The Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research, and Economic Development (PREPARED) Project was a five-year initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of East Africa economies, transboundary and freshwater ecosystems and communities targeting three key development challenges of East Africa: : climate change adaptation, biodiversi
In western Nepal, pollution, fishing with electric current, explosive devices, and other destructive practices threaten the biodiversity of the country's great rivers and the generations-old cultural traditions of fishing communities. But the tide is turning in some of these communities, where those who once contributed to the problem are increasingly becoming part of the solution.
The livelihoods of East Africans largely depend on access to and protection of their natural resources, including wildlife. When those resources are threatened, poverty grows. Rising temperatures, fluctuating rainy seasons and extreme weather events affect many in the region, especially those engaged in agriculture, fishing and pastoralism. These factors diminish incomes and impair access to food, health care, electricity, safe drinking water and sanitation services – undermining and potentially reversing development progress.
The USAID ATLAS project is conducting a rigorous basin-wide climate vulnerability assessment of the Mara River.
USAID’s Tanzania Water Resources Integration Development Initiative (WARIDI) promotes integrated water resources management and delivery of services across multiple sectors, with the specific goals of improved water resources management, improved service access, climate change adaptation, and biodiversity conservation in Tanzania.
New Beginnings in Transboundary Water Cooperation
Winding for nearly 14,000 kilometers, the Mara River is a vital source of life in Kenya and Tanzania. The river traverses the towering Mau Forest, wanders through tea plantations and growing settlements in the upper Basin, and waters the rangelands of Maasai pastoral communities. The river also sustains the region’s stunning biodiversity, from forest ecosystems to the wildebeests migrating between Serengeti National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve.
A combination of risk and receptivity fuel a promising SWP activity in Kenya and Tanzania.
This September, the five-and-a-half year Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research, and Economic Development (PREPARED) will come to an end.
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) focuses on biodiversity hotspots, Earth’s most biologically rich and threatened areas.
The 36 biodiversity hotspots hold especially high numbers of unique species, yet their combined area now covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Many encompass priority areas in multiple countries. Each one faces extreme threats and has lost at least 70 percent of its original habitat.
USAID’s Supporting the Policy Environment for Economic Development (SPEED+) project will provide expert technical services to the Government of Mozambique to support economic and structural reform in the areas of agriculture, trade, business enabling environment, energy, water and biodiversity conservation. It will also promote the areas of improved fiscal transparency, tax policy and economic and environmental governance. SPEED+ will provide expert technical assistance and training for public sector institutions and civil society organizations at the national and local levels.
