REACH
Overview
The REACH programme (2015-2025) improved water security for over 10 million vulnerable people in Africa and Asia, and advanced thinking on rural water finance to provide reliable water services for 100 million people by 2030.
Science-Practitioner Partnerships
Living in poverty often means a struggle for water security. Rapid urban growth, unregulated pollution from industry, extreme floods and droughts, lack of reliable and safe drinking water, and increasing damage to water ecosystems threaten economies and undermine the lives of the poor.
Improving water security is an important pathway to sustainable growth and poverty reduction. With better evidence, institutional and infrastructure investments can unlock growth opportunities and help people move out of poverty.
REACH was a ten-year programme (2015-2025) led by Oxford University with international consortium of partners and funded with UK Aid Direct from the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
The programme:
- generated new evidence on water security through an innovative, interdisciplinary, risk-based approach
- established science, practitioner and enterprise partnerships to ground the research and maximise impact for the most vulnerable people
- built capacity and networks for the next generation of water managers and scientists in Africa and South Asia.
Funder
£22.5 million from UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), 2015–2025.