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.
Harvesting Hope: How Communities Are Reviving the Lake Chad Region
Posted in : Blog on 24 October 2025
Achta’s story reflects a broader transformation across the Lake Chad Basin. For decades, the region has been battered by conflict and climate change. Once the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Chad has shrunk by nearly 90% since the 1970s.
Reflections on the SADC-GMI Winter School: Lessons for a Sustainable Groundwater Future
Posted in : Blog on 4 September 2025
For two intense weeks, a young professional was immersed in a space of knowledge and exchange with lecturers, practitioners, and fellow participants drawn from across the SADC region—Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, and Eswatini. It was challenging, exciting—but above all, it was inspiring.
The Water Data Revolution: Transforming Transboundary Water Management in Africa
Posted in : Blog on 3 June 2025
Traditional approaches to collecting water data depend on ground-based methods such as rain gauges and weather and river flow meters. But the quality of monitoring networks has declined, and investment in infrastructure and training has been insufficient. Remote sensing technologies have emerged as powerful tools to address these challenges.
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.
Sharing Waters, Transforming Futures: CIWA’s Action for a Climate-Resilient Africa
Posted in : Blog on 15 May 2025
CIWA supports countries to collect and share their water data, collaborate on technical and institutional capacity building, and prioritize optimized joint investments with regional benefits and shared costs.
Protecting the Cubango-Okavango River to support livelihoods
Posted in : A View From The Field on 23 April 2025
Tracy Molefi is program coordinator at OKACOM. She and her colleagues are determined to promote sustainable development and management of the Cubango-Okavango River Basin while also improving livelihoods of communities.
Making Africa’s Water Workplaces Welcoming for Women
Posted in : Blog on 5 March 2025
As the world prepares to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, with a call to collectively #AccelerateAction, the World Bank’s Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) is more committed than ever to transforming transboundary water resources organizations into more equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplaces.
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 […]