Creating New Spaces for Sustainable Water Management in the Senegal River Basin

The International Union for Nature Conservation has made considerable efforts to bring sustainable Integrated Water Resources Management into practice through its Water and Nature Initiative. In doing so it faced major challenges such as institutional shortcomings, underdevelopment of the civil society, and a lack of participation. In this paper we review the experiences of the International Union for Nature Conservation with the Water and Nature Initiative in the Senegal River Basin. Findings indicate the International Union for Nature Conservation was able to open new spaces for sustainable IWRM by cautiously lobbying at high administrative levels combined with community work on the ground.