Water and Development Partnership Programme: Six projects selected for funding

The programme seeks to stimulate and catalyse transformations to socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable water management practices by strengthening low- and middle-income countries capacities. To achieve this goal, it finances projects that involve joint research, education, and knowledge sharing. A call for proposals issued in November 2021 attracted 19 applications. The six selected projects are:  

• Policy Learning, Local Knowledge and Advocacy (POLKA): This project aspires to strengthen the links between policy and practice for food production and ecosystem sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Partners include four universities, a river basin organization, and two non-governmental organizations.
• Water Transformation Pathways Planning (Trans-Path-Plan): This project aims to dive into the rather unknown domain of transformation pathways and planning in the water sector. By keeping sustainability, inclusivity and transparency at the core, the project will foster activities that advocate a development-centric transformation in the water sector that is pro-active, adaptive and path-shifting.
• Reuse of nutrient-rich treated wastewater for a food self-sufficiency in MENA: This project aims to enable the safe use of treated wastewater to stimulate food self-sufficiency for small-scale farmers in Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. The project involves equitable, participatory and sustainable approaches as well as agro-ecological interventions.
• Groundwater Sustainable and Equitable development under Constraints of Ecosystem conservation and saltwater intrusion prevention in large deltas (GWS-SENCE): This project aims to promote sustainable and equitable groundwater resources development in coastal deltas in Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya. Activities will include applied research, training and capacity strengthening on smart monitoring and comprehensive assessments of groundwater resources and their importance and potential for society and ecosystems. The project aims to protect ecosystems that depend on groundwater and to prevent of saltwater intrusion in groundwater.
• Risk-based decision-making frameworks for humanitarian water, sanitation and Hygiene (RISK-WASH):  This project, co-created by partners in the humanitarian sector, NGOs and academic partners, aims to quantify the health and environmental risks related to the sanitation service chain in refugee camps in Bangladesh and Uganda. This will enable humanitarians and government organisations to prioritise WASH interventions, budgets and aid programming.
• Sustainable WaterPans: This project will support local practices for the sustainable use of waterpans in Kenya and Tanzania. This multidisciplinary project, including partners ranging from local communities, NGOs, higher education institutions and government ministries, will provide a firm foundation in understanding ecological processes and health risks of water distribution from local catchment to end-users. By using a participatory action research approach, the project aims to foster ownership and capacity for local decision makers.

In May, the Water and Development Partnership Programme will announce a call for medium-scale project proposals with budgets up to 400,000 euro for a maximum period of three years. More calls will follow later in the year, including a call for large-scale projects that focus on Water for Food and/or River Basins and Deltas. Upcoming calls will be shared on the programme webpage.

The Water and Development Partnership Programme 2022-2027 is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.