Introduction

Water security is a critical issue in Latin America, a region paradoxically rich in water resources yet facing significant scarcity and inequity. Despite holding more than 30 percent of the world’s water resources, millions lack access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation. This glaring disparity highlights the urgent need for innovative and effective strategies that address both the abundance and scarcity of water resources.

The region’s water security challenges are complex, involving institutional weaknesses, poor coordination, financial gaps, and the growing impact of climate change, which exacerbates droughts, floods, and other water-related crises. These issues require radical collaboration – deep, cross-sector partnerships uniting governments, businesses, nonprofits, local communities, and philanthropic organizations. Such alliances go beyond conventional cooperation, fostering trust-based relationships that harness the strengths of diverse actors to drive systemic change.

In this context, water funds have emerged as a pioneering model for radical collaboration. By pooling financial and technical resources, developing governance frameworks, and implementing nature-based, community-driven strategies, water funds prioritize sustainability and resilience. They enable stakeholders to address immediate water challenges while achieving long-term systemic impact. Moreover, these funds illustrate how diverse actors can come together to co-create integrated and innovative solutions for broader systemic change.

Beyond improving water security, the water funds model delivers multiple co-benefits, including enhanced biodiversity, improved livelihoods, and contributions to sustainable development goals. They exemplify the potential of radical collaboration to produce resilient, inclusive, and lasting outcomes. By aligning the efforts of varied stakeholders, water funds offer a replicable framework for addressing systemic challenges, combating climate change, and advancing collective action for global sustainability.

As explored in this chapter, the water funds model not only demonstrates how water security can be improved but also reveals additional positive outcomes such as biodiversity conservation, livelihood support, and progress toward sustainable development. These funds provide a powerful, scalable example of how collaboration across a diverse array of actors is key to creating resilient and inclusive solutions. They also show how collective action, and innovative governance can help tackle complex entrenched socioeconomic challenges all while addressing the ever-evolving existential threat of climate change.

Principles for a Successful Partnership: Understanding the Core Challenges

Since the outset, the Latin American Water Funds Partnership (LAWFP), established in 2011, has operated on the basis that effective interventions must take into consideration three core factors: the region’s water availability landscape, its institutional weaknesses, and the financial gaps that undermine opportunities for innovation. These interconnected elements form the basis of the sustainable water security solutions that have emerged from the Partnership over the past decade. A failure to address any single one risks undermining the overall success of the initiative due to the complexity of the challenges involved. Throughout its work, the LAWFP has embodied a deep understanding of these factors ensuring that they were embedded into the partnership’s strategy with a view to driving meaningful and lasting impact. Each carried its own intrinsic challenges that risked creating complications for the partnership’s diverse actors, and each had inherent contradictions that rendered the design of interventions complex.

Water Landscape Diversity. Looking first at the region’s water availability landscape, it is characterized by abundance amid scarcity and inequity along with vast diversity. Water-abundant areas, such as the Brazilian Amazon, are juxtaposed with arid zones, such as Chile’s Atacama Desert. Indeed, Latin America stands out as one of the world’s most water-rich regions, with an average per capita water availability of 22,000 m³/person/year – nearly four times the global average of 6,100 m³/person/year (IDB 2020). And yet, despite this abundance, more than 163 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) lack access to safe drinking water. In 2019, 150 million individuals in the region lived in areas with extreme water scarcity (Wellenstein and Makino Reference Wellenstein and Makino2022), and while access to safely managed sanitation has tripled since 2000, approximately 430 million people still lack this essential service (IDB 2023). This means two out of every three people in Latin America are exposed to health risks from inadequately treated wastewater. Poor solid waste management compounds these sanitation challenges: only 53 percent of municipal solid waste is disposed of in properly managed landfills, with vulnerable communities bearing the brunt of these shortcomings.

Several factors explain this contrasting landscape in Latin America. Geographical and climatic variability significantly influence water availability in different regions. Arid and semi-arid areas, such as northern Mexico and central Chile, naturally receive low annual rainfall, which makes them particularly vulnerable to water scarcity. Additionally, some regions face pronounced seasonal variations in rainfall, with periods of water abundance followed by severe shortages, further exacerbating the challenges of managing water resources effectively.

