The African Cities Water Adaptation Fund

The African Cities Water Adaptation Fund (ACWA Fund), a key instrument of the Urban Water Resilience Initiative led by the World Resources Institute (WRI), aims to finance innovative urban water resilience projects across 100 African cities by 2032. The fund employs a blended finance model—combining grants, concessional loans, equity, and debt—to address a $66 billion infrastructure investment backlog in sub-Saharan Africa. It operates through a three-stage process: developing city-region scale water resilience action plans, preparing and investing in a standardized 'investment menu' of low-cost solutions, and maturing these programs through standardized toolkits and policy reform to enable scaling.

• The ACWA Fund has a primary objective to leverage $5 billion in funding and financing to implement strategic and innovative urban water resilience projects in 100 African cities by 2032.
• Sub-Saharan Africa faces significant funding gaps in water infrastructure, including a $66 billion investment backlog in water and sanitation infrastructure and an annual requirement of $9-14 billion to secure water sources. Historically, the region has received less than 1% of the $100 billion in private investment directed toward water infrastructure since 1990.
• The fund utilizes a three-stream resource model to move from planning to investment: grants for analytical support to create action plans, repayable grants for project preparation, and direct investment (equity or subordinated debt) for innovative projects.
• The ACWA Fund is currently implementing risk-based planning for water systems in six cities: Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Kigali, Musanze, Johannesburg, and Gqeberha.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). The African Cities Water Adaptation Fund. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-06/acwa-fund-4-pager.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. The African Cities Water Adaptation Fund. n.d. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-06/acwa-fund-4-pager.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=The African Cities Water Adaptation Fund |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-06/acwa-fund-4-pager.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendafrican, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{The African Cities Water Adaptation Fund}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2022-06/acwa-fund-4-pager.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }