Building understanding of climate variability into planning of groundwater supplies from low storage aquifers in Africa - Second Phase (BRAVE2)

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

BRAVE2 will have a positive impact, both through the process of conducting the research and the outputs, on the following sets of beneficiaries.

RURAL COMMUNITIES IN THE VOLTA RIVER BASIN (VRB)
Rural smallholder farmers (SHF) will have the opportunity to access, input to, and benefit through their livelihoods from the research. They will be supported to consider development options and pathways for sustainable groundwater use, access and distribution, which will enhance productive (agricultural) and WASH outcomes.

AFRICAN WATER SUPPLY-RELATED DECISION-MAKERS
brave2 has very close links with its primary user community of resource planners and government policy makers (e.g. Ghana Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation, Ministry of Agriculture, Burkina Faso Direction Générale des Ressources en Eau) to ensure long-term commitment to provisioning accessible information and promoting adaptive capacity through improved regional integrated decision tools for groundwater management. Training & capacity building will be tailored to user groups' specific needs, and the project will empower these groups through participation in networks for appropriate information. Participatory methods to develop new tools will ensure people act as researcher-advocates and contribute to policy uptake by providing practical evidence to inform policy support for SHF. Local/sub-national governments in both countries now have devolved responsibilities for provision of support services and so will also benefit from an improved evidence base to design interventions.

INTERNATIONAL & BILATERAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS
These will benefit from robust quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform their programmes of support to national innovation support systems (including advisory services, SME promotion, regulatory frameworks). Those active in this area will be invited to participate in the high-level BRAVE2 Learning Platforms

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
Our close collaborations with NGO partners (e.g. Christian Aid Sahel, CARE Ghana) who are active in supporting SHFs will help influence their livelihood programmes and provide an improved evidence base to inform their own interventions and modes of working with farmer groups.

CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs) & MEDIA
CSOs, and national/sub-national farmer organizations in both countries, will benefit from evidence to support their lobbying for improved water services for SHF. Some farmer organisations also provide innovation support services of their own (e.g. Uganda National Farmers Federation - UNFFE) and will be able to use the project findings to enhance their service provision. Engagement throughout with CSOs and the media (e.g. Farm Radio) will raise awareness of the research process and outcomes, such as planning information and decision tools. They will also benefit, along with academic stakeholders, from exposure to research and analytical methods that will inform their future investigation and commissioning of research in this area. These initiatives will contribute to improved and sustainable relationships between policy makers and planners and those working with rural communities, setting a platform for longer-term collaboration which is a critical factor in successful future ground water management.

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTES & MET SERVCES
BRAVE2 has very close links with its primary user community of weather and climate forecasters and hydrologists/hydrogeologists, and the decision-makers who use such forecasts, through our formal project partners (GMet, Meteo-Burkina, WRI, Uni. of Ouagadougou & the Institut d'Application et de Vulgarisation en Sciences). These and other national and international research institutes in the region will have access to a richer understanding of the impacts of climate variability on groundwater resource management and how this leads to innovation in practice in the smallholder sector.