Rio de Janeiro, November 16, 2024. Governments of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Senegal are joining forces with multilateral development banks, UN agencies, family farming producers, and civil society organizations to announce expanded efforts to build cisterns and other water access solutions for vulnerable communities by 2030.

These new collaborative efforts will increase water availability and access for human consumption and food production, contributing not only to the reduction in multidimensional poverty and food and nutrition insecurity, but also making communities more adapted to climate change, particularly to droughts and unstable raining seasons. “Investments to increase access to water in rural areas can transform agricultural production, build community resilience to climate shocks and accelerate economic growth in rural areas, where 80 per cent of the world’s poorest live”, says Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The push on water access solutions is directly linked to the launch of a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, due on November 18th at the G20 Leaders’ Summit – an initiative launched by the G20 under Brazilian presidency which focuses on supporting the adoption of national evidence-based policies and programmes directed at reducing hunger and poverty. The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty´s Support Mechanism will assist in the follow-up of the announced commitments and in the coordination efforts.

This initiative is also a practical response to the “G20 Call to Action on Strengthening Drinkingwater, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services” approved in the G20 Development Ministerial Meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, 22nd and 23rd of July 2024. The Call claims that “Achieving SDG 6 targets is crucial for reducing inequality and poverty, strengthening food security as well as achieving good health and wellbeing”.

The case for action. The evidence-based benefits of cisterns, various types of wells, and rainwater harvesting solutions are compelling for semi-arid areas and other regions facing prolonged droughts or irregular rain seasons. Well-designed and properly funded initiatives in these areas have a proven track record of enhancing food and nutrition security and mitigating the immediate impacts of climate change among vulnerable communities — a primary constituency of the global poverty and hunger crises. Several studies show that these water access solutions tend to increase birth weights, reduce the infant mortality rate from diarrhea, and boost both individual autonomy and income for beneficiaries utilizing water for production. Improving water access for families and schools also enhances learning capacity, as children no longer need to walk long distances to fetch water — a task that disproportionately impacts girls. Better education leads to higher income in adult life, thus diminishing vulnerability to malnutrition.

Besides climate change and economic difficulties, conflict and violence are also main drivers of hunger and poverty. That is why “the World Food Programme (WFP) considers water a crucial element in both humanitarian and development agendas. Mismanagement of water resources can exacerbate tensions among state actors, farmers, pastoralists, refugees, and host communities. It is essential to address the imbalance of efforts in arid and semi-arid regions, where food production depends on rain and is carried out by smallholder farmers. Food security is deeply affected by regular access to water in terms of quantity and quality”, says Daniel Balaban, director of the Centre of Excellence Against Hunger of the WFP.

According to Lilian Rahal, Brazilian National Secretary for Food and Nutrition Security “Ensuring access to quality water is not just about providing access to a basic natural resource. It enables productive inclusion and improves food security. In addition to mitigating the effects of droughts, the cisterns policy, for example, promotes development and quality of life in vulnerable regions”. For Bolivia, which ambitions to guarantee access to drinking water by 2030, “the construction of cisterns is an accessible and low-cost solution that allows families to collect rainwater for consumption and agricultural irrigation, significantly improving the water and food security of the beneficiaries”, assured the Vice Minister of Agricultural Development, Álvaro Mollinedo.

The efforts of many of the world’s developing countries to expand water access solutions, often in face of difficult fiscal circumstance, require country and social ownership. International cooperation can be useful to unlock or improve traction of these efforts. According to Sandra Marca Uscamayta from the Coordinator for the Integration of Peasant, Indigenous, and Native Economic Organizations of Bolivia (CIOEC-BOLIVIA), despite her country’s experience in this field, Bolivia requires “additional partnerships to achieve its goals in water management, in line with the objectives of eradicating poverty and hunger, which would be essential for securing funding, technical assistance, and access to cutting-edge technology”.

Combining political will knowledge and funding. Key global actors in the development community also joined this initiative, committing to increase support for governments working to achieve greater and more sustainable impact by expanding and strengthening water access solutions. This is the case for the participation for institutions like FAO. According to Maximo Torero, Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization, “FAO offers technological solutions for water access accompanied by technical assistance and stakeholder coordination to implement pre-investment activities and provision of public goods. This strengthens water management through a focus on planning processes, generation of information, elaboration of studies and preparation of local or national investment plans”. This kind of expertise is valuable for achieving successful results.

South-South solidarity is key in this initiative. Like Brazil and the Brazilian civil society organizations such as the AP1MC (1 Million Cisterns Program Association) and ASA Brasil (Brazil Semi-arid Articulation), which has 25 years of experience in network water access programs for human consumption and production. The social technologies they developed are rooted on traditional and popular knowledge based in the principle of coexistence with the semi-arid region.

