A4STORE

The challenges faced by African countries due to climate change and population growth are huge. There is urgent need for accelerated adaptation measures. A4Store seeks to address this by investigating whether it is feasible to enhance the prosperity and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable and resource-poor rural households in fragile African drylands by using nature-based water storage of sand rivers for food production. Vision The challenges faced by African countries due to climate change and population growth are huge. There is an urgent need for accelerated adaptation measures. A4Store seeks to address this by investigating whether it is feasible to enhance the prosperity and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable and resource-poor rural households in fragile African drylands by using nature-based water storage of sand rivers for food production. A4Store aims to help trigger this transformation by assisting the rural poor in drylands to access and use nature-based water stored in sand rivers in sustainable and equitable ways, through a co-learning approach. A4Store will focus on dryland regions in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe and learn from experiences in Kenya, Niger and India. Principles A4Store builds on action research previously conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe (through A4Labs (https://a4labs.un-ihe.org), NaBWIG (http://www.nabwig.org) and associated projects), and adopts the following principles: 1. Social inclusiveness: sand rivers offer realistic opportunities for resource-poor households to develop their well-being and resilience based on irrigated agriculture. 2. Resilience: sand rivers can provide reliable irrigation water for individual smallholder farming families. This can enhance their resilience. 3. Ecological sustainability: sand rivers are relatively shallow (<5m deep) and form a renewable store of water. 4. Co-learning: sand rivers allow for a local development process that is gradual and step-wise.