Our mandate is the following:
- Facilitate and where applicable conduct selective research on water issues;
- Serve as a Higher Education (PhD; Post-Doc; Staff-Exchange) soundboard to the Regional Economic Communities on regional water matters;
- Collaborate with other networks and institutions in specialised areas;
- Setting the African-Regional water research agenda;
- Establish an African continental water research agenda that is populated from the African-regional water agendas.
During the 11th General Assembly of AMCOW of 2013 in Cairo, Egypt, where the AU/NEPAD Centres of Excellence was also mandated “to develop a Human Capacity Development Programme aimed at addressing junior professional and technician level capacity challenges in the water sector”. Decision: EXCO/11/2013/CAIRO/17. To view the decisions of this meeting click here (Refer to point 12 in the document on page 5).
In 2018/2019, a further decision was adopted by the AMCOW General Assembly which “directs the [AMCOW] Secretariat to work with the AUC and NEPAD Centres of Excellence to support the understanding of patterns of knowledge and skills demand and migration in order to both strengthen the resilience of the Africa’s Water Resources Sector at national and transboundary level; and promote Youth Employment.” Decision: GA/11/2018/LBV/7. To view the decisions of this meeting, click here. (Refer to point 7 in the document on page 5).
This can be achieved, amongst other means, through one-on-one engagement with AMCOW and AMCOST though the SADC Technical Advisory Committee, to observe political direction; engage in order to provide evidence-based research.
SADC Regional Institutionalisation.
During the annual meeting of the SADC Water Resource Technical Committee, held in Lusaka, Zambia in 2013, it was recommended, and subsequently adopted by the SADC Ministers of Water that:
- Approve the AU/NEPAD SANWATCE Business Plan (Section 5.2.9.7);
- Approve the proposal for AU/NEPAD SANWATCE to be the implementing agent for the Water Research Fund for Southern Africa (WARFSA 2.0), a programme of SADC Water Division (Section 5.2.9.8)
- Collaborate with WaterNet
To view an extract of the record of the meeting, click here.
To further institutionalise the AU/NEPAD SANWATCE in the SADC region, the SADC Ministers responsible for Science, Technology and Innovation, Education and Training, held in Maputo, Mozambique (June 2014), ministers noted and supported the activities of the AU/NEPAD SANWATCE and called upon Member States to nominate institutions to form part of the Regional Network.
Co-operation with the European Commission
As a flagship programme of the AU/NEPAD, the Networks of Water Centres of Excellence have also been identified as key partner in the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), which provides a high-level co-operation platform for the EU and African partners. To read more about the JAES, click here.
Read more on where we get our mandate from