Notes From the Field Water

Funds in Africa: Going Further Together

JUST THREE YEARS AGO, TNC was leading two water funds in Africa. The goal was simple: showcase how upstream investments in nature could improve downstream water quality and quantity for environmental and community benefit. Today, thanks to the hard work of TNC’s team in Africa and its local partners to prove the value of this conservation model, there are now 15 water funds in progress across the continent—with 70 percent being led by partners.

“People come to us (TNC) because they’ve seen that water funds get results,” said Fred Kihara, TNC’s Africa water funds director. “They (water funds) bring together the public and private sectors to implement naturebased solutions for water benefits, community benefits, biodiversity benefits, and climate benefits. This is the true spirit of Ubuntu: We can go much further together.”

Milestone Scaling Regionally

To drive rapid and cost-effective scaling of water funds and other watershed investment programs,

TNC partnered with Pegasys, a South Africa-based water management consulting firm, to create the Nature for Water Facility. Together, we are providing local champions with technical support from an international team boasting expertise in hydrology, ecology, governance, finance and project management.

MILESTONE KENYA

The Eldoret-Iten Water Fund completed the final stages of the two-year development process and officially launched in August. The water fund will focus on the reforestation of three watersheds, alternative economic opportunities for farmers and wetland restoration. The mountainous watersheds are biodiversity hotspots and home to birds like the African crowned eagle and Hartlaub’s turaco.

Milestone Kenya

In Kenya’s Upper Tana watershed, soil erosion from 300,000 smallscale farms has been disrupting the water supply for 9 million people. Here, we are working with farmers to achieve a clean and reliable water source, conserving and restoring nature, and generating community benefits.

The Upper Tana-Nairobi Water

Fund—the first water fund in Africa—has reached maturity and is now an independent Kenyan charitable trust.

Milestone South Africa

In the Greater Cape Town Region, invasive plants “steal” 13 billion gallons from the water supply, crowd out native fynbos plants and threaten the area’s rare freshwater biodiversity. We are working with partners in the Greater Cape Town Water Fund to conduct one of the largest freshwater ecosystem restoration efforts ever undertaken in South Africa. This year, the water fund received a $2.75 million commitment from the City of Cape Town.

On The Horizon

We are co-leading development of three new programs that will make strong contributions to achieving TNC’s Global 2030 Goals: the Kruger to Canyons Catchment Investment Program (South Africa), the Tanga Water Fund (Tanzania), and the Jumuiya Water Fund (Mombasa, Kenya).

A version of this story originally appeared in TNC Africa’s Year in Review, 2022