According to ASA Brazil “The Cisterns Program emerges as a transformative phenomenon in Brazil’s socioeconomic and environmental landscape, representing a revolutionary approach to face the historical challenges of water concentration in the Semi-arid region, as well as the resulting hunger and poverty. Born from synergistic collaboration between organized civil society and the Federal Government, this initiative goes beyond the mere distribution of water, incorporating elements of sustainable development, community empowerment, appreciation of local knowledge and respect for the specific realities of the region”. These actors are available to share their learnings with other developing countries and this kind of cooperation is useful because the socio-technical solutions and public policies from developing countries are driven by a low-cost, high-impact perspective.

Early action on many fronts. Today’s commitments form part of a series of “2030 Sprints”, a concentrated effort pushed by the Brazilian G20 Presidency to motivate early action and improved alignment from committed partners in the three pillars of the Global Alliance (national, knowledge, finance) for six high-priority areas of its evidence-based “policy basket”, including school meals, cash transfers, socioeconomic inclusion programs, maternal and early childhood interventions and water access for vulnerable communities. The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty’s Support Mechanism will help following up on today’s commitments and support further joint efforts. – Read More on the broader 2030 Sprints Announcements here.

“The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is demonstrating its capacity for early action and concrete results even before its formal launch, by bringing together political will from governments and consistent support from finance and knowledge organizations,” says Minister Wellington Dias. “But this is just the beginning. More governments and partners are welcome to join in this effort in the months to come, as we need more scale and reach to fulfill our vision. This is a sprint, but we are here for the long run”.

The 2030 Sprint for Water Access Solutions for Vulnerable Communities is being announced as part of the 2030 Sprints Announcements for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, held today, November 15, from 2 to 7pm at the auditorium in the Kobra Space in the G20 Social Summit in Rio, Plaza Mauá. The event is open to the press and a live transmission link can be found here: https://youtube.com/live/9jCw1ESr4b8?feature=share

SPECIFIC ANNOUNCEMENTS BY 2030 SPRINT PARTICIPANTS

Participants under the 2030 Sprint are today announcing the following actions to advance their collective aspirational goal of expand access to water in vulnerable communities in Latin America and Africa by 2030: Here are the specific national ambitions singled out by countries:

• Bolivia: Through the “Program Towards Food Sovereignty with Irrigation Technology”, aims the implementation of advanced irrigation systems that optimize water resource use in agricultural production, increase agricultural productivity, and contribute to the sustainable development of rural communities. Specifically, the goals are to: Construct and enable 1,000 hectares of new areas with advanced irrigation in priority rural zones to produce staple foods. Install 200 drip and sprinkler irrigation systems in small and mediumsized communities to improve water efficiency. Increase the production of strategic crops (such as maize, potatoes, and vegetables) by 40% in areas with new irrigation systems. Reduce agricultural yield losses due to water scarcity by 30% in the targeted areas. Train 5,000 farmers in the use and maintenance of advanced irrigation systems and sustainable farming practices. Increase the production of staple foods for domestic consumption, such as cereals and tubers, by 25% in the affected areas. Ensure that at least 30% of the harvested products from areas with advanced irrigation are marketed in local and regional markets. The necessary investment for these works are: Bs 203,779,742 – Approximately 30 million dollars.
  
• Brazil: The Brazilian government expects to deliver around 220,000 cisterns by 2026, at an estimated cost of two billion reais (approximately 350 million dollars). From 2024 onwards, the goal is to achieve the universalization of access to drinking water by reaching around 993 thousand low-income rural families (Cadastro Unico, 2023), of which 700 thousand are in Brazil’s Semi-arid region. In this scenario, achieving the universalization of access to drinking water will take around 18 years. However, if budgetary and financial resources were available right now, Brazil could fulfill its goal for families living in Semiarid region in 4 years, at an estimated cost of 5 billion reais – approximately 820 million dollars.
  
• Chile: Expand programs for irrigation for 2,000 small farmers, and rainwater harvesting and storage for approximately 1,000 small farmers, ensuring more than 4,000 hectares of irrigation; and upgrade a pilot program for using greywater to combat desertification with the implementation of the first 5 projects.
  
• Paraguay: Strengthen the “Hambre Cero en las Escuelas” national program through innovative solutions that guarantee efficient access and use of safe, mainly in the country’s west. The first step towards that goal is to complete a national assessment of water access in schools. Promote access to improved water for populations and communities residing in 22 districts of the country prioritized for their highest incidence of poverty.
  
• Senegal: aims to equip 2,564 canteens with access to safe water.

Civil Society Organization

• CIOEC Bolivia: The “Bolivia con Agua” project aims to provide safe drinking water to over 3,000 families in rural and peri-urban areas across five departments (La Paz, Cochabamba, Potosí, Chuquisaca, and Santa Cruz). This initiative seeks to improve water access and reduce the gap in coverage for vulnerable households, working with NGOs and local governments.
  
