Integrated Watershed Management Activity-Nepal

TARGET GROUP: WATER SECURITY

OBJECTIVES

·        To improve water security through better coordination and integration of USAID Nepal’s Feed the Future, Environment and Resilience activities aimed to improve coordination, cooperation, and collaboration among selected USAID-funded activities that focus on improving water security and sustainable watershed management.

SUMMARY

Nepal has abundant water resources, but insufficient water-related infrastructure and limited capacity undermine development efforts and water security throughout the country. Water is one of the most important natural resources underpinning Nepal’s economic growth and is one of the priorities for USAID Nepal’s Social, Environmental, and Economic Development (SEED) Office. The SEED Office developed an Integrated Watershed Management Framework (IWMF) with the objective of more effectively integrating their natural resource management (NRM), Feed the Future, and Food for Peace programming to improve water security.

SEED identified five main approaches for implementing the IWMF:

1. Identification of opportunities to integrate activities at the watershed level to more effectively address key water management-related issues;

2. Site-level integration to support implementing partners to jointly plan and implement activities to maximize water and development outcomes;

3. Leveraging and learning at the basin and national levels;

4. Wider donor engagement to enhance the implementation; and

5. Long-term planning to utilize learning and results to inform the next USAID Nepal Country     Development Cooperation Strategy. USAID Nepal recognized that the IWMF would benefit from facilitation by an external actor focused exclusively on fostering increased collaboration and coordination on water security among IPs. The SEED Office partnered with SWP to pilot implementation of the framework through IWMA.

REFERENCE

https://winrock.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IWMA-Final-Report-5-22-2020.pdf