MCDF Grant Enhances Vulnerable Senegal River Basin’s Regional Digital Management

A USD609,000 grant to help strengthen regional digital management of the vulnerable Senegal River Basin in West Africa was approved by the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) Governing Committee during its meeting in Doha, Qatar on 27 September. The project will be implemented by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), in coordination with the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS).

The MCDF grant will fund capacity building to facilitate digital information sharing and coordination among Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal, which jointly manage the Senegal River Basin through OMVS. The capacity building will leverage OMVS’s existing technical assets and broad operational base, including 700 staff distributed across its High Commission and management companies. The aim is to improve regional data management, digital monitoring, and decision-making support tools to address risks to the 1,800-kilometer (km) Senegal River and its 300,000-square km basin, such as pollution, sedimentation, and climate challenges, and ensure irrigation, hydropower, and drinking water access for the basin’s 3.5 million inhabitants.

OMVS’s digital institutional systems and geospatial capacity will be strengthened with the MCDF grant’s support. The work includes a review of institutional and user-needs, OMVS-managed basin spatial data infrastructure, data governance arrangements, priority operational user cases, and applied training in geographic information systems, remote sensing, climate information, and digital basin decision support.

Structured post-training backstopping and institutional support will also be covered by the MDCF grant to help OMVS and member country teams apply, maintain, and progressively internalize institutional capabilities and systems developed.

MCDF grant-funded activities will build on OMVS’s institutional mandate and strategic frameworks. They include Vision 2050 and the Water Development and Management Master Plan for the Senegal River Basin, which provide the operational basis for strengthening regional coordination, evidence-based management, and future support for the Senegal River Basin.