The Southern African Development Community (SADC), with the technical support of the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA) will hold the 10th SADC Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue from September 05 to 07 in Maseru.

According to the statement from SADC Secretariat, the theme for the dialogue is ‘Bolstering regional productive capacities for water, energy, food security and ecosystem resilience to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial transformation’.

It reveals that the event will be hosted by the Government of Lesotho through the Ministry of Water. It adds that building on the momentum from previous meetings the 10th Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue will take forward the implementation of the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063.

It further points out that a specific focus will be on enhancing regional productive capacities through the Water, Energy and Food (WEF) Nexus and Ecosystem-based approaches.

It highlights that the Dialogue is a biennial event organized by the SADC Secretariat, which provides a forum for practitioners from the water and related sectors to discuss pertinent issues on deepening regional integration and poverty reduction in the region.

The SADC statement notes that the objective is to ensure that the region unlocks the potential of sustainable water resources development in contributing to regional integration, poverty eradication and socio-economic development.

It further indicates that the outcomes of the three-day dialogue will feed into the decisions to be presented by the Ministers responsible for food, water, and energy security to the SADC Council of Ministers.

This year’s Dialogue is funded by the European Union (EU) supported by SADC WEF Nexus Dialogue Project and the Support to Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) Project in Lesotho, co-financed by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Source: LENA 31/08/2022