On 17th December 2008, two officers from the PCO attended a workshop on Sustainable Watershed Management organised by the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) of China and sponsored by the China Watershed Management in cooperation with the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom. Participants included representatives from MWR, River Conservancy Commissions, local Water Departments, and the CWMP Implementation Office as well as donor representatives from DFID, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the European Union.
The China Watershed Management Project (CWMP), funded by DFID, is managed by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of Water Resources. The Project commenced in 2004 and is aimed at exploring a sustainable watershed management model through strengthening M&E, pooling available resources and adopting a participatory approach to planning and implementation of a combination of measures, whilst building on lessons learnt from the first two phases of the World Bank Loess Plateau Rehabilitation Projects.
With the CWMP in its final stages, the objectives of the workshop were to:
i) Share experiences and identify opportunities for extending knowledge through MWR and various river conservancy commissions to support the Chinese Government in its poverty reduction and environmental management tasks;
ii) To further disseminate CWMP results to relevant national agencies, donors and African countries;
iii) To exchange views and knowledge on watershed management among the participants; and
iv) To further identify opportunities for China-Africa cooperation in watershed management issues as a follow-up of previous exchanges in October 2008.
Presentations within the workshop were delivered by implementing agencies, representatives of beneficiaries, researchers, and donors on the topics of sustainable watershed management models, dissemination of participatory approaches, and water and soil conservation strategies.