20th AfWA International Congress and Exhibition : AfriAlliance showcased innovations for climate change resilience

To achieve SDG 6 amidst climate change, it's crucial to strengthen the capacity of African stakeholders to manage water resources sustainably. In order to contribute to the achievement of this objective; a session on “ Innovation Bridge Event (IBE)” organized by partners of the AfriAlliance project was held to 26 February 2020, at the African Water Association (AfWA) 20th International Congress & Exhibition, under the theme: "Innovations for Climate Challenges in Accelerating Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in Africa’’.

This 5th edition of AfriAlliance bridge events targeted water and climate innovators, academia and researchers, students, policymakers and investors in the water sector in Africa. The session was focused on Innovations for Climate Challenges in Accelerating Universal Access to Water and Sanitation in Africa and offered to stakeholders a great opportunity to showcase, discuss and disseminate research results to a large number of participants, and enable to provide a platform for high-level scientific and policy dialogue on climate change impacts on water. , Also, the session provided the participants with a platform to strengthen cooperation and networking between academia, researchers, policy makers, SMEs, NGOs, public policy actors and local communities.

This session was a stimulating interruptive event where 11 innovators showcased on the solutions they propose to face climate challenge.

Finally, some key recommendations emerged from the discussion:

- Utilities urged to form innovation partnerships ;

- Online knowledge sharing platforms shall be promoted to facilitate spreading/disseminating the latest tools in managing water and climate change risks;

- Utilities and NGOs urged to utilize the Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) which is an interesting small financing source for innovators;

- Organizations to consistently collect data which will help fill data gaps and support water management decisions.

Indeed, AfriAlliance is a collaborative action funded by European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme over the period 2016-2021 with the aim to facilitate the collaboration between African and European stakeholders to better prepared African water sector actors in facing climate change challenge.