Transboundary Water Management in SADC

The Government of Lesotho, with support from the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, has embarked on an ambitious "National Programme for Integrated Catchment Management (ReNoka)" ("re noka" in Sesotho means "we are a river"). Its aim is to rehabilitate degraded watersheds across the country and to put in place prevention measures that will halt the further degradation of Lesotho"s catchment areas. The sustainable management of Lesotho"s catchments are of critical importance for water, land, energy and food security not only in Lesotho itself but in the entire Orange-Senqu Basin and Gauteng Province, Southern Africa"s economic centre. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been commissioned by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to implement a technical cooperation project to support Integrated Catchment Management in Lesotho. The overall objective of the project is that "Integrated Catchment Management facilitates socio-economic development and adaptation to climate change in Lesotho", while the specific objective is "ICM is institutionalised and under full implementation in Lesotho, based on gender equality and climate adaptation principles". To achieve this objective, the Action works concurrently on five interlinked outputs: - Output 1: Effective and efficient, gender sensitive and climate-resilient policy framework for ICM is developed and applied. - Output 2: Effective and efficient institutions for ICM are established, with equitable representation of women and youth. - Output 3: Capacity, skills and knowledge of public, private sector and civil society for sustainable ICM is facilitated. - Output 4: ICM measures are implemented. - Output 5: Capacity strengthened for coordination, monitoring, supervision and general programme management.