• ASA: Brazilian Semi-arid Articulation, who is responsible for “One Million Cisterns” (P1MC) program in semi-arid Brazil’s region has achieved 76% of the needed coverage in terms of cisterns for human consumption. Additional 357,535 new units are needed to provide a similar number of families with safe water at the cost of approximately USD 369 million. Regarding water access for agricultural and animal production though the program “A Land, Two Waters” (P1+2), only 20% of the demand has been met for the same region. Additional 797,519 units are needed for universal coverage in this region. Also, about 1,000 rural schools in the Brazilian semi-arid region still doesn’t have access to drinking water on a regular basis. The investment to universalize access to water in rural schools is approximately USD 5 million and there is no investment plan with that target.

Financing and Technical Cooperation Opportunities. Funding and technical cooperation agents have pointed out the following goals for collaboration:

• Brazil: Maintains its willingness to share knowledge and experience in the area through the principles of South-South cooperation and solidarity diplomacy in order to accelerate the SDGs 2 and 6, which respectively seek to End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture; and ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
  
• CAF: Has a renewed Water Security Strategy 2023-2026, which bases its voluntary commitment made last year at the United Nations Conference in New York, to increase its approvals in this matter and reach USD 4 billion in the four years (2023 -2026), that is, close to one billion per year on average. This voluntary commitment will support the efforts of CAF member countries to: reduce the vulnerability of the population to extremes of water (droughts and floods); improve safe, inclusive and efficient access to water and sanitation; reduction of water body pollution for a healthy environment and access to irrigation for small-scale family and intensive agriculture. Furthermore, it has promoted projects that improve rural connectivity, and renewable energy are fundamental for fostering rural development, enhancing market access, and promoting social inclusion. These efforts align with the Alliance’s objectives of promoting food security, economic opportunity, and climate resilience.
  
• FAO: Offers support to strengthen water management and the development of water solutions for agricultural production and human consumption in vulnerable rural territories to reduce gaps in water security, generate public goods and increase pre-investment and investment appropriate to the most vulnerable groups, in line with regional, national and territorial priorities. Also, FAO is supporting the consolidation of alliances between public agencies, international financial institutions, and scientific-technical actors.
  
• IFAD: Commits to working with members of the Alliance to increase investments in rural areas to increase access to water for domestic and productive use. This will require building new or strengthened climate-resilient water infrastructure, training small-scale producers on the use of innovative agricultural water management solutions and empowering rural communities with knowledge to better manage and utilize their water resources. By tracking the number of hectares of farmland under water-related infrastructure constructed or rehabilitated through IFAD-financed programs, IFAD aims to reach 610,000 hectares by the end of 2024. IFAD will continue to contribute to the activities of UN-Water – the main inter-agency mechanism for UN’s work on all freshwater related issues.
  
• UNICEF: Reach 50 million people with climate-resilient drinking water and sanitation services, and support governments and partners in the transition towards a climateresilient sector from 2022 to 2025. A similar target is envisioned for the period 2026-2030.
  
• WFP Center of Excellence against Hunger: Commits to provide technical support for decentralized systems for rainwater harvesting, storage, and improving water use efficiency, targeting schools and small communities to enhance access to safe water in 20 countries. One primary objective is to reduce the time spent collecting water by at least 70%, particularly for women and girls. Additionally, it seeks to support food-insecure communities in reducing their vulnerability to climate hazards, enabling them to better withstand the adverse effects on water availability through the protection, restoration, creation, and enhancement of water resources, with a focus on quality, accessibility, and quantity. Drawing on the strong field and operational experience of Brazilian national institutions, national governments, NGOs, and United Nations partners the initiative will complement the efforts of governments and their partners.

PRESS AND MEDIA CONTACTS:

Press inquiries should be sent to:
G20 Presidency – Brazil – Carlos Alberto Jr.: [email protected]
ASA Brasil  – Press – Fernanda Cruz: +55 81 97326543, [email protected]  
Brazil – Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger – [email protected]
Chile – Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Familia – Verónica Marín: [email protected]
FAO – Press –  María Elena Álvarez: [email protected]
IFAD – Press – Ana Lucia Llerena: [email protected]
Paraguay – Ministerio de Desarrollo Social – Marcos Areco: [email protected] 
Unicef – Press –  Immaculada Prieto: [email protected]
WFP – Centro de Excelencia de Combate à Fome – Daniela Costa: [email protected]

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty
https://globalallianceagainsthungerandpoverty.org/

The Global Alliance was put forward by the G20 with the purpose of accelerating progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating hunger and poverty. The Alliance’s approach (set out in more detail in this fact sheet) focuses on supporting country-owned programmes and evidence-based approaches through strengthened international cooperation and knowledge-sharing.