Urban areas with high population densities, such as Mexico City and Santiago de Chile, face significant pressure on their local water resources. This often results in the overextraction of groundwater and the depletion of surface water sources. Rapid urbanization further compounds the issue. As cities grow quickly without adequate investments in water infrastructure, water stress intensifies, leading to the contamination of water sources and inefficiencies in water distribution systems.

Agricultural activities in Latin America place substantial demands on water resources. The cultivation of water-intensive crops, such as sugarcane, rice, and avocados, is particularly prominent in countries like Mexico and Chile, consuming significant amounts of water. Additionally, inefficient irrigation practices, such as the traditional use of flood irrigation, result in considerable water loss through evaporation and runoff. While modern methods like drip and sprinkler irrigation are more efficient, their adoption remains limited due to high costs and restricted access to advanced technologies. The expansion of agricultural land into previously uncultivated areas further exacerbates water demand, disrupting local water cycles and diminishing ecosystems’ natural ability to store and filter water. Livestock farming also contributes heavily to water consumption, intensifying local water stress.

Infrastructure and management issues significantly exacerbate water stress in many regions. Aging and poorly maintained infrastructure leads to substantial water losses; for instance, in Mexico City, up to 40 percent of the water supply is lost due to leaks. Compounding this, ineffective water management practices – characterized by fragmented governance, weak regulations, and poor coordination among stakeholders – further intensify the problem. In Mexico, 60 percent of drinking water comes from surface water bodies. Of the main rivers, seven account for 71 percent of the country’s surface water, distributed in the central and southern regions, while only 29 percent of surface water is in the northern region. The main issue with surface water is contamination, particularly from wastewater, whether domestic, industrial, agricultural, or livestock-related, which in most cases is discharged untreated and contains dissolved pollutants and harmful substances. On the other hand, aquifers in Mexico are at risk of overexploitation (IMCO 2023).

Environmental degradation significantly impacts the water cycle and water availability. Deforestation and changes in land use, such as urbanization and agriculture, disrupt the natural water cycle by reducing the ability of watersheds to capture and store water. This leads to decreased water availability, especially during dry periods. Additionally, pollution from agricultural runoff, including fertilizers and pesticides, contaminates water sources, further diminishing the supply of clean and usable water.

Climate change is also profoundly reshaping precipitation patterns, causing significant disruptions to water availability. The increasing frequency and severity of droughts in some regions, coupled with heightened risks of flooding in others, underscore the urgent need for adaptive strategies to manage these challenges effectively. These overlapping factors create a highly complex environment where aligning diverse interests and resources is a formidable challenge, often impeding the development of unified, multi-sector partnerships.

Institutional Weaknesses. The second core challenge for the partnership relates to the region’s institutional weaknesses, which significantly hinder water management in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite notable progress in water, sanitation, and solid waste services. Safe water coverage remains at only 75 percent, a situation compounded by weak institutions characterized by poor coordination and outdated regulations. The OECD identifies key governance challenges, including “territorial and institutional fragmentation, funding mismatches, information asymmetry, accountability, objectives, and capacity gaps” (OECD, 2012). Similarly, the IDB highlights inefficient resource management driven by fragmented decision-making, inadequate regulatory frameworks, insufficient enforcement capacity, and weak basin organizations and national authorities, further exacerbated by the lack of reliable, up-to-date data (IDB 2020).

Operational policy instruments – such as regulations, capacity-building initiatives, and service delivery mechanisms – are essential for sustainable water management. However, many countries in the region face substantial gaps in these instruments, making it difficult to address contemporary water security challenges like climate change and increasing demand. Regulations often remain outdated, and enforcement is weak due to limited resources, tools, and technical expertise within regulatory agencies. The fragmentation of water governance, with overlapping responsibilities across multiple agencies and government levels, leads to conflicts and poor coordination, undermining efforts to integrate water management with other critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, and urban development.

A critical gap lies in the absence of comprehensive water-monitoring systems, which hampers decision-making and accountability. Without accurate data on water availability, quality, and distribution, policymakers struggle to allocate resources, enforce regulations, and plan effectively. Industries and agriculture operations often overextract water or discharge pollutants undetected, exacerbating environmental degradation and water scarcity. This lack of reliable data also complicates the development of integrated water resource management strategies, which rely on clear, coordinated actions and policies.

