In view of the United Nations Water Conference to be held in New York from 22nd to 24th March 2023 on "Water and Sustainable Development", West African regional integration institutions are actively preparing for joint participation under the coordination and leadership of the ECOWAS Commission.

In this perspective, a Regional Preparatory Consultation for the said Conference and on strengthening West African cooperation on water-related issues will be held in Lomé, Togo, from 13th to 15th March 2023 to (i) exchange on the stakes of the organisation of the Conference and share the results of the African consultations (ii) strengthen the capacities of Member States representatives and that of West African institutions to formulate clear commitments and needs for the Conference, (iii) identify and formulate the expectations and priorities of West Africa and (iv) formulate recommendations for strengthening regional cooperation and synergies for effective implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

To recall, on 20th December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution on the Mid-term Comprehensive Review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action: "Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028". This resolution provides for the organisation of a mid-term conference to be held from 22nd to 24th March 2023 in New York to assess the implementation of the objectives of the said Decade.

The low participation of the West African Region in the two previous African consultations held respectively on 13th and 14th May 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and on 7th and 8th November 2022 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has challenged the various stakeholders on the need to organise a West African consultation meeting for better ownership of the sub-regional cooperation on water-related issues.

Various representatives of institutions such as ECOWAS Member States (technical directorates in charge of IWRM) and regional and sub-regional institutions in the water and climate sectors, including the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions, CILSS, WASCAL, IUCN, GWP-WA and AMCOW, are expected to attend this important regional consultation.

Transboundary Basin Organisations, especially the Volta Basin Authority (VBA), the Niger Basin Authority (NBA), the Mono Basin Authority (MBA), the Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River (ODSR), the Organisation for the Development of the Gambia River (ODGR), the Mano River Union (MRU), the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and the African Network of Basin Organisations (ANBO) are also called for participation.

This march of West Africa towards the 2023 United Nations Water Conference is part of the implementation of Axis 3 of the West African Water Policy (WAWP), which seeks to promote regional cooperation and integration with the aim of developing relations between States, basin organisations and regional organisations, in order to ensure a concerted, integrated, sustainable and peaceful management of water resources in West Africa and to strengthen the participation of the region in international debates on water.