Building on existing literature and the analysis of a portfolio of development projects (past and under implementation), this paper reviews the evolution of water user associations (WUAs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), reflecting on the conceptualization of how they operate, and the promised outcomes related to irrigation development, and the efficient and effective delivery of irrigation services.

Soil and water conservation (SWC) practices like that of erosion control and soil fertility measures were commonly practiced in the semiarid region of southern Mali since the 1980s. The SWC practices were mainly meant to increase water availability in the subsurface, reduce farm water runoff and gully formation and improve nutrient content of the soil, thereby increasing crop yield. Despite such efforts to promote at scale SWC practices, the landscape of southern Mali is still affected by high rates of runoff and soil erosion and low crop yield in farmers’ fields.

Understanding the gender dimensions of community-based groundwater governance is important because men and women differ in their need for and having access to groundwater, and their participation in the development, management and monitoring of the resource. The leading role played by women in obtaining and safeguarding water is not usually reflected in the institutional arrangements for water management. Addressing this gender inequality could lead to the equal participation of men and women in monitoring and sustainable management of groundwater, and women’s empowerment.

Women play an increasingly greater role in agriculture. Ensuring that they have opportunities—equal to those of men—to participate in transforming agriculture is a prerequisite for sustainable intensification. Increased gender equity in agriculture is both a practical and a social justice issue: practical because women are responsible for much of the production by smallholders; and social justice because in many cases they currently do not have rights over land and water resources, nor full access to markets, and often they do not even control the crops they produce.

In Burkina Faso, more than two-thirds of the population relies on rain-fed agriculture for food and income. However, scarce and insufficient water or irregular rainfall frequently puts farmers at risk of losing their crops. Climate change is making already variable rainfall less reliable. Yet all kinds of water users—farmers, fishers, livestock herders, domestic users, city dwellers, emerging industries–and ecosystems depend on access to water of the right quality, in the right quantity, and at the right time.

As solar panels become more a ordable, solar photovoltaic (PV) pumps have been identi ed as a high potential water lifting technology to meet the growing irrigation demand in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, little is known aboutthegeo-spatial potentialofsolarbasedPVpumpingforirrigationtakinginto accountnotonlysolar radiation but also the availability of water resources and linkage to markets. This study developed a suitability framework using multi-criteria analysis in an open source GIS environment and tested it in the case of Ethiopia.