Institutional weaknesses thus obstruct the creation of multi-sector partnerships by fostering an environment where trust, coordination, and shared accountability are difficult to establish. Fragmented governance and outdated frameworks discourage collaboration by creating confusion over roles and responsibilities among stakeholders. The absence of reliable data not only hampers effective decision-making but also undermines transparency, making it challenging to align diverse interests. Without robust enforcement mechanisms and technical capacity, stakeholders may hesitate to commit resources, fearing inefficiencies and uneven benefits. These systemic shortcomings collectively hinder the development of cohesive, effective partnerships necessary for addressing complex water management challenges.

Financial Gaps and Innovation. The gap in finance and its impact on the opportunity for innovation present a specific challenge for water funds and the LAWFP. The total investment required to expand and maintain the necessary infrastructure to meet SDG 6 by 2030 is estimated at $373.89 billion, equivalent to 0.5 percent of the regional GDP (Brichetti, Mastronardi, Rivas et al. 2021). Additionally, public investment in the region has decreased significantly, from more than $13.5 billion to just over $6 billion between 2014 and 2019, widening the funding gap for the sector (CEPAL Reference Brichetti, Mastronardi, Rivas, Serebrisky and Solís2023). This issue is not exclusive to Latin America; in 2023, the water and sanitation sector worldwide received only 2 percent of total impact investment (Hand, Sunderji, and Pardo Reference Hand, Sunderji and Pardo2023).

The financial gap in the water sector is a major obstacle to achieving water security in Latin America. Many countries in the region struggle to mobilize the necessary local resources to invest in water infrastructure, particularly in rural and underserved areas. This lack of investment not only limits access to water and sanitation services but also hinders efforts to improve water quality and manage water resources sustainably. This funding gap results from a complex context for public administrations in the region. While Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries generated tax revenues averaging 34 percent of GDP, LAC countries averaged only 21.5 percent of their GDP from taxes (OECD, CIAT, ECLAC, and IDB 2024).

As we confront this funding gap in a challenging environment, it is essential to recognize the need for a fundamental shift in our operational approach and a need for innovative thinking. The economic, social, and environmental models that have served us in the past will not suffice to achieve the inclusive and sustainable growth we aspire to for the region. Innovation in all aspects of our relationship with water is critical. Investing in knowledge and implementing scientific and technological advancements in water security are imperative (IDB 2020). While the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region continues to evolve, significant challenges remain in expanding innovation and support networks. Finding systemic ways to scale up successful interventions with the right supportive ecosystem could create truly boundless possibilities.

The Climate Change Connection. Above and beyond the challenges of landscape diversity, institutional weakness and the dearth of innovation and finance, climate change looms large. Over the past two decades, Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced 74 droughts causing more than $13 billion in damages and more than 548 extreme floods resulting in $26 billion in damages. Floods affect more than 1.8 million people annually, and the frequency of floods and landslides has increased by 1.6 and 1.5 times, respectively. With the rise of climate change, further increases in these extreme weather events are anticipated. The World Meteorological Organization highlights that the region is already witnessing significant climate impacts, including more intense and frequent hurricanes, prolonged droughts, and severe flooding.

Projections indicate that water demand will rise by 35 percent over the next century, even with climate change mitigation efforts. Climate change thus poses a significant threat to water security in Latin America, impacting water availability and quality. The IPCC reports that Andean glaciers, crucial for water supply, have retreated by 30–50 percent over the past 30 years, threatening water security for cities and communities relying on glacial runoff.

Droughts lead to water shortages, affecting agriculture, energy production, and domestic supply, and increase wildfire risks. For example, the 2014–2015 droughts in Brazil’s southeast led to water rationing in São Paulo and significant agricultural losses. Floods cause widespread damage to infrastructure, displace communities, and contaminate water sources. The 2017 floods in Peru, caused by the coastal El Niño, resulted in more than 100 deaths and extensive infrastructure damage. Hurricane Otis in Acapulco, combined with inadequate emergency protocols and the late government response, devastated one of the most famous and touristic sites of Mexico causing more than $15 billion in damages (Mexico News Daily 2023).

