This consultation will be organized by the Regional Office of UNESCO in Nairobi and the Government of Kenya.
It will take the format of a 3-day event, with plenary sessions as well as technical working sessions on thematic aspects of groundwater governance. The opening session will include the participation of high-level ministerial representatives and will be followed by a press conference.
The aims of this - and of the other three Regional Consultations foreseen for this year - are to: a) acquire first-hand knowledge of regional issues from local groundwater experts; b) raise awareness and promote a global groundwater agenda; c) build partnerships amongst collaborating project agencies, cross-sectoral stakeholders, decision-makers and specialists.

Organized under the responsibility of the UNESCO-IHP network, the Regional Consultations are a fundamental component of the Groundwater Governance project. These Consultations will focus on the regional characteristics of groundwater use and will seek to promote discussion about the characteristics, priorities, visions and specific challenges in the region.

The results of the Regional Consultations will contribute towards the preparation of a Global Groundwater Governance Diagnostic. This will provide a technical base on which to prepare the various stages of the process. This will be achieved through the compilation of state-of-art scientific and technical knowledge currently available on groundwater resources and their governance.

This and other Regional Consultations will be held within the framework of the “Groundwater Governance: a Global Framework for Country Action” Project, initiated in January 2011 by UNESCO's IHP together with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) and the International Association Hydrogeologists (IAH).
This project is a response to emerging global concerns over the increasingly unsustainable use of groundwater and degradation of aquifers. The overall objective of the project is to promote sound management of groundwater resources in order to prevent and reverse a global water crisis.