Page 54 - CIWA AR25

Southern Africa

STRENGTHENING

TRANSBOUNDARY BASIN

ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND

CAPACITY BUILDING IN AFRICA

CONTEXT

CIWA is supporting the World Bank’s Regional Climate Resilience Under the RCRP, the regional monitoring and management
Program for Eastern and Southern Africa (RCRP) by strengthening platform was designed to apply mapping and remote sensing
transboundary basin organizations and national counterparts to technologies for storage monitoring, flood risk management,
plan, finance, and implement climate‑resilient water resources and investment site selection, and a country‑specific platform
management. RCRP emphasizes institutional sustainability, for Mozambique—focusing on transboundary areas—advanced
investment mobilization, improved analytics, and citizen in parallel. Analyses of NBS to complement gray investments were
engagement to underpin cooperation and resilience in priority completed and presented to the Government of South Sudan,
basins. Building on FY24 progress, the work continues to focus on launched for Mozambique, and are under consideration for Comoros,
resilience planning and prioritization of investments in transboundary extending the program’s operational toolbox. Just-in-time support
waters, while providing programmatic support to strengthen country strengthened citizen engagement strategies in transboundary areas
institutions and knowledge exchange across the region, with between South Sudan and Uganda to inform ongoing RCRP studies.
particular attention to biodiversity, ecosystem services, gender, and CIWA also supported the preparation and implementation of the
social inclusion in investment planning and delivery. second RCRP regional workshop, held in Mozambique in June 2025,
which convened approximately 80 participants from RCRP countries,
the World Bank, and international experts to address water resources
PROGRESS management in a changing climate, including transboundary
planning, maintenance for resilience, citizen engagement, and gender
inclusion. These actions collectively operationalize the capacity-
The program has moved from design to implementation across
several tracks. In the Cubango-Okavango River Basin (CORB), building, analytics, and convening agenda envisioned in FY24 and
CIWA and World Bank support helped translate an institutional introduce several concrete deliverables and platforms.
diagnostic into the identification and preparation of the GEF-
financed operation “Cubango-Okavango River Basin: Financing
Innovation in Transboundary Waters,” including consolidation NEXT STEPS
and expansion of the CORB Fund as an innovative financial
mechanism to support long-term basin sustainability. New Next year will consolidate gains and translate analytical outputs
CIWA-financed work in the Okavango advanced a livelihoods into institutional and investment decisions. The work with
program with a focus on biodiversity accounting and introduced OKACOM will continue to support the CORB operation and the
improved guidelines to strengthen citizen engagement in CORB Fund, while implementing the new livelihoods program and
transboundary water management. citizen engagement in the Okavango.

In the Zambezi River Basin, a strategic study—“Navigating The Zambezi strategic study will proceed through
the Future: Assessing Opportunities for Socio-economic implementation to its planned June 2026 completion,
Development and Regional Cooperation in the Zambezi River providing an updated basin‑wide investment pipeline and
Basin under a Changing Climate”—began in September 2024. The recommendations for Lake Kariba management.
study will update the CIWA-supported Multi-Sector Investment
Opportunities Analysis and assess challenges and options for the The regional monitoring platform will be finalized and
sustainable management of Lake Kariba, including fisheries, with operationalized alongside the Mozambique platform, improving
completion expected by June 2026. transparency and the use of geospatial analytics for decision

54