Addressing climate change impacts on water security in Latin America requires a multifaceted approach, combining infrastructure investments, nature-based solutions, regional cooperation, and community engagement. By leveraging innovative technologies and fostering collaboration, the region can build resilience and ensure sustainable water security for future generations. Public awareness and community engagement will be critical therein. Educating communities about climate impacts on water resources and promoting conservation practices can empower individuals to contribute to water security.

The Journey of the LAWP: From Conservation to Systemic Water Security

The challenges described in the previous sections underscore the ambitious nature of the LAWFP’s mission to develop systemic water security solutions on a transformative scale. From the outset, the LAWFP committed to leveraging existing knowledge and experience rather than starting anew. Central to its philosophy was the belief in nature’s ability to deliver sustainable, long-term benefits through careful stewardship and innovative management – values embedded within the cultural DNA of the partnership. Drawing inspiration from earlier water management successes and rallying around shared principles provided a foundation for cultural cohesion and scalability.

In the late 1990s, New York City faced the challenge of ensuring a clean and reliable water supply. Instead of investing in costly treatment facilities, the city chose to protect its watershed, utilizing natural landscapes to filter and purify water. This strategy saved billions of dollars while preserving environmental integrity, setting a global benchmark for water security and years later, helping inspire the model of the LAWFP. By the early 2000s, water scarcity affected more than 40 percent of the global population. Motivated to create a new scalable, region-wide model addressing water management and climate adaptation, five organizations – The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Fundación FEMSA, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the International Climate Initiative (IKI) – established a collaborative framework for water security in Latin America in 2011.

The LAWFP united public, private, and civil society sectors to protect and manage watersheds using science-based approaches. Building on New York City’s model, the initiative emphasized radical collaboration to drive collective action, ensuring the seamless integration of each partner’s contributions for maximum impact. This strategy aimed to achieve systemic change by leveraging diverse actors’ strengths in a strategically coordinated way. Since its inception, the LAWFP has developed integrated, region-wide solutions engaging both rural and urban communities. By combining scientific expertise with cross-sector partnerships, the LAWFP pioneered large-scale water management innovation, establishing a gold standard for collaboration where the collective output exceeded the sum of individual contributions.

TNC brought scientific expertise and practical implementation skills to the initiative, grounded in its extensive experience with ecosystem-based water management. It designed and executed watershed protection and restoration strategies while fostering collaboration among stakeholders. By bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and practical application, TNC ensured LAWFP projects were scientifically sound, advancing nature-based water security solutions across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Fundación FEMSA provided catalytic capital and philanthropic expertise, propelling the initiative’s early stages. As a key funding partner, it de-risked innovative projects by supplying initial resources to launch and refine sustainable water management practices. This early-stage support was critical for testing and scaling initiatives, particularly those enhancing local capacity for water stewardship. Prioritizing community-driven projects, Fundación FEMSA amplified the initiative’s impact, showcasing LAWFP’s viability and attracting investment from governments and private-sector stakeholders.

The IDB contributed financial resources, technical expertise, and institutional support to implement and expand the initiative. As a leading development finance institution, it facilitated access to large-scale funding, enabling LAWFP to tackle complex watershed management challenges. With a deep understanding of regional development dynamics, the IDB ensured alignment with broader socioeconomic goals and mobilized resources from governments and private sectors, broadening the initiative’s reach and impact.

The GEF, one of the world’s largest public environmental funds, catalyzed investments and provided funding and global expertise. Its focus on biodiversity protection, ecosystem restoration, and climate change mitigation brought an international perspective to LAWFP. By promoting knowledge exchange and best practices from similar initiatives, the GEF strengthened the initiative’s capacity to address cross-border water challenges through innovative, science-based strategies.

IKI focused on integrating water security and climate resilience. As a major program of the German government, it provided funding and expertise to embed climate considerations into watershed management. By addressing the long-term challenges of a changing climate, IKI’s contributions ensured that LAWFP initiatives were sustainable and adaptive. Its emphasis on policy integration further drove systemic changes in water resource management.

