A new seven year research project will look to increase water security in developing countries by generating evidence on risks of water shortages.
The Improving Water Security for Poor People (IWSP Research) project is being run by researchers at the University of Oxford, supported by £15 million from DFID.
The researchers aim to create a risk-based framework for policy-makers, assessing risk at global, national and individual household scales. Researchers will generate data on climate, hydrology, health, poverty and demographic trends to provide an overarching context for governments and international organisations to inform future decision-making to improve water security.
Ensuring the research translates into real influence and change leading to improvements for the poorest will be a priority for the programme.
The programme’s initial focus will be on fragile states which face great water security risks. Some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people live in fragile states, rural hinterlands, floodplains and rapidly growing urban slums where they have very low resilience to water shortages and the least capacity to cope.
For more information see the DFID website.