Securing Africa’s shared waters: An overview of G4DR
The Groundwater for aDvancing Resilience in Africa (G4DR) project is a four-year initiative (2024–2028) aimed at enhancing regional water security by unlocking the potential of sustainable groundwater development.
While surface water often dominates the political agenda, groundwater is the quiet engine of African resilience. G4DR exists to bridge the gap between high-level policy and on-the-ground realities.
We work across local, national, and pan-African scales to ensure groundwater is integrated into climate adaptation strategies, protected from degradation, and managed equitably.
To ensure our tools and policies are grounded in reality, G4DR operates three distinct pilot sites, each presenting unique hydrogeological and political challenges:
- The Mono River Basin (Benin & Togo): Focusing on coastal aquifer vulnerability, salt-water intrusion, and mitigating the pressures of free-flowing artesian wells.
- The Shire Aquifer System (Malawi & Mozambique): Addressing rapid urbanisation, agricultural expansion, and the need for coordinated transboundary governance.
- The Upper Nile Water Management Zone (Uganda): Exploring the intersection of groundwater reliance, climate shocks, and community-led resilience.
Our core components G4DR delivers its mandate through five interconnected pillars of action:
- Continental Governance: Advancing the AMCOW pan-African Groundwater Strategic Framework.
- Capacity & Tools: Developing risk and opportunity frameworks for technical practitioners and decision-makers.
- Demonstrating benefit & Transboundary Infrastructure : Utilising evidence-based planning to realise on-the-ground impacts in pilots through installing and rehabilitating cross-border groundwater monitoring networks
- Youth Engagement & Long-Term Capacity: Engaging and capacitating African youth through a pan-continental, gender-inclusive groundwater forum to strengthen dialogue, innovation, and inter-generational stewardship of groundwater resources.
- Supporting Knowledge Management & Learning: Capturing, sharing and disseminating project knowledge and lessons to strengthen visibility, support adaptive management, and promote the uptake of groundwater resilience solutions.
Our Partners
G4DR represents a powerful coalition of global and regional expertise.
The project is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and executed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
We work in close partnership with:
- The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW)
- The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
- The Southern African Development Community – Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI)
- National Water Ministries and authorities in Benin, Malawi, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda.
