WaPOR 2 inception workshop in Sudan

The WaPOR project, now in its second phase, is more demand-driven than the first. It focuses on ten partner countries in which activities start with an inception phase punctuated by an inception workshop gathering national stakeholders from the agriculture and water sectors. The inception workshops aim  to discuss national stakeholders’ needs and the potential ways in which WaPOR can contribute or be included in the solutions.

On September 9th, a WaPOR 2 inception workshop was held in Khartoum, Sudan, welcoming a wide range of national stakeholders: farmers, representatives from the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, insurers, among others . The workshop was held in a hybrid format with some participants gathered in Khartoum and others, including some members of the WaPOR team based in Rome and other partner countries, joining virtually. 

The current Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources, Dr. Yasir Mohamed, attended virtually and spoke about different accuracy targets for the data as well as stressing the importance of identifying innovative ways to engage different institutions.

Some takeaways of the workshop are the need to translate remote sensing data into information that is understandable and actionable for field staff, to explore the possibility of using WaPOR data to assist with water fees collection and cropping calendar compliance, as well as a primary list of areas in the country that have the potential to be seedbeds for solutions based on remotely sensed data.