East Africa

Water is crucial for food security, human well-being and health, and biodiversity. With population increases and economic growth, water is also essential for energy generation, manufacturing and urban development. Economically, Eastern Africa is the fastest growing region on the continent. Most of the growth is in cities, driven by rural migration, especially of young people. Economic expansion leads the continent at close to 7% per year. However, the benefits of economic development are not equally distributed, with women, young people and marginalized groups receiving a disproportionately low share. They are also more vulnerable to climate shocks, due to social exclusion and lack of support, particularly in the agriculture sector, as well as being dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. Rapid economic growth has also led to unsustainable use of land and water resources, and uncontrolled and widespread industrial pollution.

Eastern Africa experiences regular lengthy periods of drought. The region is plagued by floods: five of the seven most flood‐prone countries on the continent are in Eastern Africa. The frequency and duration of droughts and floods will only increase with climate change. Rapid urbanization and a strong push to create employment in the manufacturing and industrial sectors have created competition over the relative distribution of water for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes. There are also issues around whether distribution should favor water for smallholders or large-scale farmers, often export-oriented agriculture. Policies on these matters are often vague. The mandate for managing water is spread across different ministries, and the organizations tasked with water management are understaffed and underfunded.

IWMI in East Africa

IWMI works closely with government and nongovernment partners in East Africa to develop solutions for water challenges and priorities. Our work is aligned with the agendas of regional and continent-wide organizations, including the African Union Commission, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the East African Community.

Our work in East Africa is based on the IWMI Strategy 2024–2030. All our activities contribute to supporting the efforts of the region and its countries to meet their targets towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Regional representative

Abdulkarim Seid

Country Representative – Ethiopia, Regional Representative – East Africa (Rotational CR)

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For work related to East Africa, please contact our regional office in Ethiopia.

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Latest East Africa publications

Displaying 4 publications

Hydrologic extremes in a changing climate: a review of extremes in East Africa
Current Climate Change Reports, 2024
More... [DOI] | Fulltext (934 KB)

Purpose: Eastern Africa has a complex hydroclimate and socio-economic context, making it vulnerable to climate change-induced hydrological extremes. This review presents recent research on drivers and typologies of extremes across different geographies and highlights challenges and improvements in forecasting hydrological extremes at various timescales.; Recent Findings: Droughts and floods remain the major challenges of the region. Recently, frequent alterations between droughts and floods have been a common occurrence and concern. Research underlines the heterogeneity of extremes and the impact of climate change as increased intensity and duration of extremes. Moreover, the importance of local and antecedent conditions in changing the characteristics of extremes is emphasized.; Summary: A better understanding of these drivers and how they interact is required. Observational and modeling tools must capture these relationships and extremes on short timescales. Although there are improvements in forecasting these extremes, providing relevant information beyond meteorological variables requires further research.

Forecasting / Rainfall / Drought / Flooding / Extreme weather events / Climate change
Record No:H052557

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Estimating the potential of spices for mineral provision in a refugee context in East Africa
SN Applied Sciences, 2023
More... [DOI] | Fulltext (1.12 MB)

Micronutrient deficiency remains an enormous problem in refugee settings. Transforming refugees’ food systems through the scaling up of kitchen gardening and fortifying relief food crops with minor food components including nutrient-dense spices can help improve the quality of staple foods. Globally, spices are indispensable in the daily diet and play an important role in the socio-cultural setting of different communities. Forty turmeric and curry powder samples were collected from different market establishments and geographic locations in East Africa. The samples were analyzed for selected elements using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (PXRF). The contents of potassium (K), calcium (Ca), zinc (Zn) and strontium (Sr) in turmeric powder were statistically different among geographic origins (Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda). We also aimed to determine if a small portion of spices (turmeric (5 g) and curry (4 g)) would contribute to an adequate intake (AI) or recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for selected minerals, for refugee men and women aged between 19 and 50 years as defined by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). For the reference groups, the contributions of turmeric and curry powder to AI/RDA for K, Ca and Zn varied between 0.48 to 4.13%. On the other hand, turmeric was identified to contribute gt; 20% AI/RDA for refugee men and women aged between 19 and 50 years for two micro minerals: manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe). Considering turmeric and curry powder of East African origins are good sources of minerals and present acceptable toxic metal(loid)s loads coupled with low cost, these spices particularly turmeric should be more widely popularized and recommended for food-to-spice fortification among the refugee population located in East Africa.

