The Water Resilience Tracker (WRT) is a diagnostic tool that helps guide governments in the development of their National Adaptation Plans and Nationally Determined Contributions. The Tracker, which focusses on water resilience, is already being used in Egypt and Malawi. It is the first consolidated attempt at drawing out water commitments embedded in climate planning and is the first tool of its kind to provide demand-driven policy and technical assistance to governments.
The Tracker is unique in the way that it actively engages stakeholders throughout the process. It collects data that not only help policymakers craft tailored, effective water policies for their countries but also enhances their capacity to engage in the project.
The Tracker is part of the Just Transitions for Water Security (JTWS) program of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The project partners, the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), Arup, Deltares and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) expect the Tracker to bridge the science-to-policy interface. The partners met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, February 10-13, 2025 to discuss the Tracker’s progress and next steps in its implementation in more countries.
A key outcome of the session was the ironing out of the logistics for the Tracker’s implementation in Brazil and Nepal. Participants agreed on the scope, key stakeholders, methodologies and expected outputs for these and future countries. During the meeting, they fine-tuned key strategies, work plans and communications to ensure impactful delivery of the next phase.
The partners expect to build on lessons learned from work done over the past year, to ensure that the program remains adaptable and responsive to emerging government needs and intensifying climate changes.
“These sessions were positive and really helped integrate our partnerships to combine our knowledge and show that we are more than just the sum of our parts,” said Darshini Ravindranath, WRT Project Lead and Research Group Leader – Climate Policies, Finance and Processes, IWMI. “We see so much opportunity not only to implement the next stage of this plan in our target countries but also to expand our services and expertise to an even wider audience.”
IWMI researchers joined the discussion to shed light on topics covering the integration of AI into the policy-making process and new Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) developments. This was to ensure that the work plans drawn up were inclusive. IWMI colleagues in Egypt and Malawi, meanwhile, joined remotely to share their experiences and updates on the country-specific implementation of the Tracker.
Big-picture lessons were shared by partners, Andrew Okem, Technical Policy Specialist, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Andrew Roby, Senior Water Security Advisor, FCDO.
IWMI is committed to leveraging the power of partnerships to better connect its research and innovation through collective action and to scaling change in water systems. The Tracker partnership is an example of IWMI’s approach of bringing together public and private sectors, community-based organizations and national research partners.