The African Water Association organized a workshop assessment on Thursday, January 7, 2016, at the Abidjan Centre des Métiers de l’Eau (Water Trades Center) (CMEAU). Several stakeholders of the water and sanitation sector in Côte d’Ivoire took part in this workshop, namely the Chairwoman of the Board of the Office National de l’Eau Potable (Drinking Water National Board), Mrs. Ndioré Adèle, the Production Director of the Société de Distribution d’Eau de Côte d’Ivoire (Côte d’Ivoire Drinking Water Company) (SODECI), Mr. Gosso Olivier, the Person in Charge of Autonomous Sanitation of the Office National de l’Assainissement et du Drainage (Sanitation and Drainage National Board), Kokoré Jeanne d'Arc, the co-coordinator in charge of the Plea and Communication at the Population Services International, Mrs. Da Silva Maryse Laetitia, the Head of Internal Audit Department of the Société Nationale des Eau du Bénin (Benin National Water Company), LOKOSSOU Justin.

After the welcoming words of Mr. Kakou Kablan, Head of CMEAU training department, AfWA Executive Director, Mr Sylvain Usher, provided the background of these works, and then Mr. Siméon Kenfack, AfWA Programs Director made a short presentation of the activities to be carried out during this day.

So, for more than 4 hours, every department of AfWA gave a description of the activities planned, those carried out, those not-carried out, difficulties encountered and suggestions for the year to come. And the series of presentations started with the Management department. This department carried out several activities such as the review of the Statutes and By-laws, the reinforcement of the Executive Office and the process of management, the support to the regional vice-presidents and regular communications with the Executive Board, the support to the Scientific and Technical Council, or the mobilization of financing with donors. On the whole, 98% of the activities planned for 2015 were carried out. Then, the finance and communication department made a presentation on the activities planned for the year 2015. These assessments were respectively presented by Mr. Kouassi Alphonse, Financial Officer, and Miss Corine Assienin, Communication and Marketing Assistant.

The afternoon session was devoted to work in commission, for the planning of activities to be carried out in 2016. It is worth mentioning that the year begins with important challenges for the Executive Office, which must implement four (4) new programs, namely:

• Africap, Capacity Building Program of the African Water Association
• RASOP-Africa, Reinforcement Program of sanitation operator partnerships in Africa for optimizing investments in infrastructure
• Afrialliance, Africa-EU Alliance Program for innovation in the water and environmental engineering sector
• Maliwi, Program of the Water Operators Partnership in Africa: To make the Transition from Training to Investment in the water Utilities

At the end of all this day of discussions, AfWA and its attending partners were satisfied with the assessments presented, despite the difficulties mentioned by the various presentations. The President of the Scientific and Technical Council congratulated the various departments and invited them to redouble their courage and abnegation for a better implementation of the 2016 programs.