Together, these five organizations forged a synergistic partnership, aligning expertise, resources, and networks to deliver integrated water security solutions across Latin America. Over the past decade, the LAWFP has demonstrated how radical collaboration can fuel innovation and address critical water challenges. By combining conservation science with local knowledge and stakeholder engagement, the initiative has strengthened resilience to water scarcity and climate change while fostering economic opportunities and improving livelihoods in vulnerable areas.

A core component of the LAWFP’s success is its focus on scalability. Recognizing that water security challenges extend beyond specific regions, the initiative developed adaptable models and strategies for broader implementation. This emphasis on scalability positions LAWFP to influence global water management practices, with governance playing a critical role in ensuring lasting impact.

Scaling Collaborative Partnerships through Desired State

The LAWFP’s Desired State methodology, introduced in 2018, is a transformative governance tool that standardizes water fund creation and facilitates scalability. This structured framework organizes the project cycle into five key stages – feasibility, design, creation, operation, and consolidation – each with specific deliverables and transition requirements to ensure water funds evolve methodically and consistently. By converting complex water security challenges into actionable, scalable solutions, Desired State fosters impactful and replicable interventions and offers a useful example for scaling other interventions:

Stages of the Desired State Framework

1. 1. Feasibility: This stage evaluates whether water security challenges exist and assesses the potential impact of a water fund. A rapid eligibility test is followed by an in-depth feasibility study to build a strong, cost-effective case for continued investment. This phase ensures stakeholders understand the region’s specific needs and the water fund’s potential to address them effectively.

2. 2. Design: A water fund is structured as a collective action platform where stakeholders collaborate to drive science-based systemic change. Key outputs include a comprehensive strategic plan outlining the fund’s objectives and a committed leadership team (director, board, advisors). The stage ensures stakeholder alignment, financial commitments, and resources necessary to advance to operational readiness.

3. 3. Creation: The water fund is officially launched and prepared for implementation. The strategic vision is translated into an actionable operating plan, with early “quick win” projects demonstrating the initiative’s potential and solidifying its credibility as a platform for regional water security.

4. 4. Operation: The focus here is on stability and systematic execution, including implementing work plans, tracking progress, and continuously refining approaches. Key activities involve evaluating outcomes, demonstrating measurable impacts, influencing policy, and attracting additional resources to enhance water security.

5. 5. Consolidation (Maturity): This final phase ensures the water fund’s long-term viability and transformative impact. By achieving self-sufficiency, the water fund becomes a model of successful governance and collective action, driving sustained systemic change and contributing to a more water-secure future.

The desired state methodology strengthens governance and collaboration by creating a common language and operational framework across all water funds. It enables stakeholders – governments, private-sector actors, NGOs, and local communities – to align around a shared, science-driven vision. This structured approach ensures accountability and fosters effective partnerships through:

• Standardizing Processes: Ensures consistency while allowing flexibility for local adaptation, reducing inefficiencies and enhancing scalability across diverse regions.

• Enhancing Decision-Making: Integrates science-driven criteria at each stage, providing actionable insights and maximizing impact and sustainability.

• Driving Resource Mobilization: Promotes transparency and strategic clarity, attracting and coordinating investments, as demonstrated by the $49 million invested to date by the LAWP.

• Fostering Innovation and Adaptation: Encourages continuous improvement and responsiveness to emerging challenges, ensuring solutions remain relevant and effective.

At its core, desired state transforms water funds into dynamic collective action platforms that integrate diverse contributions toward shared water security goals. By balancing standardization with adaptability, the methodology enables partnerships to address systemic challenges, scale successful models, and deliver measurable, sustainable outcomes.

By 2023, the results of the desired state methodology were evident. Twenty-six water funds, involving more than 340 organizations, collectively managed 565,797 hectares of critical watershed areas. These efforts benefited 137,145 families, showcasing how community-centered conservation can align environmental goals with local development priorities. The structured governance provided by desired state enabled these water funds to achieve transformative impacts, influencing policy frameworks and driving systemic change.

The desired state methodology is a cornerstone of LAWFP’s governance strategy, ensuring that water funds are not only effective but also scalable and sustainable. Its structured project cycle fosters alignment around common goals while maintaining flexibility for regional nuances. By addressing root causes of water insecurity with integrated, science-based solutions, desired state creates systemic change that transcends individual projects.

