USAID/Southern Africa Resilient Waters Program - End - Term Performance Evaluation

Resilient Waters worked at the local, national, and transboundary levels to improve the management of natural resources and increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation services. This performance evaluation assessed the successes and challenges of working in an integrated way across different thematic areas of biodiversity; livelihoods; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and climate adaptation across basins and landscapes and from regional to local levels of government. The Evaluation Team concluded that Resilient Waters made significant contributions to water resource management within the two water basins by: Strengthening the institutions mandated to oversee water and natural resources management; Broadening the discourse to include other stakeholder groups; Emphasizing the benefits of integrated approaches across sectors; and Introducing a more meaningful gender equality and social inclusion lens. However, limited integration occurred across sectors at the community level, given that grantees often operated in silos with minimal geographic overlap among activities. Working with so many institutions, across two sizable river basins and working from the community to regional level was likely overly ambitious and did not allow the project to target support optimally. The contract indicators and targets were not sufficiently focused on resilience, integration, or sustainability and may have led to a business-as-usual approach instead of looking for more innovative processes, activities, and solutions. Ultimately, the five-year project timeline, and the even shorter timeframes for grants, limited the potential for sustainability.