Water Future and Solutions Initiative



Contract partner: IIASA - Internationales Institut für angewandte Systemanalyse - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Country: Entwicklungsländer, unspezifisch Funding amount: € 400.000,00 Project start: 01.10.2016 End: 31.12.2018

Short Description:

Overall goal


This project will be a follow up of the Water Futures and Solution Fast Track Initiative (WFaS, ADA Project Number 2725-00/2014). As many countries, among them also ADA partner countries, are already undergoing severe water scarcity conditions, the WFaS Initiative will provide mechanisms for supporting the evolution of policy, practice and investment in the targeted ADA regions in Africa and influencing the global agenda.

In addition the explicit inclusion of economic and demographic developments in the scenario modelling will enable the identification of countries and regions which will be subject to increased migration stress within the coming decades.


Expected results


The impact will be improved decision making by ADA and other international actors, its clients and partners on emerging challenges concerning the water-food-energy nexus including policy and operational implications. The work will provide increased knowledge and capacity through a mixture of engagement dialogue and training opportunities related to modelling at the water-food-energy interface across sectors and disciplines. This will lead to a more informed approach to policy and investment developments. Outputs will be:

-- tailored training events held within the selected region;

-- policy briefs;

-- a water futures and solutions investment guidance tool.

All of these results will be documented as reports and papers that will be disseminated in international conferences like the Stockholm World Water Week and the Budapest Water Summit as well as in peer reviewed scientific journals. More than 40 research institutions including universities are already partners of WFaS and will continue to establish a water knowledge hub at IIASA, convening scientific across disciplines. IIASA Water Program has already participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC AR5) and will be contributing to the upcoming IPCC AR6 report.


Target group / Beneficiaries


The principal groups targeted for the work are national ministries, universities and advisors as well as international donors, UN agencies, NGO’s as well as the global forum of Water Futures and Solutions. As part of this ADA and IIASA will be leading partners in global and regional hub for discussing and developing improved science to policy dialogue for systems analysis approaches to the global water challenge.

The beneficiaries of the project are manifold:

-- Immediate beneficiaries: approx. 50 junior and senior experts, representing different organisations in ADA partner countries, will benefit from the capacity development measures conducted within then project (trainings and workshops)

-- Direct beneficiaries: Up to 1.000 scientists and water experts participating in the respective foreseen WFaS sessions at the Stockholm World Water Week and the Budapest Water Summit in the years 2017 to 2019 will benefit from the high level scientific analysis of water availability/scarcity trends until 2030 (SDG target time frame) and 2050 (scientifically plausible modelling period) respectively.

-- Indirect beneficiaries: Up to 190 Million people are expected to benefit from improved water resources planning and management in ADA partner countries. On a worldwise scale it is expected that until 2050 2.7 to 3.2 billion people will live in water scarce areas (2010: 1.9 billion), all of who should be considered beneficiaries of the world wide efforts to improve water allocation planning and policy making.


Activities


The major activities under this project are stakeholder engagement and co-development of scenarios to guide and undertake research into the development of potential solutions relating to the interface water-energy-food security. Much of this will be facilitated through a dedicated liaison expert, who will support the WFaS Initiative to build strong and strategic partnerships between researchers, development cooperation practitioners, civil society actors and private sector stakeholders engaged in water, food and energy security to inform and guide the research agenda within the Initiative.


Context


The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and their accompanying targets and indicators, provide an aspirational narrative for human development—a world free from hunger, injustice, and absolute poverty but with inclusive and universal economic growth. This work will contribute to the development and implementation of selected goals (1 – No poverty, 2 – Zero hunger, 6 – Clean water and sanitation, 17 – Partnerships for the goals) as well as input to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change within the ADA selected Region and globally.In the context of the water-energy-food security nexus this project also will look at goals 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production and 13 - Climate Action, as well as input to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change within the ADA key regions and globally. The results of the Fast Track initiative (WFaS Phase I) and IIASA's expertise in applied systems analysis working with regional stakeholders provides the basis for the capacity development of approx. 50 experts in the field of the water - energy - food security nexus who shall be anabled to work with the tool that will be developed within this project.

project number 2725-00/2016
source of funding OEZA
sector Wasserversorgung und sanitäre Einrichtungen
tied 0
modality Project-type interventions
marker Environment: 1
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.