During this session our panel of experts presented an overview of prevailing groundwater development and management challenges in the South African Development Community (SADC) region and discussed interventions for groundwater governance through improvement of policy, legal and institutional frameworks, effective groundwater knowledge management, and mainstreaming groundwater governance into River Basin Organizations. The USAID…
Governments around the world, from the national to the village level, have been devising, implementing, and regulating innovative tools, like payment for ecosystem services and sustainable production certifications, to combat and adapt to environmental problems like climate change and deforestation. However, despite these innovative tools, sub-national governments face a daunting challenge: They are often responsible…
Alejandro is formerly a senior associate in Chemonics’ Environment and Natural Resources Technical Practice.
River basins host complex and interrelated natural and human communities which depend on the basins’ resources to survive and thrive. Planning and managing resources at the basin level are critical to understanding interactions and addressing impacts to mutually benefit people, ecosystems, and wildlife. While natural systems know no boundaries, these basins often span national boundaries…
Conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are rarely confined within state borders. Instead, they extend through the transnational flows of people, weapons, and resources, creating intricate cross-border conflict systems that span the formal and informal, licit, and illicit. These systems empower armed actors, enmesh conflict in crime and violent extremism, and ensnare local…
Nik Steinberg is a climate risk and adaptation specialist with over a decade of experience in applied climate research. As part of the Climate Group at Chemonics, he delivers actionable, user-centric climate information while designing analytical approaches to help address decision-making challenges in the face of uncertainty. Prior to joining Chemonics, he served as the…
From reversing deforestation to phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, COP26’s commitments unlocked new pathways for the development community to spur climate action. However, the success of these financial and policy commitments depends on climate-vulnerable countries’ ability to attract and deploy climate finance effectively. Underdeveloped fund management systems and limited financial expertise are common roadblocks…
The private sector, recognizing the economic threat and global calls to climate action, has mobilized corporate pledges to avert climate disaster and bridge the nearly $4 trillion financing gap for climate financing by 2030. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), nearly 500 global financial services firms agreed to align $130 trillion – some…
Countries already suffering from conflict and instability are often also on the frontlines of climate change. In Mali, rainfall has decreased by about 30% in the last 40 years, a severe crisis in a country where 80% of people depend on rain-fed agriculture. In Yemen, climate change has increased the country’s vulnerability to droughts and floods, deepening acute…
Chemonics has decades of deep climate adaptation, mitigation, and management experience. Our new Climate Group helps us consolidate all of our accumulated experience, coordinate the deployment of our in-house expertise, and more systematically address climate risks and opportunities in our current project portfolio and new business efforts. 1. What do you see as key challenges…
Even before COVID-19 hit, financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was falling $2.5 trillion (USD) short. The OECD’s Global Outlook 2021 report suggests that the annual SDG financing gap in developing countries could have increased by a further $1.7 trillion, or nearly 70%, in 2020. The finance needed to meet the SDGs represents only…