Joint WRMC/ECOWAS – IUCN/Bridge Working Visit To The Mano River Union (Mru) General Secretariat

Joint WRMC/ECOWAS – IUCN/Bridge Working Visit To The Mano River Union (Mru) General Secretariat To Finalize The Process Of Creating The Mano River Union (Ufm) Transboundary River Basin Management Office (Ogbft)

As part of its contact tour of the main regional institutions involved in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in West Africa, initiated in 2024, the new Management of the ECOWAS Commission’s Water Resources Management Centre (WRMC), under the leadership of Mr Alexis KOUASSI, paid a two-day working visit to the Headquarters of the Mano River Union (MRU) in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 12 – 13 March 2025.

The main aim of the working visit to the MRU was to restart the WRMC’s support for the setting up of the MRU’s Cross-border River Basins Management Authority (CRBMA) in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and also to promote IWRM in the Mano River Union area.

The visit also aimed to implement Resolution 6 of the 5th Ordinary Session of the Ministerial Follow-up Committee for IWRM in West Africa (MFC-IWRM/WA) held on 28 June 2024 in Abuja, which requires the WRMC to resume its support for the finalization of processes for the creation of new cross-border basin organisations, including the Cross-border River Basins Management Authority (CRBMA) of the Mano River Union.

The WRMC has for long been the torch-bearer for this initiative, which has its legal basis in Resolution 7 of the 3rd Ordinary Session of the MFC-IWRM/WA held in November 2008 in Bamako, Mali.

The participation of IUCN/BRIDGE in this visit is testament to the shared desire of both ECOWAS and IUCN to combine their efforts to provide coordinated and determined support for the process of creating the CRBMA. This is within the framework of a budding strategic partnership between the WRMC and IUCN/BRIDGE.

The visit also provided an opportunity for the delegation, led by the Secretary General of the MRU, His Excellency Ambassador Simeon M-B. MORIBAH, to pay a courtesy call on the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation of Sierra Leone, Dr. Sao-Kpato Hannah Isatta MACARTY.

During the meeting, the Minister expressed her gratitude to the WRMC/ECOWAS and IUCN for their support, as well as her expectations with respect to finalizing the process for the creation of the CRBMA and any support that ECOWAS might provide to Sierra Leone in the area of water and sanitation.

The proceedings were drawn to a close with the adoption of a roadmap by the three parties (WRMC/ECOWAS – IUCN/BRIDGE – MRU), which would lead to the establishment of the CRBMA in 2026 with involvement of all MRU member states (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone).