Within the framework of the Chamber and Association Partnership Programme, BMZ supports the project GAPWAS – German-African Partnership for Water and Sanitation – via Sequa GmbH.

A long-standing connection links the African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA) and GWP, which dates back to the 2012 AfWA Congress in Morocco. This was followed by GWP’s participation in the AfWASA Congresses in Côte d’Ivoire in 2014 and in Kenya in 2016, where the first talks on closer cooperation were held. In 2018, a GWP delegation visited the AfWA executive office in Abidjan to initiate the Chamber and Association Partnership. AfWASA returned the visit and spent a week in Berlin, where AfWASA representatives exchanged views with GWP members, visited reference plants in the water and wastewater sector, and held meetings at ministries and the Ivorian Embassy.

After the preparation of a project outline, a project review and final application, the Chamber and Association Partnership, called GAPWAS, formally started on November 1^st, 2019. The first project phase lasts three years. During this time, AfWASA is to be strengthened through various measures, trainings, consultations, technical exchanges, etc. and thus enabled to improve the water management situation across the African continent.

At the same time, the partnership allows companies from the German water sector to gain access to an Africa-wide network and offers them a platform to present their products and services, to intensify cooperation and to initiate new business.