Page 6 - CIWA’s FCV Framework

Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Framework: Enhancing CIWA’s Effectiveness in Fragile Areas in Sub-Saharan Africa

Enhancing CIWA’s engagement

in FCV-affected areas

Introduction:

This note describes the Cooperation in International The challenging landscape for water resources
Waters in Africa (CIWA) program’s Fragility, Conflict, and management and development (WRM/D) in SSA is
Violence (FCV) Framework. The objective of the CIWA FCV exponentially greater in countries experiencing FCV.²
Framework is to provide World Bank Task Teams step-by- CIWA works in many FCV-affected countries in SSA
step guidance to enhance effectiveness of CIWA-funded
activities in FCV-affected areas. It provides background included in the World Bank’s FY24 List of Fragile and
information on CIWA’s engagements in water Conflict-affected Situations (See Annex 2). The World Bank
cooperation, resources, and references for building a Group Strategy for Fragility, Conflict, and Violence 2020-
relevant project narrative and a methodology for 2025 and the Bank Policy on Development Cooperation and
systematically applying conflict sensitivity to project Fragility, Conflict, and Violence are the key documents that
design. Figure 1 illustrates the CIWA FCV Framework’s guide the World Bank’s engagement in FCV.
three-step process. CIWA Task Teams will use the CIWA
FCV Framework Template (Annex 1) to capture the Transboundary waters management is significantly more
information relevant to the intersection between FCV and
the development objectives of CIWA’s operations. challenging in FCV-affected areas. FCV may result in loss
of life and destruction of assets; threaten security;
1. CIWA and FCV contribute to political, social, and economic
disintegration; impede efforts to end extreme poverty;
exacerbate environmental impacts; weaken sources of
CIWA is a Multi-Donor Trust Fund that supports Sub- resilience; and forcibly displace people.³ FCV has a
Saharan Africa’s (SSA) governments to realize different impact on women, men, girls, and boys with
women and girls tending to be impacted more negatively.
sustainable, inclusive, and climate-resilient growth by FCV tends to exacerbate gender disparities in education,
addressing constraints to cooperative management health, economic participation, voice, and agency. It can
and development of transboundary waters. The also result in higher levels of gender-based violence
program strengthens water resources development, against women and girls both in conflict and post-conflict
management, and regional cooperation to increase situations. In these contexts, institutions tend to be
productivity, security, and sustainability across the weaker, infrastructure and data-driven knowledge and
region.¹ CIWA works closely with governments, river information are scarcer; RBOs and RECs face distinctive
basin organizations (RBOs), regional economic security challenges; implementation arrangements are
communities (RECs), and other stakeholders through more costly; monitoring and evaluation of activities are
both World Bank-executed and recipient-executed significantly more challenging; large numbers of forcibly
activities, under three types of engagements: i) displaced people often pose additional pressures on the
sustained engagements with priority basins to use and management of surface and groundwater
strengthen foundational elements such as data sources, and field access to some areas by government,
systems, policy and legal agreements, institutions, and development, and humanitarian actors is severely
investment and operation plans; ii) strategic restricted. Armed conflict from both non-state and state
engagements to contribute to high-impact projects actors, the presence of criminal groups, and landmines
through analytical efforts, capacity building, and and explosive remnants of war make CIWA’s work in
technical assistance; and iii) knowledge generation and FCV areas substantially more complex. Climate change
management initiatives to strengthen the evidence and weather shocks such as droughts and floods can
base to cooperatively manage international waters. exacerbate ethnic or communal friction and violence and
increase transboundary water disputes.⁴ Water
CIWA continued to deepen its support to countries agreements are frequently not climate change-sensitive
affected by FCV and remains engaged in four high- or ‘climate-proofed.’ If water agreements are not climate-
priority FCV-affected regions—the Horn of Africa, proofed, they can become obsolete as climate change will
West and Central Sahel, Lake Chad, and the Great continue to drastically change the multi-year averages of
Lakes. FCV is one of CIWA’s key cross-cutting flow (in volumetric terms) on which these agreements are
development priorities, along with gender equality and frequently based.
social inclusion, resilience to climate change and The objective of CIWA’s FCV Framework is to enhance
biodiversity conservation. There is direct but complex the program’s effectiveness in contexts affected by
interplay between FCV, GESI, climate change, and FCV by providing key resources and a concise
biodiversity that requires unsiloed approaches to framework to identify the relevant drivers of FCV and
development, and transboundary WRM/D exists at the their links to project elements, manage and minimize
intersection of these. In particular, GESI is a central risks throughout operations lifetime, and do no
platform of CIWA's work. This Framework therefore harm.This effort responds to CIWA’s commitment to
recognizes that women and other vulnerable increase support to clients affected by FCV, guided by
populations tend to be more negatively affected in the pillars and principles embedded in the World Bank
FCV contexts and are often underutilized change Group Strategy for Fragility, Conflict and Violence
agents in FCV. (2020-2025).⁵

¹ https://www.ciwaprogram.org/about/
² SIPRI and CIWA 2022. Water Cooperation in the Horn of Africa: Addressing Drivers of Conflict and Strengthening Resilience. Stockholm: SIPRI.
³ World Bank 2022. Bank Policy on Development Cooperation and Fragility, Conflict, and Violence. Washington DC: World Bank.
⁴ Crisis Group, 2022. Investing in Climate Adaptation and Resilience as a Bulwark Against Conflict. New York: ICG.
03 ⁵ Bousquet, Franck and Sara, Jennifer, 2020. Breaking the vicious circle of fragility and water insecurity. Washington DC: World Bank.