Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP)

The Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP) looks at water through the lens of water security: the adaptive capacity to safeguard the sustainable availability of, access to, and safe use of an adequate, reliable and resilient quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems and productive economies.

Funded by USAID and implemented by Winrock International, SWP provides sophisticated solutions to the water problems facing international communities.

Closely collaborating with USAID missions and government counterparts, we customize activities to meet each communitys unique water needs.

Our participatory, holistic approach to water resource management aims to strengthen water security, improve public health and livelihoods, alleviate poverty, encourage economic growth and promote political stability.

We achieve these goals by following a few essential practices: We focus our activities on priority water risks, refusing to be overwhelmed by the enormity of water problems. We engage and empower water users to manage their own water resources.

We attack the root causes of water problems, not just their symptoms, through a science-based "systems thinking" approach.

We bolster our decision-making by accounting for inevitable uncertainties, whether they be scientific, economic or behavioral.

We develop negotiated integrated solutions that offer real benefits developing infrastructure, managing watersheds, changing behaviors and improving institutions.

We enable all concerned parties - from government officials to engineers to citizens - to adaptively manage water resources and to engage in social learning, thus improving the communitys resilience and ensuring its sustainability.