, was highly valued by the participants according to whom “this has provided an opportunity to learn about other countries’ achievements; providing information on the lessons learnt and best practices in participatory irrigation management (PIM) and task transfer to WUAs and; allowed countries where the experience in PIM is still immature, or in its beginning, to learn about the enabling environment for the establishment and/or operationalization of WUAs”.

Opportunities for networking between the countries’ representatives and international, regional and independent experts were also created.

The workshop falls under one of the four thematic pillars of the SWIM project involving enhancement of knowledge on ‘water governance at the local level’ with emphasis for the first year on experiences in PIM and irrigation management transfer for WUAs in the region.

For the Workshops Results: click here