The main purpose of a Climate-Resilient Water Investment Programme (WIP) is to provide a process around which to rally and engage a diverse range of stakeholders, identify shared goals and opportunities, mobilise political support, and coordinate funding and financing to achieve water security and resilience goals most efficiently and equitably.

The Climate-Resilient Water Investment Programme document succinctly summarises the key findings and recommendations of the process and charts an ambitious but realistic pathway for the financing of the climate-resilient water programme over a medium-term development period and beyond.

The Climate-Resilient Water Investment Programme is also expected to:

• Sensitise stakeholders on the water security and resilience financing challenges and opportunities across sectors and across spheres of government.
• Establish (or re-establish) and support leadership role(s) of mandated institutions.
• Bring together diverse sectors that use or impact water resources to agree how water should be used and managed to meet different – but often closely linked – development targets.
• Recognize that deep uncertainties related to climate change can render past water investments obsolete, and require decision-makers to re-evaluate the range of appropriate methodologies and technologies given locally assessed benefit-cost-risk trade-offs.
• Provide a forum to identify and resolve potentially incompatible goals.
• Seek entry points and alignment with existing processes and initiatives to enhance water financing, including regional protocols, policies and processes.
• Support strategies to access non-traditional sources of finance.
• Identify capacity-building needs and mobilise resources to support capacity-building efforts.
• Compile and leverage relevant data and information from a range of sources, including indigenous knowledge.
• Propose a monitoring and evaluation framework, including the documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned.
• Help engage technical assistance and financial support from global, continental or regional organisations, including transboundary and cross-sectoral institutions.

A majority of the participating countries are developing Climate-Resilient Water Investment Programmes (WIP). Zambia already developed and launched its own in 2022. Read more here.