This information paper illustrates sustainable dryland management practises in communities vulnerable to climate change with case studies in India and the Sudan.In both cases the adaptation programme is presented, including infrastructural strategy and social involvement, followed by results of the programme, subsequent impact on the community and examples of further achievements and successes in local areas.

As climate variability increases, so does the cost of the infrastructure, information and systems needed to cope with it. The biggest impact of climate change in many sectors may well be an increase in the cost of water services.

In addition, approaches to water resource management have evolved over the past few decades following the acknowledgment that engineering solutions, while vitally important and an integral part of any future approach, cannot by themselves solve the world’s water problems.

This publication looks at key issues associated with water and sanitation in countries that are afflicted by armed conflict and where the ICRC works. The issues are identified as health, displacement, detention, urbanisation and natural disasters. The countries where ICRC is working include Iraq, Haiti, Somalia and Yemen. The publication analyses challenges from the point of view of the operational practice that has developed. It makes the following observations:

Avoided deforestation (AD) has become a global concern with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This paper discusses financial incentive schemes to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries may be established and considers some of the issues from the perspective of host countries and the forest-dependent poor.

This report presents final findings from the baseline data collection exercise conducted for Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) Adaptation Programme in Africa. The GFCS programme, having a focus on agriculture, food security, health and disaster risk reduction, is implemented in Tanzania and Malawi.

This report addresses the challenges of land management in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa. In 1999 the World Agroforestry Centre launched a major effort to identify, diagnose and reverse degradation in the Lake Victoria basin, focusing primarily on the Kenyan part of the basin. Dubbed “TransVic,” this project was supported by a number of donor agencies and collaborators, with particularly strong support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

This paper provides an analysis of the current watershed, water resources and coastal zone management issues in Grenada pursuant to Grenada’s obligations on the Global Environment Facility approved Project entitled “Integrating Management of Watersheds and Coastal Areas in Small Island Watersheds and Coastal Areas in Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean.

This analytical brief serves as a starting point for dialogue on water security in the United Nations system. Through this brief, UN-Water aims to capture the constantly evolving dimensions of water-related issues, offering a holistic outlook on challenges under the umbrella of water security. It highlights the main challenges to be addressed, the role water security plays in policy agendas and possible options for addressing water security challenges. The paper stresses that water security needs to be included in the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The coastal zone represents one of the most economically and ecologically important ecosys- tems on the planet, none more so than in southern Africa. This manuscript examines the potential impacts of climate change on the coastal fishes in southern Africa and provides some of the first information for the Southern Hemisphere, outside of Australasia. It begins by describing the coastal zone in terms of its physical characteristics, climate, fish biodiversity and fisheries.

Conflicts associated with natural resources are twice as likely to relapse into conflict in the first five years, an imminent report suggests. Indeed the natural resource curse has been a primary determinant of intra-state conflict in terrible theatres of war such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. Yet it extends far beyond the battle to acquire precious commodities.

This report explores the potential role of small-scale water storage infrastructure in two subbasins within the larger Koshi River Basin in central and eastern Nepal, yet shows that upscaling such infrastructure requires an appreciation of the other drivers of change in agriculture aside from climate (e.g., rising cost of living and poor terms of trade for agriculture). It also identifies the social relations and dynamics (distribution of land, water and labour) which could mediate the success of future interventions.