CRIDA Established as a new IHP Flagship Initiative

The Intergovernmental Council Meeting of the United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) water resources program, the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), took place earlier this month in Paris. The Council meets biennially to evaluate the previous years’ progress and plan for the next biennium. This instance saw a major advance for Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA), a framework for assessing and addressing climate risk and other uncertainties in water resources planning and decision making.

AGWA has been heavily involved in CRIDA’s development and implementation over the years. The framework was officially published by UNESCO and ICIWaRM in 2018. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and UNESCO have remained tireless champions, along with the AGWA network, in getting CRIDA to the point of having been applied in at least 22 countries. As of the recent Council meeting, CRIDA is now established as a new IHP Flagship Initiative.

With IHP Secretariat support and seven co-sponsors (Netherlands, Uganda, ROK, Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco), USA submitted the proposal that was accepted by consensus, with only minor edits.

The adoption of CRIDA as an IHP Flagship Initiative comes at a time full of new opportunities for capacity building, implementation, and exploration of new applications.

More on CRIDA

UNESCO’s CRIDA website: https://www.unesco.org/en/crida.

Briefing Document (16 pp): https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389036

Full Publication: (162 pp): https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000265895