Natural Infrastructure for Water Security Project FY2020 Annual Report

The project's vision is to break through institutional, regulatory, technical, and financial bottlenecks to implement natural infrastructure investments across the country. Key objectives include installing a critical mass of capacity in public and private institutions, linking natural infrastructure investments with integrated watershed-scale management, and growing the field by expanding finance for natural infrastructure project development. In FY2020, NIWS continued to advance towards this vision in partnership with dozens of counterparts. Strategic advocacy and direct engagement with national leaders secured institutional commitments from leading water and environmental authorities in Peru to prioritize gender equality and natural infrastructure in water governance. Regulatory changes were translated into specific commitments, and decision-makers were provided with greater clarity and credibility regarding the hydrological benefits of natural infrastructure interventions. New tools were developed to support rapid identification and quantification of natural infrastructure for water security. The project built the capacity of 12,700 professionals to design, manage, and communicate natural infrastructure investments. Leveraging these capacities, tools, and information, NIWS worked with water users and government partners to build a portfolio of natural infrastructure investments valued at USD 63 million. Despite an environment characterized by extraordinary complexity and uncertainty, including scandals, political instability, and the COVID-19 pandemic, NIWS made significant advances. Objective 1, Enabling Environment for Improved Natural Infrastructure, focused on reaching over 6 million Peruvians and over a thousand decision-makers through traditional and social media, targeted events, and direct outreach. Policymaker engagement was strengthened through the publication of five new briefs highlighting key issues such as gender gaps in water and natural infrastructure management, the potential of amunas to contribute to Lima's water supply, and hydrological impacts of land use changes in Andean watersheds. NIWS contributed to the development of the OECD's recommendations to Peru on water governance, supporting the Water Policy and Governance Dialogues organized by MINAM and developing technical analysis of critical bottlenecks and policy recommendations to improve water governance. Major policy reforms adopted in FY2020 as a result of NIWS efforts include guidelines for the Investments in Optimization, Marginal Expansion, Rehabilitation, and Repositioning (IOARR) for Ecosystems investments and the SUNASS MERESE Directive, which clarified and supported streamlining MERESE investments by water utilities while requiring utilities to use a gender approach in identifying and designing their MERESE projects. The project's mission is more important than ever in the current context, with the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacting the national economy and highlighting the need for economic reactivation. Investing 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. Supporting and incentivizing rural areas to effectively protect natural infrastructure is especially urgent, and NIWS is building on its FY2020 achievements to deliver necessary investments in nature-based solutions to address water challenges in Peru.