Refugee and hosting communities of the Somali Region of Ethiopia are deeply impacted by water insecurity. Water supply and irrigation systems developed by UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations suffer from weak value chains, high running costs, and overburdened infrastructure/equipment, hence are unable to respond to the needs of growing populations. This has led to insecure livelihoods and over-dependence on humanitarian aid. This report aims to identify priority areas to improve water security, as both water supply and irrigation systems are vulnerable to the effects of droughts, floods, and other weather extremes. It recommends prioritizing anticipatory action, enhancing adaptation to climate change, and increasing resilience to economic stresses to strengthen the resilience of water supply and irrigation systems. Anticipatory actions, including identifying locations for water harvesting, upgrading and protecting key infrastructure, and raising community trust in climate forecasts, can minimize the effects of disasters and protect developmental gains. Adaptation to climate change can be enhanced with the identification of new clean water sources and the development of innovative water utility models. Finally, resilience to economic stresses can be mitigated by strengthening value chains, encouraging innovation systems around solar power, and filling water system gaps with local enterprises.; Policies, strategies, and frameworks already in place can support the development of anticipatory action and climate adaptation measures to address water-related challenges. National- and regional-level initiatives prioritizing integrating refugee and host communities and developing livelihoods and economic opportunities can help build resilience to economic stresses. Finally, water supply and water resource management policies can help inform how the range of interventions, cutting across water, livelihoods, energy, and disaster planning, can be harmonized. New governance approaches are required to match the area’s needs with organizational capacity and resources. A movement towards decentralized, flexible, and adaptive water systems, informed by transition governance, can mitigate current forms of water insecurity, and effectively respond to future needs. This would entail reevaluating institutional mandates so that actors’ roles and responsibilities are aligned with realistic expectations. It also involves grappling with key contradictions inherent to the humanitarian space and agreeing on the role that UNHCR needs to play to encourage localized development programming.

We conducted stakeholder mapping and analysis in the Dolo Ado and Bokolmayo districts in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia to improve our understanding of how to co-create and co-plan nature-based solutions (NbS) to address the vulnerability of displaced people and host communities to natural hazards such as floods and drought. Diverse stakeholders such as government development agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), research and development institutions, international humanitarian entities, the private sector, communities and community-based organizations participate in the planning, design and implementation of NbS in multiple ways. The modes of their participation include provision of expertise, material and financial support, community mobilization, implementation of interventions, and monitoring and evaluation. Our analysis found that most of the stakeholders have strong perceived legitimacy in their field of endeavor. This facilitates access to political support and helps in the mobilization of local communities. There were similarities among various stakeholder groups in respect of strategic aims, such as development vision, relationships, management, conflict resolution, and capitalizing on experience. Although stakeholders had similar views on the importance of NbS in addressing societal challenges, they differed in terms of the degree of influence they have on planning, design and implementation of NbS. Stakeholders from the government sector and humanitarian organizations were influential enough to support, accelerate, obstruct or block the process at several points. On the other hand, most of the stakeholders classified as NGOs and community and community-based organizations did have influence in some areas or on specific issues but no veto on the process. Our results indicate that there is a low degree of trust among government agencies, international humanitarian organizations, NGOs and the private sector. This trust deficit could be attributed to the lack of continuous communication between stakeholders and also to the lack of efforts by stakeholders to make their interests and intentions more transparent to others. The strength of alliances or relationships between different stakeholders in terms of continuing information exchange, coordinated action, and co-production with common resources ranged from weak to intermediate. This can affect the implementation of NbS to address the vulnerability of livelihoods to natural hazards and efficient use of limited resources, leading to productivity reduction. Analysis of empowerment and exclusion in the stakeholder groups suggested that most of those from the government sector lack full access to and control of resources. Regarding competencies, we found that most government agencies lack the basic skills to plan, design and implement NbS, though they can communicate societal challenges and suggest possible solutions. We think it is important to build the capacities of local p

The issue of quality in developing small-scale irrigation projects (SSIPs) in Sub-Saharan countries has become a concern. This necessitated the development of a quality management system (QMS) toolkit covering all phases of irrigation project development. The current toolkit was developed to provide guidance and support to establish a robust system that aligns with irrigated agriculture development best practices, standards and regulatory requirements. Literature from the three focal countries – Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – was reviewed and stakeholder consultations, field visits and focus group discussions were conducted to learn lessons and gain insight to enrich the proposed parameters and checklists. Based on the lessons learned, the QMS toolkit was created, including a comprehensive set of guidelines, checklists, tools, resources, forms and templates that can help irrigation agencies and stakeholders at all levels implement and maintain an effective quality management system. It is an essential tool for organizations such as irrigation and agriculture ministries, regional bureaus and county offices to assess and improve their performance by meeting quality requirements, standards, regulations and specifications. The toolkit is prepared in two volumes. Volume II is a series of checklists of key parameters that need to be considered when implementing an irrigation quality management system. The checklists cover the first three phases and associated stages, components and subcomponents of an irrigation development process. These checklists will aid in streamlining quality management review processes and ensure consistency in quality control practices. By following the checklists in this volume, irrigation implementing agencies (IAs), organizations and project managers can ensure that each task is completed correctly and in compliance with established procedures, guidelines, methodologies, standards and technical specifications. Volume II also provides QMS workflow charts for each phase and stage of an irrigation project, which serve as quality control mechanisms that track whether tasks and services provided are fully completed and adhere to specified standards. This volume also contains proposed institutional arrangements for implementing a QMS initiative. These arrangements include a generic organogram, human resource requirements and job descriptions for key positions within the proposed QMS implementation team. Volume II includes the following three annexes: - Annex II-1 QMS forms and templates for pre-construction phases - Annex II-2 Forms and templates for project implementation and construction phase - Annex II-3 Annotated Terms of Reference (ToRs) for pre-construction phases