In the Ganges River basin, WLE worked to improve the food security, nutrition and livelihoods of farmers in a variety of landscapes, from mountains, to plains, to river deltas. To accomplish this, projects focused on improving the management of agricultural ecosystems in order to improve productivity and the services provided by these variable ecosystems. There was a strong gender focus in the basin, with multiple projects working on women’s access to natural and financial resources, as well as on empowering them to make decisions on agriculture.

The Greater Mekong program had a strong focus on water governance and large scale reservoir management. Using a participatory ‘research for development’ approach, the program worked to bring many different actors together to collaboratively address challenges at national and river basin scales. The work was carried out across Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China's Yunnan province in four Greater Mekong river basins: the Irrawaddy, the Salween, the Mekong, and the Red. Having procured additional funding, the program will continue to operate until at least the end of 2018. Learn more.

A growing population and the increasing use of marginal lands have led to land and ecosystem degradation in many parts of the Blue Nile Basin in East Africa. WLE worked to achieve resilient and equitable growth in the region by promoting an agenda of sustainability for existing and emerging national and regional processes and investments. It focused on improved governance for environmentally and socially sustainable management of infrastructure and ecosystems; healthy landscapes and ecosystem services for productive economies and food security; and capacity enhancement and professional development.

In the rural, northern reaches of the Volta and Niger River basins, WLE worked to guide sustainable investments in land and water management to ensure that farming remains an attractive livelihood, while contributing to the sustainable development and food security of the region. The region is particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change and to demographic pressures that lead to increasing demands on water, food and energy. The focus in the region was on influencing policies and public and private investments for improved management of the region’s ecosystems, with a strong focus on the gendered access to diminishing resources.