Integrated water resource management is of utmost importance to the Orange Senqu River Basin and the SADC region at large. Lesotho is the “water tower” of the region. All water related interventions in Lesotho are therefore transboundary in nature and have an immediate impact downstream.
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has been supporting the SADC water sector for several years through the programme “Transboundary Water Management in the SADC region” (TWM) implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).The fifth phase of TWM ran from 01/2020 to 12/2023 and included a major component co-financed by the European Union in Lesotho, the “Support to Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) in Lesotho”.
The Overall Objective of this programme was: “ICM facilitates socio-economic development and adaptation to climate change in Lesotho”, while the Specific Objective ran: “ICM institutionalised and under full implementation in Lesotho, based on gender equality and climate adaptation principles”.
The envisaged Outputs were as follows:
(1) Effective and efficient, gender sensitive and climate-resilient policy framework for ICM is developed and applied;
(2) Effective and efficient institutions for ICM are established, with equitable representation of women and youth;
(3) Capacity, skills and knowledge of public, private sector and civil society for sustainable ICM is facilitated;
(4) ICM measures are implemented;
(5) Capacity strengthened for coordination, monitoring, supervision and general programme management.