Africa-EU cooperation will be taken to a practical level by sharing (non-)technological solutions for local challenges, thus also identifying and boosting sustainable market and investment opportunities. Demand-driven, problem-focused action groups will share knowledge between the identified stakeholders and networks at all levels to identify and address vulnerabilities effectively.

Water and climate change research and social innovation (R&I) cooperation between Africa...

Africa-EU cooperation will be taken to a practical level by sharing (non-)technological solutions for local challenges, thus also identifying and boosting sustainable market and investment opportunities. Demand-driven, problem-focused action groups will share knowledge between the identified stakeholders and networks at all levels to identify and address vulnerabilities effectively.

Water and climate change research and social innovation (R&I) cooperation between Africa...

The lack of appropriate water-related skills and capacity in some parts of Africa and the wide-spread institutional fragmentation within Africa as well as between Africa and the EU is a major obstacle to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing water crises, many with severe climate change implications. Many initiatives have been created to address the fragmentation of the water sector within Africa and internationally but significant collaboration gaps still exist for internationalizing European water initiatives. This is reflected in the table below.

Africa is one of the regions most in need of innovative solutions for tackling water and climate change-related challenges; yet many parts of Africa are also suffering from the lack of water-related skills and capacity as well as wide-spread institutional fragmentation. The AfriAlliance project aims to better prepare Africa for future climate change challenges by having African and European stakeholders work together in the areas of water innovation, research, policy, and capacity development.

Rather than creating new networks, the 16 EU and African partners in this project will consolidate existing ones, consisting of scientists, decision makers, practitioners, citizens and other key stakeholders, into an effective, problem-focused knowledge sharing mechanism. This will be coordinated by means of an innovation platform: the Africa-EU Innovation Alliance for Water and Climate.

EU funded

AfriAlliance is lead by UNESCO-IHE (Project Director: Dr. Uta Wehn) and will run from 2016 to 2021. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689162.

AfriAlliance will support the existing networks in identifying appropriate social innovation and technological solutions for key water and climate change challenges. It will capitalise on the knowledge and innovation base and potential in Africa and in the EU. The project will support effective means of knowledge sharing and technology transfer within Africa and between Africa and the EU, all with the aim of increasing African preparedness to address...