Under this project, FutureWater supports the World Bank to fill an existing knowledge gap regarding the applicability and potential effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions to reduce risks of droughts, with a focus on Latin America. A set of NbS factsheets and an inventory of useful tools were compiled by exploring a range of information sources, including technical reports, policy documents, operational protocols and guidelines for NbS implementation, and academic literature. The review primarily focused on studies and reports addressing Latin America and the Caribbean (the LAC region), complemented with more general / global resources. The resulting material is to be integrated with the Drought Risk and Resilience Assessment (DRRA) documentation developed by the World Bank. In a broader sense, it is intended to be a valuable resource to World Bank Task Team Leaders (TTLs) and to be taken up in other NbS-related initatives.
To help transition from reactive to proactive drought management, and in the absence of a cross-sectoral coordinating mechanism around drought investment prioritization, the World Bank has put together a process for developing a Drought Risk and Resilience Assessment (DRRA). The DRRA methodology includes reference to Nature-based Solutions (NBS) as an option to make countries more resilient to droughts. However, how these types of interventions can increase efficiency of World Bank projects, how they can be identified, how impacts can be assessed, and which challenges need to be addressed to implement NBS is not yet addressed sufficiently. This knowledge gap will be addressed by (i) Development of factsheets of existing NBS interventions to reduce drought risks for water services for drink water supply, for agriculture, for energy or other economic sectors that depend on water, and (ii) Developing an inventory of existing tools to identify effective NBS for drought resilience and assess their potential impact.
