SIGNATURE OF MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
BETWEEN MRU AND TETRA TECH ARD
From 19-20 February, 2019, at the Atlantic Lumley Hotel, Freetown, the Secretary General of the MRU, Madam Medina A. Wesseh, Esq and Stephen Keller, Chief of Party of Tetra Tech ARD and Director of WABBIC project, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize their collaboration in the implementation of the WABICC program, it was in the presence of the Honourable Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Mrs Nabeela Tunis.
Indeed, since the previous Secretary General of the MRU has started, the discussions leading to the signing of a memorandum of understanding may have been possible at the arrival of the current Secretary General, Madam Medina A. Wesseh, Esq,
Through this agreement, the two institutions share their objectives to bring out the vision of strengthening the resilience and sustainability of West Africa institutions, ecosystems and communities. Thus, they reflect their desire to strengthen their cooperation and collaboration to achieve various outputs and outcomes through joint activities in support of combating wildlife trafficking, increasing coastal resilience to climate change and reducing forest and biodiversity loss and degradation.
The common benefit resulting for both parties is to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources for the socio-economic development of the MRU member’s states.
The West Africa Biodiversity and Climate Change (WABICC) program is a USAID-founded 5-year regional program that aims to improve conservation, climate resilient and low emission growth in the West Africa Region. WABICC works to strengthen policies and regional capacity to improve natural resource management and maintain healthy, resilient forest ecosystem and forest-based livelihoods in West Africa.
This program is perfectly in line with the MRU 2010-2020 Strategic Plan, as it helps to achieve two objectives, of pillar 3, Economic Development and Regional Integration, namely:
- Ensure the sustainable conservation, utilization and management of the transboundry water resources of the sub region;
- Create enabling conditions for promoting trade and attracting investment to the sub region;
The signing of this contract, whose spinoffs for the Mano River Union space and even for the world are invaluable, completes that signed with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on October 24, 2017, as part of the Mano River Union Ecosystem Conservation Project and International Water Resources Management. The WABICC Program ends in May 2020.
