Global Water Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa and how to strengthen science-policy dialogues on transboundary governance and cooperation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121417
• Publication Date: 2024-06-20T13:35:27Z
• Authors: Daniela Anghileri; Marco Pastori; Patricia Marcos-G...; Gunther Umlauf; Ezio Crestaz; Roman Seliger; Andrea Iervolino; Emanuele Cordano; Luigi Cattaneo; Cesar Carmona-Moreno
• Keywords: Science Policy

The United Nations Water Conference 2023 highlighted the need for concrete actions to boost integrated water resources management achieving Sustainable Development Goals and called strategies enhance cooperation among stakeholders. Technical between countries institutions in transboundary systems, e.g., on environmental data collection, is an effective way promote international diplomacy prevent disputes riparian states. Still, establishing collaborations inform bilateral dialogues identification of challenges, their causes, development priorities may be a difficult task itself. This particularly true African context because limited lack data. In this paper, we analyse case nine river basins Sub-Saharan Africa identify which water-management challenges are perceived as most important by different from policy scientific perspective. Our insights based up-to-date papers, open access reports technical literature, basin authority's strategy projects' summary reports, national documents. We also complement these sources with pieces information gained through regional local experts, bodies (such authorities). highlight current water-related conflicts gap identified community how tackle hydro-climatic change improve food energy security, human health. Based our experience, discuss some keys building trust stakeholders, strengthening cooperation, identifying shared water-governance measures basins. They are: (i) connect science provide sound knowledge right questions, (ii) value exploit complementarity perspectives, (iii) consider multiple spatial scales multi-level stakeholders leave no one behind, (iv) culture values trade-offs handles complexity, (v) co-create facilitate stakeholder dialogue problem definition intervention identification.