Page 10 - CIWA AR25

Horn of Africa

INTRODUCTION

The Cooperation in International Waters in Africa is a World sustain dialogue. It finances upstream analytics—basin diagnostics,
Bank–hosted, multi-donor partnership that supports riparian cooperation analyses, climate and hydrologic assessments, and

governments and regional organizations across Sub‑Saharan multisector planning—that clarifies options and tradeoffs for climate-
Africa to cooperate on the management and development of resilient development across borders. It strengthens institutions and
shared rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Since 2011, CIWA has worked in legal frameworks, improves information sharing and decision making,

places where cooperation is both essential and difficult—often in and builds capacity for joint planning and adaptive management. And
fragile and climate-stressed contexts—to build trust, institutions, it helps identify, sequence, and prepare cooperative investments—
and evidence needed to translate shared water challenges into ranging from nature-based and small-scale resilience measures to larger

shared benefits. By combining recipient-executed grants with multipurpose infrastructure—embedding climate resilience, benefit
Bank-executed technical assistance and convening, CIWA enables sharing, and environmental and social safeguards from the outset. Across
outcomes that no country can achieve alone—stronger and this work, CIWA applies a fragility lens, promotes gender equality, social
more inclusive water institutions, data and information systems inclusion, and citizen engagement, and supports biodiversity-positive
that underpin sound decisions, and well-prepared cooperative approaches so that cooperation delivers tangible, equitable benefits.

investments that improve resilience, water security, and livelihoods. By improving governance, technical expertise, monitoring, and
communications, CIWA also helps civil society organizations become

CIWA plays a catalytic role in influencing water‑related policies more professional, investable partners for other development banks,
and investment decisions, using evidence, pilots, and strategic climate funds, and regional initiatives, which supports future revenue
convening to unlock and guide investments in water resources. generation beyond CIWA itself.
It also catalyzes systemic change in water resources management,
shaping how governments, other development banks, and partners When countries have access to trusted data and analytics, are
prioritize, design, and finance water investments. And by reshaping engaged in sustained, well‑facilitated dialogue, and are supported

civil society organizations such as the Nile Basin Discourse to keep by capable, legitimate institutions and clear guidelines, they are
pace with political, economic, and environmental realities while more able and willing to cooperate. That cooperation, in turn, makes

laying the groundwork for institutional changes needed to improve it possible to prioritize and prepare investments that share benefits,
long-term sustainability and improving governance, technical manage risks, and enhance resilience at the scale of a basin rather than
expertise, monitoring, and communications, CIWA also helps civil within national borders. Over time, this reduces the likelihood of
society institutions become more professional, investable partners water-related tensions, strengthens adaptation to climate
for other development banks, climate funds, and regional initiatives, shocks, and improves regional water security, growth,
which supports future revenue generation beyond CIWA itself. and prosperity. This pathway assumes continued
political will among riparian governments,
CIWA is a critical vehicle for implementing the World Bank’s 2025– adequate resources to carry investments
2030 Water Strategy, which calls for stronger water security from preparation to financing and

and climate resilience, better data and institutions, cooperation implementation, and institutional
over shared waters, and financing at scale. CIWA turns these arrangements that can guide

ambitions into practical actions by financing the upstream analytics, joint action and provide
trust-building, and institutional arrangements that allow countries to course corrections as
reach and implement agreements on shared waters. It advances basin- conditions change.
wide climate resilience through work on groundwater, drought and
flood risk management, and nature-based solutions. It strengthens the

data and information foundations—through open, interoperable systems
and applied analytics—that enable transparent allocation and adaptive
management. And it prepares pipelines of cooperative, climate-resilient
investments that can be financed through World Bank operations and

cofinancing partners. In doing so, CIWA connects the Strategy’s vision
with delivery on the ground, particularly in the complex settings where
cooperation is hardest and most consequential.

CIWA’s theory of change
CIWA operates by aligning technical work with cooperative
processes. It supports the convening of riparian governments, river
basin organizations, regional economic communities, civil society,
and development partners to shape cooperation pathways and

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