The Grassroots Groundwater Champions Securing Climate Resilience

The GEF-funded Groundwater for aDvancing Resilience in Africa (G4DR) project is currently establishing extensive groundwater monitoring networks operating across five countries: Togo, Benin, Mozambique, Malawi, and Uganda.

A crucial part of this work is an innovative youth engagement program, driven by Youth Ambassadors. Operating in all five countries, their remit is broad but focuses on awareness-raising, community engagement, knowledge sharing, and amplifying youth perspectives in water governance and decision-making.

The Youth Ambassadors work closely alongside G4DR’s social scientist Dr Karen Nortje, whose expertise helps ensure that community engagement is inclusive, locally relevant, and responsive to the needs of diverse groups. 

“Genuine climate resilience must be intersectional, addressing how marginalized groups experience water scarcity on a daily basis. Women, for example, often shoulder the physical burden of water collection, yet their voices, alongside those of young people are frequently excluded from local resource governance. Meanwhile, Indigenous Peoples often hold generational ecological knowledge about water systems, yet their customary rights and stewardship roles are routinely overlooked.”

G4DR teams recently completed a ‘hydrocensus’ of existing monitoring boreholes, and are now restoring damaged sites, and drilling new ones. This work can present inherent challenges in terms of community and youth engagement.

For example, when a large drilling rig arrives in an arid, water-insecure village, it tends to bring the immediate hope of fresh drinking water. However, when locals discover that a new borehole is strictly for observation, hope can rapidly dissolve into frustration – increasing the risk of theft and vandalism.

Protecting these remote sites requires the active support and stewardship of trusted local advocates and communities.

In Uganda’s Upper Nile Water Management Zone, Youth Ambassador Brosom Kamusiime is fundamentally reframing how communities view groundwater management. Rather than delivering dry, technical lectures on hydrogeology, Kamusiime relies on simple, relatable analogies and powerful messaging to build a foundation of trust.

"Just as doctors use a stethoscope to monitor a patient's health, monitoring wells help us check the condition of our aquifers,"

Kamusiime explains during his grassroots engagement campaigns.

"Without monitoring, groundwater problems often remain hidden until wells begin to dry up or water quality deteriorates."

In the Shire Aquifer System, spanning Malawi and Mozambique, the G4DR project is co-designing entirely new transboundary monitoring networks. Here, Youth Ambassador Alinet Mkupatira focuses on integrating young people seamlessly into broader transboundary water diplomacy.

Aquifers do not recognize national borders, which is why we must hold hands across countries to protect our shared groundwater resources. By collaborating across borders, we can amplify our advocacy and ensure sustainability for everyone.

Meanwhile, in the Mono River Basin, shared by Benin and Togo, the immediate challenge involves rehabilitating non-functional monitoring stations. Youth Ambassador Falonne Dagnon is applying her professional skillsets directly to community sensitization.

“You cannot build climate resilience purely through a screen. My generation is often associated with digital and virtual communication, and while I use marketing strategies to shape our messaging, the most crucial work happens physically on the ground, ensuring the community feels directly connected to the infrastructure we are installing.”

Her approach ensures that the project does not impose infrastructure from the top down, but instead recruits the community as active, willing partners.

The Youth Ambassadors are currently in the process of delivering carefully planned interventions in their communities. This includes awareness workshops, focus groups, ‘Theatre for Development’ performances, and interactive school sessions featuring drawing and games to explain the water cycle.

To ensure long-term stewardship, the ambassadors are also rolling out hands-on training for young people on sustainable groundwater management. Looking further ahead, to build on these localized efforts the project has ambitious plans afoot to establish a Pan-African Youth Forum for young people to contribute to high-level decision-making processes.

By placing young leaders at the center of groundwater dialogue, the project is not merely securing its current monitoring networks; it is actively investing in the long-term capacity needed to manage Africa’s groundwater resources sustainably for generations to come.

The Groundwater for aDvancing Resilience in Africa (G4DR) project is a four-year (2024–2028) transboundary initiative enhancing regional water security through sustainable groundwater development. Operating across Pan-African, national, and local scales, it features three pilot sites: the Mono River Basin (Benin/Togo), the Shire Aquifer System (Malawi/Mozambique), and the Upper Nile Water Management Zone (Uganda). Its objective is to advance climate resilience, food security, and community wellbeing by coordinating the management and protection of Africa's largest underutilized water resource.

G4DR safeguards the livelihoods of rural and borderland communities by bridging high-level policy with on-the-ground realities. By co-designing transboundary monitoring networks, creating data-driven risk frameworks, and empowering women and youth, the project ensures shared aquifers are equitably managed and integrated into climate adaptation strategies.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), G4DR is implemented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and executed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Key partners include the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and the SADC Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI).

For more information, please contact Chief Technical Advisor Jonathan Lautze (j.lautze@cgiar.org)