The polycentric governance of water resources and the lack of comprehensive water management frameworks in the Volta Basin required GVP's interaction with a large number of different actors at different levels.

While the cooperation with the transboundary commission, national water bureaucracies and research institutions has been institutionalized, cooperation with additional stakeholders was of prime importance.

A dialogue with decentralized government agencies, NGOs and local water users was instigated through a series of workshops.

These provided the forum for knowledge exchange with various stakeholders in order to benefit from their knowledge, learn about their water-related concerns and to discuss scientific findings with them.
Particular efforts were made to ensure the participation of NGOs active in the water sector and to develop an intensive knowledge exchange with local stakeholders within the White Volta Basin, were the GVP partners with the Ghanaian Water Resources Commission (WRC) in a basin management pilot.

Initial workshops that established a dialogue and harnessed local knowledge were followed by workshops during which GVP scientists presented and discussed their findings with a large variety of actors.
Such knowledge exchange fora included the 'Second Ghana Dams Forum' (organized by IMWI, GTZ and the GVP), where GVP-staff presented their policy brief on the 'Impact of Climate Change on the Bui Hydropower Project' to the representatives of government agencies, electricity companies, research institutional, NGOs, donor community and local stakeholders from affected communities.
In the White Volta Basin, the GVP in cooperation with the WRC and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture organized a workshop on 'Irrigation Options in the Changing Environment of the White Volta Basin' during which results on the effects of climate change and land degradation on the White Volta Basin and potential (agricultural) coping strategies were discussed with government agencies, local researchers, NGOs and farmer representatives.

You can find various workshop proceedings for download here.