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This briefing note presents the results of a regional baseline vulnerability assessment conducted between 2011 and 2012 in the Virunga landscape of Rwanda. Part of the 'Climate Change and Forests in the Congo Basin' (COBAM) project, the study focuses on 12 sectors across four districts adjacent to Volcanoes National Park. It examines how social dynamics, historical disturbances, and land-use practices interact with climatic variability to affect different community groups, particularly the Batwa, and evaluates the role of conservation and tourism in regional adaptive capacity.

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 African Cities Water Adaptation Platform (ACWA Platform) is a pan-African coalition designed to accelerate urban water resilience across Africa. Led by WRI Africa and a diverse group of partners, the platform coordinates research, technical assistance, and advocacy to address projected tripling of water demand by 2050. It operates in tandem with the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund (ACWA Fund), a blended finance instrument providing grants and investments to transform strategic water plans into investment-ready projects.