On December 11, 2023, the Blue Deal organised a workshop about scaling up nature-based solutions during the congress of the International Water Association (IWA) in Kigali, Rwanda.
The aim of the session was to further explore upscaling of nature-based solutions (NbS), and to discuss with the participants how to secure inclusive sustainability of NbS. In the partnerships, the Blue Deal pays a lot of attention to this topic, since it is one of the important ways to work on climate adaptation, which is one of the crosscutting themes of the Blue Deal.
What are nature-based solutions?
NbS for water management are approaches that work with, rather than against, natural systems to manage water resources and ensure social inclusion. The solutions are designed to enhance the ability of natural ecosystems to store and purify water, while also providing a range of co-benefits, such as biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and improved livelihoods.
Main takeaways
The session emphasised on important criteria for long-lasting scaling of these solutions. The Blue Deal, together with the NWB Fund, aims to promote NbS to improve sustainable water management and improve the quality of water resources worldwide. In the workshop several international experts, mainly working in Africa on water management projects, participated. A main takeaway participants mentioned was better knowledge on how to scale up NbS and to improve the communication on the quantitative benefits and results to the political class and community.