Upscaling Water Security to Meet Local, Regional, and Global Challenges

Designing local ecohydrology and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) educational resources for Africa

Drawing on extensive academic experience and practice, the original curriculum was developed by a consortium of Malaysian universities and designed in consultation with the Regional Centre for Integrated River Basin Management (RC– IRBM) in Nigeria, as well as the UNESCO Chair in Water Resources Management and Culture based in Khartoum, Sudan.  

Although representing a significant and lasting achievement in water resources management theory and practice – and in principle applicable in both Asia and the Pacific and Africa, the three-volume publication draws most of its practical examples, case studies and general frame of reference from the Malaysian context.  In order to guarantee the greatest possible contribution towards sustainable development in the African context, and maximize its relevance and applicability in Africa, the project developed an entirely new water curriculum designed for and enriched with African local content. It took into consideration that the approaches and technologies related to ecohydrology and IWRM are, to a considerable extent, context-specific.   

Three main activities were covered by the project:  a drafting phase, an expert consultation to refine and design the curriculum, and a formal review and launching of the curriculum. These activities were carried out through UNESCO’s active engagement in several African institutions: RC-IRBM (Kaduna, Nigeria); the Ecohydrology Coordination Office at the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of Ethiopia; and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, United Republic of Tanzania. Implementation was carried out in close coordination with the Malaysian partners, notably HTC-KL and the Malaysian International Hydrological Programme (IHP) National Committee, with contributions by water sector experts from Australia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania. 

A series of detailed dialogues and discussions relating to the organization and structure of the document were held over the course of these three iterative phases involving the interregional group of experts, resulting in a new structure for the curriculum, designed to further improve the document and its applicability in the African context. The resulting document covers topics organized into 13 distinct sections, as follows: 

The Water Management Curriculum Using Ecohydrology and Integrated Water Resources Management for Africa will provide university students in sub-Saharan Africa with an understanding of the application of ecohydrology principles and practices. This will enable them to be at the forefront in solving problems relating to freshwater and marine resources. The document will also serve to supplement learning materials across a wide range of subjects – conservation education, environmental economics, and coastal/marine sciences, among others. 

The project contributes to the identification of sustainable water solutions for Africa and Asia through improved water resources management knowledge among professionals, managers, academics, decision-makers and planners, as well as through strengthened scientific cooperation among members of the UNESCO water family, experts and managers in the two regions. In addition, members of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) community across both regions have benefited from the inputs and contributions made by international experts towards the project through exchanges and the delivery of technical inputs, data and materials during project implementation. 

Wider use of the water curriculum by universities in Africa – promoted and facilitated by the participating African Category 2 Centres and university chairs –  will sustain and upscale the project’s output. Moreover, contributing experts strongly recommended that key contents of the curriculum be presented and made available to policymakers in Africa. As a result, the approaches and technologies related to ecohydrology and IWRM in the region would have an impact at the decision-making level. The UNESCO water family in the two regions are committed to ensure that the different stakeholders become more effective and efficient by improving and sharing knowledge related to management and leadership skills and fostering organizational development.