International Office for Water

With the support of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the French Development Agency, the International Office for Water has studied since 2007 the possibility of creating an International Network of Water Training Centers gathering its counterparts in the world to develop exchanges on their experience and to promote the development of the skills of professionals of the water sector as a prerequisite to achieving the Millennium Goals.
An inventory of the existing training centers was carried out, as well as an analysis of the regional cooperation initiatives in the field.
An assessment of the needs and expectations of these centers was made at the same time through a questionnaire.
The received answers illustrate a significant diversity between the training centers, as regards their statutes, their size and their organization, their training activities or the number of trainees. The analysis of these replies allowed better describing the training centers and highlighting differences and similarities, but it also clearly underlines the current lack of partnerships between them and the weakness of the international cooperation programs dedicated to them.

Based on the outcomes of this survey, the first constitutive meeting of the International Network of Water Training Centers (INWTC) took place on 19-20-21 November 2008 in Paris and Limoges at the invitation of the French Authorities.

The exchanges especially dealt with the financing of the training system and with topics of potential interest for the future activities of the new International Network:

• Promotion of professional training and reinforcement of the relations with the main international donors supporting the development of the water sector;
• Regular organization of seminars and workshops on training needs and methods;
• Development of exchanges of experience between the partner centers on their educational tools;
• Organization of technical visits and study tours;
• Reinforcement of the training centers’ promotion, thanks to communication tools, such as an Internet portal, a network newsletter, etc.;
• Creation of working groups for joint projects development.

A visit of the French National Water Training Center - CNFME - in Limoges and La Souterraine was organized in order to supplement exchanges with practical experience in the field. This Constitutive Assembly ended with the signing of the "INWTC Charter" which made official the will of the 16 founder centers to pursue exchanges and gave the Network operating method up to the next General Assembly to be held in Morocco in 2009.