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.
In the Maasai language, “Mara” means “spotted,” and as you look out over the plains of the Mara River Basin, you can see how the region got its name. The savanna is dotted with plants and animals alike: thorn trees and shrubs, lions, giraffes, migrating wildebeests. One of the most biodiverse regions in the world, the Mara is kept alive by the river flowing through it.
River basins in southern Africa, like river basins around the world, are under threat from increasing water use and shifting rainfall patterns, which are exaggerating flood and drought cycles and degrading water quality. It is hard enough for one country to adapt to these changing conditions, but most of the world’s water basins — 263 lake and river basins, covering almost half of the earth’s nonocean surface — cross national boundaries. To ensure that collaboration rather than competition wins out in basin management, neighboring countries need to work together.
India is a water stressed nation. Yet it is India’s states that have ultimate authority over many water related issues. Water is a key pillar in these states’ ambitions to improve the quality of life of their citizens and to drive industrial growth. These states must form innovative partnerships to meet their needs within the context of growing scarcity, increased pollution, and interstate conflict. This discussion, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies is first public segment of the Indian States Engagement Fo
The Limpopo River basin is one of the most vulnerable transboundary basins in the Southern African region, because of water scarcity and climate-related risks, as well as in its limited capacity to adapt. Water Demand Management (WDM) can reduce these risks through conservation and re-use of water resources.
According to the 2015 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 435 million Africans lacked basic drinking water service, and 736 million Africans lacked basic sanitation service.
In November 2017, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) took a concrete step toward its role in realizing available and sustainable water and sanitation for all. At the 15th Anniversary Celebration and Executive Committee meetings of AMCOW, ministers from African countries, development partners, and sector stakeholders gathered to review and pass the 2018–2030 Strategic Plan for AMCOW.
The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) is a multilateral partnership founded on the commitment of the six Coral Triangle countries to safeguard coastal and marine resources and communities. Despite increased investment and efforts by governments and organizations to improve management, the condition of the resources continues to decline.
USAID funded the Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP) as a platform from which the combined experience and technical depth of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Conservation International (CI) could be brought to support the six nations of the Coral Triangle (Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines – the CT6).
STEWARD III was a forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods project working in trans-boundary priority zones in the Upper Guinean Forest ecosystem, occurring in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire. It was the third iteration of the STEWARD program. STEWARD I was characterized as a design phase, and STEWARD II as a pilot phase. STEWARD III was intended to be the implementation phase.
The 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. These were also high priority areas for the U.S. Government (USG), which includes climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
