Cooperative Agreement # 72052718CA00002: Natural Infrastructure for Water Security Project in Peru

The national state of emergency and nationwide quarantine lasted from March 15, 2020, until June 30, 2020, resulting in unprecedented economic and social disruption. Despite these challenges, NIWS continued to deliver important contributions to securing effective investments in natural infrastructure for water security in Peru. NIWS' mission to invest in the sustainability of water resources through natural infrastructure restoration and conservation is fundamental to public health and resilience to shocks like the current pandemic. These investments can also serve as an important boost to rural economies in the context of a national economic reactivation and stimulus program underway. To support this focus and adjust activities in response to COVID-19 related restrictions, NIWS submitted an Adaptive Management update to its FY2020 Work Plan to USAID in April. During this quarter, NIWS continued to develop projects, tools, communications, and capacities, having efficiently and fully transitioned to remote work. The NIWS Virtual Classroom trained 123 project developers and evaluators on preparing investments in natural infrastructure for disaster risk management under Reconstrucción Con Cambios. A new course was launched to build capacities and develop 14 new projects with 70 regional government, water utility, and local government officials. The diagnostics and project profile for 9 new projects under SEDAPAL's MERESE portfolio were advanced. NIWS also published the User Guide for its HIRO-GRD tool with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, and a new policy brief on the impacts of infiltration trenches. Accessible guidance on how to use new IOARR guidelines to accelerate investments in natural infrastructure was published, and pilots with counterparts were confirmed for applying this innovative new mechanism. Key legal protections for high-Andean peatlands were advanced in close coordination with MINAM. The Women's Leadership Program on Water Management was launched, beginning a rich series of capacity-building and exchange among its first class of 88 women leaders active in water and natural resources management in priority regions. Objective 1: Enabling Environment for Improved Natural Infrastructure NIWS' online engagement ramped up substantially this quarter, capitalizing on the opportunity of stakeholders spending more time online. Social media engagement more than doubled, reaching over 1.4 million people, with some platforms quadrupling their reach compared to last quarter. The revamped webinar series more than tripled participation rates, with an average of about 700 attendees in each webinar. Participation in monthly Technical Platform meetings increased with these meetings moved to virtual fora. Press coverage of NIWS activities was exceptional this quarter, reaching over 4.4 million people on key issues such as the incorporation of natural infrastructure into Reconstrucción con Cambios and women's leadership in water management. Moreover, with NIWS' support, investigative journalism exposed illegal extraction of peat in Lima's watersheds, and MINAM advanced legal remedies to this critical threat. MINAM's Public Prosecutor's Office filed a criminal complaint with the Criminal Prosecutor of Matucana regarding the illegal peat extraction in Carampoma, and MINAM presented a proposed Supreme Decree for the Defense and Protection of Wetlands, which will strengthen the existing legal framework around wetland degradation. Objective 2: Information Management Improved for Decision-Making on Natural Infrastructure NIWS and MINAGRI published the Methodological Guide for HIRO-GRD, NIWS' Rapid-Focus Tool for the Identification of Natural Infrastructure Investments for Disaster Risk Management. This tool is helping to identify and justify investments in over a dozen priority watersheds under Reconstrucción con Cambios. NIWS also established a collaboration with the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation (MVCS) to adapt and apply HIRO to calculate the gaps in the conservation of water sources that are critical to drinking water supplies for urban and rural populations as part of the update to the National Sanitation Policy. NIWS published a research summary and policy brief titled, "Impact of infiltration ditches on water and soil: what do we know?" and continued development of the NIWS Research Agenda, which is incorporating results from the ongoing meta-analyses. The Research Agenda will guide a new scholarship program to support research that addresses priority knowledge gaps. NIWS also continued to systematize information and produce analysis that will improve natural infrastructure intervention design and evaluation. A multitemporal analysis of land use change in five prioritized basins was completed, which will be used to inform a series of analyses such as the HIRO-MERESE tool, modeling of hydrologic benefits through CUBHIC, and basin-level hydrologic modeling exercises using SWAT and KINEROS. Objective 3: Portfolios of NI Projects Designed, Financed, and Implemented NIWS continued to design, finance, and implement portfolios of natural infrastructure projects. The diagnostics and project profile for 9 new projects under SEDAPAL's MERESE portfolio were advanced. NIWS also applied the CUBHIC methodologies published in