The national governments of 40 African countries participated in the survey that is the impetus of this report. Circulated by UN-WATER, the questionnaire asked about their progress and constraints in implementing integrated water resource management (IWRM) goals, as established in Africa Water Vision 2025. Progress in improving legal and regulatory frameworks, governance and institutions, management, infrastructure, financing, and monitoring vary widely among sub regions and countries. Overall, about half of the countries reported encouraging progress towards the stated goals.
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- 67 percent of countries surveyed, including all those in North Africa, reported implementing national water policy. There has been little progress in implementing water laws since 2008.
- Half of the countries reported using 5 or more of the 7 strategies for stakeholder participation identified by the survey.
- Countries seeing progress with the enabling environment also see progress with governance and institutions.
- Capacity building is identified as a strong priority and is lagging behind other types of initiatives in implementation.
- 83 percent of countries report monitoring surface water quality. Environmental impact is assessed in 66 percent of countries.
- In 15 percent of countries, government expenditure for IWRM is declining; in East and West Africa, grants and loans for IWRM from international donors are increasing; and in half of countries, there is no (or unknown) funding for IWRM from the private sector.
- Countries rated higher the impact of IWRM on economic than on social or environmental objectives.
- Infrastructure development and financing is the highest priority in IWRM for 92% of countries.