Page 8 - CIWA Climate Resilience & Mitigation Assessment

CIWA Climate Resilience & mitigation Assessment

World Bank projections indicate that climate change This is due to high levels of hydro-climatic variability,
will push an additional 68-to-135 million people globally coupled with inadequate and lagging investments in water
into extreme poverty by 2030, and the majority are resources infrastructure (along with aging infrastructure),
expected to be women, elderly, and youth.⁹ Research a lack of financial and human resources and sustainable
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) institutions for managing and developing water resources,
predicts increases in flooding severity and extreme and disparate legislative frameworks. Increasing water
weather events over the coming decades. Exposure and demand and growing competition between water-
vulnerability to climate change in Africa is multi- dependent sectors, in addition to pollution from point and
dimensional, with socioeconomic, political, and non-point sources, contribute to the degradation of water
environmental factors intersecting. Persistent gender resources and further exacerbate water insecurity.
gaps exacerbate women’s exposure to shocks and limit Climate change will likely increase the vulnerability of the
their ability to adapt.¹⁰ Women’s significantly lower labor linked economies and peoples of Africa, who rely on
force participation and wages, their high representation in shared water resources. With nine of every 10 natural
the agriculture and informal sectors, limited land disasters being water-related, the physical effects of
ownership, unequal access to off-farm work opportunities, climate change are largely experienced through
restricted access to credit, higher workload caring for heightened variability in the hydrological cycle. Changing
family members and fulfilling domestic roles, and other weather patterns are causing more intense and prolonged
restrictive social norms in many countries reduce their floods and droughts across the continent, with some
ability to mitigate the negative impacts of climate countries experiencing both too much and too little water
change.¹¹ Engagement with international waters in Africa almost simultaneously.
requires a series of complementary processes that
support economic, political, and social collaborations that
consider all relevant uses for water. Rural communities, Cooperation in International Waters in Africa
particularly in countries that are experiencing fragility, Acknowledging the importance of cooperation and
conflict, and violence (FCV), are especially vulnerable to challenges related to international waters in Africa,
water-related climate shocks. Rampant poverty, limited the World Bank established the Cooperation in
resources and infrastructure, inadequate information, and
weak institutions constrain people’s ability to adapt and International Waters in Africa Multi-Donor Trust Fund
in 2011. CIWA promotes cooperation in shared water
build resilience to climate stressors. resources to catalyze and improve the quality of
institutions, information, and investments that will result
Climate change affects water resources in Africa in six in sustainable, climate-resilient growth and poverty
main ways. It increases aridity, the frequency and intensity
of droughts, the frequency and intensity of floods, seasonal reduction. It is important to understand how CIWA works
to recognize how CIWA contributes to the results
variability, swings between wet and dry periods, and higher described in this assessment. CIWA engages in i)
temperatures causing more evaporation. Heavy sustained engagements in priority basins through
precipitation and flooding can transport large volumes of support for foundational elements required for
water with untreated contaminants into waterbodies, cooperative planning and operation of infrastructure and
overload water supply systems, and increase the potential information systems such as data, agreements,
spread of water-borne diseases. Greater frequency and institutions, investment planning, and operations; ii)
severity of extreme heat can significantly increase discrete engagements in additional basins where an
evapotranspiration and heighten water supply demands, opportunity arises for CIWA to unlock cooperative
while increasing stress on limited water resources. These potential and improve the quality of investments; and iii)
can cause disruptions to water facilities, storage, and knowledge management through the production,
infrastructure. Variability in the hydrological cycle collection, and dissemination of information to
transcends borders, which is felt acutely in Africa, where demonstrate the benefits and evidence base for
over 60 transboundary river basins account for 90 percent cooperation. CIWA’s activities are aligned with the World
of total surface water and 40 percent of the continent is Bank’s Water Global Practice’s analytical programs,
situated on aquifers supporting more than one country.¹² technical assistance, lending projects, and operational
support at the national, river basin, and regional levels.
Water is central to Africa’s social and economic climate CIWA prioritizes client-driven collaboration with RBOs
change-resilient development. Sustainable development,
use, and management of water resources underpins the and regional economic communities (RECs), national
ministries, and community-based organizations and
performance of key economic sectors. With nine percent actively works for harmonized coordination with
of the world’s freshwater resources and 11 percent of the multilateral and bilateral partners. CIWA’s portfolio is
global population, SSA is not considered water-poor by dominated by recipient-executed projects, often with
global standards. However, it is estimated that less than 10
percent of SSA’s cultivated land is irrigated, the rest being RBOs as implementing agencies, however, many
operations are World Bank-executed. CIWA operations
rain-fed and highly vulnerable to climate variability and focus on delivering results in the three Is (Information,
change.¹³ Water supplies for rural and urban populations Institutions, and Investments) through four crosscutting
are central for social development, human health, and pathways (climate resilience, gender equality and social
industrial development, and yet only 58 percent of inclusion, support to FCV situations, and biodiversity
Africans have access to safe drinking water. An even and conservation).
smaller percentage (25.6 percent as of 2022) has access
to safely managed sanitation services. SSA’s growing water
insecurity is increasingly recognized as a binding
constraint to its economic growth and development.

⁹ Jafino, B.A.; Walsh, B.J.; Rozenberg, J.; Hallegatte, S. Revised Estimates of the Impact of Climate Change on Extreme Poverty by 2030 (English). Policy Research
working paper, no. WPS 9417, COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/706751601388457990/Revised-Estimates-of-the-Impact-of-Climate-Change-on-Extreme-Poverty-by-2030
¹⁰ IPCC. Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. 2022. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii/
¹¹ Fruttero, A., Halim, D., Broccolini, C., Coelho, B., Gninafon, H., and Muller, N. Gendered Impacts of Climate Change: Evidence from Weather Shocks (English). Policy
Research working paper; no. WPS 10442 Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099342305102324997/IDU0ba259bd2039ca04fa20b87a0893bb487e014
¹² McCracken, M. and Wolf, A.T. Updating the register of international river basins of the world. International Journal of Water Resources Development. 2019.
06 Also see: https://transboundarywaters.ceoas.oregonstate.edu/international-river-basin-register
¹³ Farmer-led Irrigation Development Guide – A what, why and how to for intervention design. World Bank. 2021