Livelihoods across a large portion of sub-Saharan Africa are dependent upon rainfed agriculture, with only a small percentage of arable land benefiting from irrigation. Agricultural growth has been constrained by the pressures placed on land through rapid population growth, migration, displacement caused by localized conflict, price volatility, desertification and flooding, among other factors. With land and water resources dwindling through erosion and rising demand for food, forage, timber and water, poverty has become generalized, in particular in rural areas.

The Senegal River Basin represents Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. Poverty in this region remains high, with the quality of life among the lowest on the continent. The Human Development Index (HDI) scores for each of the four countries put them in the bottom 25 percent of global rankings.The initiatives carried out by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at national and regional levels, together with the river basin-level activities conducted by the OMVS, helped to strengthen resilience to drought and climate uncertainty among the population living in the Senegal River Basin, as well as improving livelihoods. The OMVS provides a positive example of the equitable sharing of water resources, through the development and management activities carried out by countries forming part of a cross-border river basin. The aim of the present project was to strengthen these efforts.

This project plans to fill the critical technical and capacity gaps, enhancing cross-boundary water resources management in the Senegal River basin via: Improved tools for multi-objective water resources management (hydro-agricultural component, fisheries component); Established hydro-economic modelling for Senegal Basin and sub-basins and increased understanding of benefits of joint water resources management; Identification of cross-boundary investment areas to enhance cooperative and joint management of water resources; and Assessment of trade-offs between water for energy production and water for agriculture/fisheries development.