The Climate Resilient Eastern African Transboundary Water Management for Environmental Sustainability (CREATES) Programme, funded by DANIDA and implemented by IUCN and UNEP-DHI, recently convened two major transboundary stakeholder co-design workshops in the Mara River Basin (Kenya-Tanzania) and the Sio-Malaba-Malakisi (SMM) Basin (Kenya-Uganda). The three-days co-design stakeholders workshops brought together representations from government institutions, basin authorities, civil society, private sector actors, and community-based water user associations to develop five-year indicative work plans and modalities for tracking the implementation.
Participatory planning across borders
In the Mara Basin, participants from Kenya and Tanzania, including the Ministry of Water, Water Resources Authority, Lake Victoria Basin Water Board, Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), county governments, and water user associations. The group validated stakeholder mapping, prioritized basin-wide interventions and developed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for tracking implementation of the prioritized intervention. The workshop highlighted the need to operationalise transboundary coordination mechanisms, revitalised the transboundary Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs) Forum, and develop harmonized data-sharing systems.
Small group discussions at the Mara basin co-design workshop.
Meanwhile, the Mbale workshop for the SMM Basin brought together Ministry of Water and Environment (Uganda), Water Resources Authority (WRA) Kenya, Lake Kyoga Water Management Zone, catchment management committees, private sector and local NGOs. Group discussions focused on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and small-scale climate resilient water infrastructure, identifying activities such as riverbank protection with bamboo planting, alongside livelihood interventions that link conservation to market opportunities as well as improving access to reliable water supply.
Group photo of participants at the Sio Malaba Malakisi basin workshop.
Addressing key challenges
Both workshops emphasized the importance of Decision Support Systems (DSS) integration into transboundary water planning, management and development. Participants noted technical skills gaps and infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as monitoring stations washed away, as barriers to effective data-driven decision-making.
Environmental and Social Management Systems (ESMS) and Gender mainstreaming were also central to discussions, with community relocation flagged as a critical consideration requiring careful handling.
Next steps
Moving forward, the CREATES programme will consolidate the draft co-created work plans for approval by the Programme Steering Committee. The CREATES project team emphasized the urgency of delivering visible, quick-win community impacts while aligning technical planning with local realities. The workshops successfully met their objectives, establishing participatory frameworks for sustainable, inclusive basin management across East Africa’s shared water ecosystems.
Contact:
Lead | CREATES Programme | Climate Resilient Water Infrastructure and Governance: Jacob Odhiambo, jacob.ochieng@iucn.org
Lead | CREATES Programme | Decision Support & Water Governance: Gareth James Lloyd, gjl@dhigroup.com
For more information: CREATES – Climate Resilient Eastern African Transboundary Water Management for Environmental Sustainability – The IUCN Water Knowledge Platform
CREATES is a five-year programme implemented between 2026 and 2030. With support from Denmark, IUCN in partnership with the UNEP-DHI, and in collaboration with the governments of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, leads this new initiative focused on strengthening climate-resilient and cooperative water management across Eastern Africa.
