UNECA/UN-WATER AFRICA: AFRICA WATER DEVELOPMENT REPORT: The African Water Development Report (AWDR) is an in- depth and African-owned report, which forms an integral component of the World Water Development Report. The objectives of the AWDR are to: provide a lasting and durable mechanism to monitor progress made in implementing the African Water Vision; provide African decision makers with an authoritative basis for managing Africa’s water resources; and serve as an integrative programme for the strengthening of UN-Water/Africa. More.

UNECA/UN-WATER AFRICA: AFRICAN WATER VISION 2025: The Africa Water Vision for 2025 is designed to avoid the disastrous consequences of water-related threats and lead to a future where the full potential of Africa’s water resources can be readily unleashed to stimulate and sustain growth in the region’s economic development and social well-being. Full Text.

UNDP: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2006: ‘BEYOND SCARCITY: POWER, POVERTY AND THE GLOBAL WATER CRISIS’: The Human Development Report 2006, launched on 9 November in Cape Town, South Africa, is subtitled ‘Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis’. The report highlights that clean water and sanitation are amongst the most powerful drivers for human development. Access to water and sanitation extends opportunities, enhances dignity and helps create a virtuous cycle of improving health and rising wealth. The report highlights poverty, unequal access, wars, migration and unsustainable consumption patterns as the main contributors of the water crisis. It puts forward the important message that we are in the midst of a crisis in water and sanitation that overwhelmingly affects the poor. A crisis, in which too many people do not have access to enough water under the right conditions to live. Human Development Report 2006.

UNEP: HARVESTING RAINFALL A KEY CLIMATE ADAPTATION OPPORTUNITY FOR AFRICA: The massive potential of rainwater harvesting in Africa was underlined in a new report released during the Nairobi Climate Summit in November 2006. The report, compiled by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Center, concludes that many communities and countries suffering or facing water shortages as a result of climate change could dramatically boost water supplies by collecting and storing rainwater. In the report, UNEP and the World Agroforestry Centre, urged governments and donors to invest more widely in a technology that is low cost, simple to deploy and maintain, and able to transform the lives of households, communities and countries Africa-wide.

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UNEP Press Release
Rain Water Harvesting
   Potential for Rainwater Harvesting in Africa
   Potential for Rain Water Harvesting in ten African Cities
Maps of Rainwater Harvesting in Africa

UNEP: ATLAS OF AFRICA ‘S LAKES: Produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Africa's Lakes: Atlas of Our Changing Environment compares and contrasts spectacular satellite images of the past few decades with contemporary ones. These publications "Africa's Lakes: Atlas of Our Changing Environment" and "Hydropolitical Vulnerability and Resilience along International Waters Africa" have been prepared under the auspices of the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW).

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UNEP Press Release
Atlas of Africa’s Lakes

2ND UNITED NATIONS WORLD WATER DEVELOPMENT REPORT: 'WATER, A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY: The triennial UN World Water Development Report is a joint undertaking of 24 UN agencies comprising UN-Water in partnership with governments and other stakeholders, and coordinated by WWAP. It presents a comprehensive picture of freshwater resources in all regions and most countries of the world as it tracks progress towards the water-related targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals and examines a range of key issues including population growth and increasing urbanization, changing ecosystems, food production, health, industry and energy, as well as risk management, valuing and paying for water and increasing knowledge and capacity. Sixteen case studies look at typical water resource challenges and provide valuable insights into different facets of the water crisis and management responses.  Finally, the report outlines a set of conclusions and recommendations to guide future action and encourage sustainable use, productivity and management of our increasingly scarce freshwater resources. WWDR2 is aimed at a wide audience, including all those interested or directly involved in the formulation and implementation of water-related policies, as well as managers, researchers, teachers, students and, of course, water users themselves. More.

UNEP: AFRICA ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK 2: At the eighth session of AMCEN in Abuja, Nigeria, from 3-6 April 2000, Ministers decided that UNEP should prepare an Africa Environment Outlook (AEO) report to provide a scientific assessment of the African environment and related policies and management programmes. At its ninth session held in Kampala, Uganda, from 1-5 July 2002, AMCEN officially launched the first AEO report - the first comprehensive integrated report on the African environment. Ministers acknowledged AEO as a flagship publication and adopted the AEO process as a monitoring and reporting tool for sustainable environmental management and to provide a framework for national and subregional integrated environmental assessment and reporting. During the twenty-second session of the UNEP Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, held in February 2003 in Nairobi, Kenya, the AMCEN decision on the AEO process was endorsed under decision GC 22/9, which recommended that UNEP continue to support the process. The second AEO was launched at the eleventh session of AMCEN in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, in May 2006. The report entitled Our Environment, Our Wealth profiles Africa’s environmental resources as an asset for the region’s development. The report highlights the opportunities presented by the natural resource base to support development and the objectives of the AU and NEPAD. The report also underscores the need for sustainable livelihoods, and the importance of environmental initiatives in supporting them. Participants were also shown a short film on African environmental issues.

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AEO reports
AEO 2
AEO 2 Water Chapter

WORLD BANK: AFRICA COUNTRY STATUS OVERVIEW REPORTS:  The MDG Country Status Reports are the result of collaborative inputs by the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), the African Development Bank, the European Union Water Initiative, the United Nations Development Programme, the Water and Sanitation Program-Africa, and the World Bank. What is distinctive about these Country Status Overview reports is that the data and summary assessments have been drawn from local data sources, and, as much as possible, the assessments have been subject to broad-based consultations with lead government agencies and country sector stakeholders, including donor institutions. Full Report.

THE COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF WATER MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE: The Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture critically evaluates the benefits, costs, and impacts of the past 50 years of water development, the water management challenges communities are facing today, and solutions people have developed. The results will enable better investment and management decisions in water and agriculture in the near future and over the next 50 years. The assessment is produced by a broad partnership of practitioners, researchers and policy makers. More.