Turmeric / Minerals / Spices / Nutrition / Recommended dietary allowances / Refugees
Record No:H051893

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Automatization and evaluation of a remote sensing-based indicator for wetland health assessment in East Africa on national and local scales
Ecological Informatics, 2023
More... [DOI] | Fulltext (8.71 MB)

To avoid wetland degradation and promote sustainable wetlands use, decision-makers and managing institutions need quantified and spatially explicit information on wetland ecosystem condition for policy development and wetland management. Remote sensing holds a significant potential for wetland mapping, inventorying, and monitoring. The Wetland Use Intensity (WUI) indicator, which is not specific to a particular crop and which requires little ancillary data, is based on the Mean Absolute Spectral Dynamics (MASD), which is a cumulative measure of reflectance change across a time series of optical satellite images. It is sensitive to the compound effects of land cover changes caused by different agricultural practices, flooding or burning. The more frequent and intrusive management practices are on the land cover, the stronger the WUI signal. WUI thus serves as a surrogate indicator to measure pressure on wetland ecosystems. We developed a new and automated approach for WUI calculation that is implemented in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing environment. Its automatic calculation, use of regular Sentinel-2 derived time series, and automatic cloud and cloud shadow masking renders WUI applicable for wetland management and produces high quality results with minimal user requirements, even under cloudy conditions. For the first time, we quantitatively tested the capacity of WUI to contribute to wetland health assessment in Rwanda on the national and local scale. On the national scale, we analyzed the discriminative power of WUI between different wetland management categories. On the local scale, we evaluated the possible contribution of WUI to a wetland ecosystem health scoring system. The results suggest that the adapted WUI indicator is informative, does not overlap with existing indicators, and is applicable for wetland management. The possibility to measure use intensity reliably and consistently over time with satellite data is useful to stakeholders in wetland management and wetland health monitoring, and can complement established field-based wetland health assessment frameworks.

Satellite imagery / Gomorphology / Vegetation / Water quality / Surface water / Land use / Datasets / Earth observation satellites / Indicators / Remote sensing / Assessment / Environmental health / Ecosystems / Wetlands
Record No:H051812

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Future changes in climate and hydroclimate extremes in East Africa
Earthapos;s Future, 2023
More... [DOI] | Fulltext (8.11 MB)

Climate change is affecting the agriculture, water, and energy sectors in East Africa and the impact is projected to increase in the future. To allow adaptation and mitigation of the impacts, we assessed the changes in climate and their impacts on hydrology and hydrological extremes in East Africa. We used outputs from seven CMIP-6 Global Climate Models (GCMs) and 1981–2010 is used as a reference period. The output from GCMs are statistically downscaled using the Bias Correction-Constructed Analogs with Quantile mapping reordering method to drive a high-resolution hydrological model. The Variable Infiltration Capacity and vector-based routing models are used to simulate runoff and streamflow across 68,300 river reaches in East Africa. The results show an increase in annual precipitation (up to 35%) in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya and a decrease (up to 4.5%) in Southern Tanzania in the 2050s (2041–2070) and 2080s (2071–2100). During the long rainy season (March–May), precipitation is projected to be higher (up to 43%) than the reference period in Southern Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda but lower (up to -20%) in Tanzania. Large parts of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Southern Ethiopia show an increase in precipitation (up to 38%) during the short rainy season (October–December). Temperature and evapotranspiration will continue to increase in the future. Further, annual and seasonal streamflow and hydrological extremes (droughts and floods) are projected to increase in large parts of the region throughout the 21st century calling for site-specific adaptation.

Hydrological modelling / Impact assessment / Climate models / Stream flow / Rivers / Floods / Drought / Temperature / Precipitation / Forecasting / Extreme weather events / Hydroclimate / Climate change adaptation
Record No:H051758

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