Cooperation in International Waters in Africa: Annual Report FY2018
CIWA Moving Forward
The extension of the CIWA trust fund until 2026 provides a predictable platform for mobilizing resources as well as committing to long-term support. As we look to the future, we are being guided both by the lessons of the past, and the growing needs and opportunities that present themselves.
CIWA’s strategy is based on the idea that improving transboundary water cooperation requires improved information, stronger institutions, and more – and more resilient – infrastructure. The strategy also acknowledges that cooperation is required at many levels, and CIWA thus has programs with regional economic commissions, basin organizations, national governments, and civil society. In addition, CIWA is built on the premise that transboundary cooperation is a long, difficult, and circuitous process, and CIWA must be an ‘all-weather’ partner – prepared to be there as our clients suffer setbacks and committed beyond the cyclical pattern of much project-based support.
These core strategic ideas will continue to guide our work. CIWA will continue its basic business model of long-term engagement in priority basins complemented with shorter-term engagements where and when the opportunities present themselves.
CIWA will also seek to expand and strengthen its engagement in fragile and conflict affected countries to help address some of the underlying water-resource related risks that can help or hinder stability and development in some of the most vulnerable places in the world. We do so with humility, knowing that these challenges are multi-faceted and that our contributions will be only one part of addressing a much bigger challenge. But we also do so with commitment, knowing that building resilience to social, environmental, and economic pressures requires managing water better, including shared waters.
Recognizing that good data about water is a foundation for transboundary cooperation and that a digital data revolution is creating new and innovative approaches for understanding water resources at the transboundary scale, CIWA will also expand its support for digital data approaches. Where possible, CIWA will use its Africa-wide mandate to support the development of regional approaches to platforms and tools as well as encourage the spread of innovation in data approaches across the many transboundary basins in Africa.
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