Groundwater for Advancing Resilience in Africa (G4DR)

Overview

The four-year project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), is a comprehensive initiative seeking to significantly improve water security and resilience across the African continent by promoting the strategic and sustainable development and management of groundwater resources.

It will do so through the following four components:

• Strategic Planning: Supporting the African Ministers’ Council on Water, through their Pan-African Groundwater Program.
• Evidence and Capacity for G4DR in Africa: Identifying aquifers that present risk and opportunity to enhance resilience, as well as populations/socio-economic contexts in Africa informing investments
• Demonstrating benefit: Utilizing evidence-based planning to realize on-the-ground impacts in pilots
• Incorporating G4DR into pan-African Youth Forums: Enhancing the beyond-project capacity, outreach, networking, and uptake of long-term workable and sustainable strategies and solutions.
• Supporting Knowledge Management and M&E: Supporting capture, exchange and dissemination of key project advancements, as well as evaluation of project progress relative to targets.

Case Studies

The project has three case studies/ pilot areas

• Mono River Basin / Dahomey Transboundary Aquifer
• Upper Nile Water Management Zone Uganda/ Rift Transboundary Aquifer 
• Shire River Basin/ Shire Alluvial Transboundary Aquifer

G4DR success will be gauged by the direct water security and resilience benefits achieved through enhanced consideration of groundwater in planning. More profoundly, the project will achieve success if it strengthens processes and systems across institutions and scales so that the promotion of groundwater in planning and management is sustained. Key outcomes of the project will include:

• Coordinative framework for cross-scale interaction on groundwater in Africa that accelerates adoption of groundwater resilience solutions.
• The Groundwater function at the AMCOW Secretariat is fully operationalised and provides the anchor for APAGroP and G4DR objectives within AMCOW.
• Enhanced evidence that guides improved decision-making on groundwater opportunity and risk in Africa.
• Groundwater incorporated into basin planning in 3 case studies.
• Groundwater data platforms established in 3 case studies.
• More than 26,000 ha under improved water management.
• More than 34,200 direct beneficiaries of capacity enhancement and improved water management.

G4DR Project Team

• Implementing Agency
  • FAO
• Executing Agencies
  • The International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
  • African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW)
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
  • Ministry of Water and Mining (Benin)
  • Ministry of Water Resources (Malawi)
  • National Directorate of Water Resources Management (Mozambique)
  • Ministry of Water and Village Hydraulics (Togo)
  • Ministry of Water and Environment (Uganda)

Funding

This project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)