MED rural areas are under permanent water stress due to unsustainable practices and overexploitation of water resources, with the food and energy sectors responsible for ~ 90% of total consumption. Existing siloed, sector-specific approaches are a barrier to sustainable management, failing to capture complexities, interlinkages, and externalities between and among economic sectors and natural ecosystems. At the same time, increased drought and desertification risks necessitate the adoption of new solutions to bolster water security.

RedeeM will enhance the water resilience and ecosystem health of rural areas by:

• Putting forth and implementing a strategy for climate-informed integrated water governance in 12 project areas.
• Demonstrating and transferring nature-based and technological solutions to address water scarcity.

RedeeM will introduce a novel Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus approach in the project areas to map interlinkages, assess trade-offs, and establish up-to-date criteria for the allocation of water resources.

RedeeM will also demonstrate 7 innovative solutions and directly train beneficiaries to employ them.

KEY OUTPUTS

• A strategy for integrated water governance, addressed to public authorities/agencies.
• 7 pilot interventions to improve water-efficiency and availability, to be taken up by public authorities/agencies and end-users (i.e., WEFE stakeholders).
• 12 water resilience plans, to be integrated by partners (incl. associated) in policy planning and implementation.
• 48 capacity building and transfer events for public authorities/agencies and end-users.