Engineering her future: how a NELSAP-CU campaign is inspiring Rwandan girls to transform water challenges into careers
Posted in : Blog on 22 November 2025
Led by NELSAP-CU and funded by the CIWA Program, a unique outreach campaign began in early June 2025, making waves in Rwanda’s secondary schools. Titled “Empowering Girls to Join the Water Engineering Profession,” this campaign was more than just a school visit; it was a deliberate intervention aimed at shifting mindsets, opening doors, and planting seeds of ambition in classrooms often left on the margins of technical career paths.
Building Climate Resilience in the Nile Basin: NBI’s Contribution Ahead of COP30
Posted in : Blog on 8 November 2025
As the world gathers for COP30, the Nile Basin stands as strong evidence of how regional cooperation can build climate resilience in shared water systems. Stretching across 11 countries and sustaining over 300 million people, the Basin is already feeling the heat of climate change through worsening droughts, floods, and rising temperatures that threaten lives, ecosystems, and economies.
A Regional Model for Success: World Bank Praises NBI’s Nile Cooperation and Climate Resilience Project
Posted in : Blog on 23 October 2025
The Nile Basin Initiative’s (NBI) Nile Cooperation and Climate Resilience (NCCR) project, funded by the World Bank’s CIWA program, has almost concluded, significantly bolstering NBI’s capacity for climate action and transboundary water cooperation.
Strengthening Water Resilience in Ethiopia’s Rural Communities
Posted in : Blog on 3 July 2025
With support from CIWA, the World Bank-supported Ethiopia Horn of Africa Groundwater for Resilience Project emphasizes high-quality design that accounts for rising demand driven by climate change and population growth. This approach improves the reliability of these systems and ensures their long-term sustainability. By prioritizing groundwater as a sustainable resource and supporting institutional capacity, the project offers a scalable model for delivering essential services to underserved areas.
Three Keys to Successful Transboundary Water Cooperation in Africa
Posted in : Blog on 28 May 2025
Booming populations, environmental degradation, and growing climate variability are escalating water-related challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. With the impact of extreme weather events frequently crossing national boundaries, regional cooperation is essential to address them. By focusing on three keys, the Regional Climate Resilience Program is creating water management systems that can withstand climate variability while reducing cross-border tensions.
A male champion for gender equality
Posted in : A View From The Field on 3 March 2025
In the male-dominated transboundary water sector, men who support gender equality are well-positioned to challenge cultural norms about gender roles and advocate with other men to advance women’s equality and empowerment in water resources institutions. Assefa Gudina explains how he wants to change things.
Taking the Nile Basin Discourse to the next level
Posted in : A View From The Field on 12 February 2025
Without nature, we are nothing,” says Sylvester Matemu, who became head of the Nile Basin Discourse in 2024. “Without nature, we cannot do anything. That perspective underlies Matemu’s passion for protecting water resources and involving communities in gathering data about water and adapting to climate change. CIWA previously supported NBD with projects totaling over US$5 […]
Calming conflict through groundwater resilience
Posted in : A View From The Field on 18 January 2025
Igbal Salah, a hydrologist at IGAD, is doing her part to minimize conflict in the borderlands of the HoA by working with CIWA on its Untapping Resilience: Groundwater Management and Learning in the Horn of Africa’s Borderlands initiative and the related World Bank GW4R program. Read the latest CIWA blog on Horn of Africa.
Digging deep: Groundwater in the Horn of Africa’s fragile borderlands
Posted in : Blog on 21 March 2024
In the conflict-prone borderlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan, The Horn of Africa Groundwater for Resilience Project is an ambitious operation to increase information on aquifers and the countries’ capacity to manage them and to develop water service delivery infrastructure to enhance drought resilience of vulnerable populations.
Matlhogonolo Mmese: An aspiring hydrogeologist in Botswana
Posted in : A View From The Field on 5 February 2024
Thanks to work on transboundary aquifers, like the study led by Matlhogonolo Mmese, a better understanding of regional groundwater is possible. Read her story.