Moreover, this governance framework strengthens institutions, builds local capacity, and enhances policy influence. Desired state ensures that stakeholders remain committed to long-term goals, driving deeper collaboration and enabling water funds to become enduring platforms for collective action. This approach contributes to a broader, more resilient water governance system, one that can address complex challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and ecosystem degradation.

Through desired state, LAWFP has proven that scaling up collaborative partnerships is not only achievable but also critical for driving systemic improvements in water security. By uniting diverse actors under a common governance framework, desired state empowers water funds to deliver lasting impacts – reshaping water management practices and setting a global standard for collaborative conservation.

Philanthropy as a Tool for Radical Collaboration

The governance of the LAWFP and its ability to integrate complex factors into its business model are crucial, but the role of philanthropy as a catalyst is equally significant. As risk capital, philanthropy has the potential to address critical challenges like water security, though it is often underutilized. While foundations face challenges in aligning diverse stakeholders and overcoming regional disparities, they can drive lasting impact by acting as catalysts for systemic change – something less risk-enabled entities may struggle to do. Fundación FEMSA’s experience shows that philanthropy, when paired with measurable outcomes and radical collaboration, can attract further investment and scale systemic interventions.

However, for even greater impact, foundations should consider pooling resources, as competing priorities and organizational silos often fragment efforts. Trust issues and varying levels of transparency can further complicate collaboration. Fundación FEMSA’s work in the LAWFP illustrates that by emphasizing shared goals, mutual accountability, and collective innovation, philanthropy can unite diverse perspectives and create solutions that no single actor could achieve alone, leading to transformative outcomes.

The foundation’s experience also highlights that beyond catalytic capital, capacity-building is vital. By empowering local organizations through training and technical support, Fundación FEMSA enhanced project implementation, fostered local ownership, and ensured lasting impact. With a long-term, impact-first philosophy, it focused on relationships over short-term results, demonstrating the importance of sustained engagement for enduring success.

To drive systemic change, foundations must integrate collaboration into their leadership vision. By fostering inclusive leadership that unites governments, civil society, and the private sector, they ensure initiatives are both relevant and sustainable. Fundación FEMSA’s experience shows how open communication, capacity building, and adaptable funding models can overcome barriers. By bridging sectors and filling gaps, philanthropic foundations can advance innovation, resilience, and sustainability. The LAWFP model is a powerful example of how foundations, through strategic partnerships and long-term collaboration, can address global challenges and create replicable impact.

Scaling the LAWFP

The LAWFP has inspired numerous impactful interventions across Latin America, providing a scalable model for systemic water security solutions. Rooted in the LAWFP’s principles of inclusive governance and multi-sector collaboration, these initiatives highlight how diverse stakeholders can unite to tackle regional water challenges effectively.

Agua Capital, for example, exemplifies how LAWFP’s model drives innovation and policy alignment with global frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This independent, nonpartisan platform fosters collaboration among key actors and spearheads initiatives like the National Youth Water Prize and governance projects such as Aguas Firmes in Hidalgo, Mexico. Through partnerships with institutions like UNAM and UNESCO, Agua Capital advances thought leadership on water security, exemplified by its policy paper, “Water Perspectives in the Valley of Mexico,” which offers actionable strategies for the region.

Similarly, the Metropolitan Environmental Fund of Monterrey (FAMM) reflects the LAWFP’s emphasis on science-based decision-making and sustainability. Focused on addressing Nuevo León’s environmental challenges, FAMM has conducted critical studies like the Nuevo León 2050 Water Plan and implemented reforestation projects, conserving more than 9,000 hectares. Its influence extends to public policy, where its collaboration with Agua Capital, UNESCO, and UNAM provides a broader framework for enhancing water management across Mexico.

In Bogotá, Agua Somos demonstrates the LAWFP’s collaborative ethos by integrating ecosystem conservation, water access, and policy development. Supporting Bogotá’s water security vision for 2050, it leverages partnerships to resolve conflicts, implement nature-based solutions, and strengthen governance. Its involvement in the Central Region Water Security Plan exemplifies how multi-sector collaboration fosters systemic outcomes and resilient solutions.

