Water Scarcity and Climate Change Enabling Environment for WASH

Reports and papers|Mar 6, 2023

Water and Human Security Climate Resilience

Aerial view of dry landscape with settlements and sparse vegetation.

The overall level of water stress of a country does not paint a full picture on the risk and impact to the country and its people, including children. Moreover, the level of water stress does not provide information about a country readiness to manage water stress impact. Assessing the “readiness” of a country’s enabling environment to tackle water scarcity and related compounding climate change risks is the main aim of this report.

An in-depth analysis of the enabling environment within the water and climate sectors was undertaken in 14 MENA countries. The assessment was structured using the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) enabling environment building blocks (SWA, n.d.): “Policy and Strategy”, “Institutional Arrangements”, “Financing”, “Capacity Development”, and “Planning, Monitoring and Review”. Under each building block, assessment criteria were defined and subsequently measured through the use of a combination of the findings from country desk reviews and country surveys distributed to UNICEF country offices.

The assessment found that the best performing building blocks include “Policy and Strategy” and “Institutional Arrangements”, with “Financing” and “Capacity Development” performing the worst. Planning, Monitoring and Review building block had mixed results with some countries performing well, and others poorly.