Statement by the Executive Secretary for the Opening Ceremony of the Ministerial session for the Pan African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water.

Statement delivered by Mr. Josue Dione, Director of the Sustainable Development Division (SDD/ECA), on behalf of the Executive Secretary)

Your Excellency, Ato Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,
Your Excellency, Shehu Shagari, Chairman of the African Ministers’ Council on Water,
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished Heads of UN Agencies,
Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the Policy Segment of the Pan African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water.

Mr. Chairman,

By convening this meeting, you and your fellow ministers on the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW) have succeeded, for the first time, in mobilizing all stakeholders and partners to think and plan about Africa’s Water Crisis in unison.

I am very pleased, as co-host, to inform you that the participation in this Conference has exceeded all my expectations.

As of today, more than one thousand stakeholders and partners have registered. Over the past three days, they have all been involved in discussing issues related to the various facets of African Water Resources and their management.

Indeed, we have had very comprehensive deliberations at the technical level on how to translate all the existing commitments on Africa’s Water Agenda into concise summaries of concrete costed actions.

By bringing together technical experts, private sector investors, the representatives of Masai women and many other Civil Society groups, as well as officials from national governments and local authorities and municipalities, this first Pan African Conference on Water has succeeded in generating synergies for the implementation of various essential plans in the African water sector.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

By coming to Addis Ababa, you as stakeholders and Africa’s international partners, have manifested your continuing commitment to meeting the many targets set in the African Water Vision 2025, the Millennium Development Goals, and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

In this regard, this Conference has also provided the opportunity for a timely review of the progress made to date in meeting the sustainable development targets related to Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements as mandated by the UN General Assembly at the eleventh Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development for the CSD 12 Review Session.

All delegates have deliberated upon Africa’s input into this important monitoring mechanism, and this process has manifested the truism that: the whole can sometimes be made greater than the sum of the parts in human endeavors.

The strong partnership exhibited here this week by the relevant UN Agencies (ECA, UNEP, HABITAT and DESA), African Governments and Civil Society is truly commendable and sets the stage for future actions in the process of CSD Implementation Cycles.

Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

As you continue with the Proceedings of this premier Conference on Water in Africa at the Policy level, I want to urge you not to lose focus on the characteristics, that make this Conference different from all that have come before it. These are:

1. Its unambiguous concentration on the implementation of programmes and projects.
2. Its energetic quest for partnerships to mobilize both internal and external financial and technological resources.
3. Its representation of a clear political support from our elected Ministers organized as the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW).
4. Its demonstration of the unity of purpose among all stakeholders in Africa’s Water Resources.So far unity of purpose has been demonstrated by the particiopation and deliberations at the technical level, the overwhelming numbers of Ministers gathered here today is a clear manifestation of the high-level political support behind it, and partnerships have been the foundation on which this Conference has been organized.

The only remaining pillar, as I have just mentioned, is the focus on the implementation of programmes and projects.

From the policy point of view, this is the most important and, as I said in my welcome address on Monday: “ Let us put our money where our mouth is “.

Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

Implementation and Partnership!

This has been the mantra from conception to execution of this Conference.

And, despite the great success so far in organizational terms, I now want to urge you, as high-level policy makers, to put your money where your mouths are, by refusing to accept any outcomes that do not hinge on implementable actions.

Let the newly born AMCOW leave Addis Ababa not only with declarations and statements but with a concrete, costed work programme of actions to be implemented within given timeframes. Let this all be backed up with resources, from both internal and external sources.

This Conference is only about partnerships and actions, which will have lasting impact on the well being of all our people. And our action really must begin today, for as the saying goes “Time and Tide wait for no man”.

In closing, I want to warmly welcome those who have joined us since Monday.

The hospitality and services of the ECA and the United Nations family, organized under UN Water/Africa initiative, is available to ensure that you have a fruitful and enjoyable stay in Addis Ababa.

Thank you.