Agua Tica in Costa Rica showcases the LAWFP’s principles through its public–private partnership addressing water security in the Grande and Virilla River sub-watersheds. By uniting civil society, government institutions, and private businesses, it implements nature-based solutions such as reforestation and agroforestry, directly benefiting nearly 2 million people. Agua Tica’s success reflects the LAWFP’s ability to align diverse interests, ensuring long-term sustainability and replicability in other urban and environmentally stressed regions.

These examples underline the LAWFP’s transformative impact, showing how proven models of governance, finance, and collective action can scale solutions globally. They highlight how the partnership’s innovative frameworks address complex water security challenges, fostering sustainable development and systemic change through collaboration and science-based strategies.

Looking Ahead: A Vision for the Future

The LAWFP exemplifies the transformative potential of science-based governance frameworks and collective action in addressing water security challenges at scale. By uniting diverse stakeholders – including governments, private enterprises, philanthropic entities, and local communities – under a shared vision, it has established a robust foundation for systemic change. Central to this success is the desired state methodology, a technically rigorous framework that transforms complex challenges into actionable, scalable solutions. Through standardized processes, contextual adaptability, and a focus on evidence-based decision-making, desired state has enabled the LAWFP to deliver impactful and sustainable outcomes across regions.

This framework also integrates a whole-ecosystem approach by addressing both the ecological and socioeconomic dimensions of water security. It ensures water funds operate as multifunctional platforms that leverage cutting-edge science, institutional capacity, and community-driven strategies. From restoring degraded wetlands to implementing advanced monitoring systems, these initiatives combine nature-based solutions with technological innovation to deliver measurable results in water quality, biodiversity, and resilience.

Rising to Future Challenges

As climate change accelerates and global water demand continues to rise, the LAWFP’s model becomes increasingly critical. Rising water stress, driven by shifting precipitation patterns, population growth, and urbanization, threatens both natural ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Addressing these challenges will require scaling the LAWFP’s approach through:

1. 1. Enhanced Data-Driven Decision-Making: Expanding the use of advanced tools such as artificial intelligence to optimize water resource management and predict future risks.

2. 2. Broader Integration of Nature-Based Solutions: Increasing investments in sustainable practices like reforestation, wetland restoration, and soil conservation to mitigate flooding, recharge aquifers, and enhance ecosystem services.

3. 3. Strengthened Policy Alignment: Advocating for regulatory frameworks that incorporate climate resilience and integrated watershed management into national and regional development strategies.

4. 4. Deeper Community Engagement: Building local capacity through education, training, and grassroots initiatives such as rainwater harvesting, watershed conservation, and sustainable farming practices to empower communities to take ownership of water stewardship.

5. 5. Innovative Financing Models: Expanding philanthropic support and introducing blended finance approaches that combine public, private, and international funds to sustain long-term investments in water security.

A Blueprint for Global Replication

Over the past decade, the LAWFP has demonstrated that ambitious goals, visionary leadership, and radical collaboration can overcome entrenched systemic barriers. Its success as a scalable global model lies in its ability to bridge gaps across sectors and disciplines, ensuring that all contributions are seamlessly integrated into a cohesive response to water insecurity. By directly addressing root causes and fostering systemic alignment, the LAWFP not only advances water security but also strengthens socioeconomic resilience in vulnerable communities.

The catalytic role of philanthropy in this partnership cannot be overstated. Philanthropic investment has de-risked early-stage initiatives, facilitated stakeholder engagement, and unlocked resources for innovative projects. Moving forward, continued investment will enable the LAWFP to refine its methodologies, expand its reach, and drive technological and ecological innovation.

Toward a Sustainable Future

As water crises intensify, the LAWFP provides a technically robust and socially inclusive road map for addressing humanity’s most urgent resource challenge. Its emphasis on governance, scalability, and local empowerment positions water funds as critical tools for navigating a rapidly changing environmental landscape.

The LAWFP stands as a testament to the power of integrated, cross-sector collaboration and offers an inspiring model for global replication. By leveraging cutting-edge science, innovative financing with philanthropy de-risking, and community-driven action, it delivers not just water security but also a pathway to greater environmental resilience and socioeconomic equity. As this partnership continues to evolve, it will remain a beacon of hope, demonstrating that with aligned vision and collective action, systemic change is not only possible—it is inevitable.