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USWP’s leading partner programs reach across over 30 countries

With local water security and climate change impacts intensifying, we are scaling our efforts to help strengthen water systems and build resilience in more communities at home and around the world.

As an action network, we connect people and resources - making expertise and information easily accessible for tailored solutions.

Click on our programs to learn more

Water Smart Engagements Program

(WiSE)

Pairing Cities to Advance Urban
Water Security

WiSE is an innovative partnership managed by U.S. Water Partnership and funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

WiSE advances:

  • The U.S. Government’s water security strategy among ASEAN partner countries
  • Long-term relationships between ASEAN and U.S. utilities
  • The exchange of ideas, services, goods, science and technology


Through virtual and in-person engagements, the program works to improve ASEAN cities water supplies impacted by increasing urban, industrial, and agricultural water use and water-related climate change impacts.

By matching Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Smart Cities with U.S. urban water and sewerage utilities, WiSE supports surface and groundwater resource management and the sanitation of domestic and industrial wastewater.

To date, WiSE has created five bilateral partnerships that help to build capacity, strengthen communication and share innovative and cutting-edge technologies.

WiSE is implemented in partnership with the following organizations:

“By partnering to scale efforts that strengthen water services against the impacts of climate change, the WiSE platform continues to prove that by connecting utilities and sectors across geographies we can help ensure future availability for all.”

 – Tom Harvey, Founder and Chairman of Global Environment and Technology Foundation and Board Member, U.S. Water Partnership

“The WiSE program provides a unique opportunity for members of the nationwide Global Ties Network to help strengthen global water security by facilitating opportunities that connect water leaders – from government and the private sector – with their ASEAN counterparts to exchange best practices and new ideas.”-

Katherine Brown, Global Ties U.S. President and CEO

 “With our global network of scientific and technical experts, WEF is proud to partner with WiSE and provide education, training and business opportunities that support the platform’s progress towards our shared goal of improving water quality around the world.

Ralph Exton, Water Environment Federation Executive Director 

Water Experts Program

(WEP)

Improving local water security in 26 countries through knowledge exchange

The Water Experts Program (WEP) began as a partnership with the U.S. Department of State, where water specialists were deployed to provide advisory services to local water practitioners. By delivering briefings, assessments, best practices and supporting program design, WEP has helped to improve local water security in more than 26 countries.

The Water Experts Program provides a range of integrated water resources management services to build climate resilience and improve the water-energy-food nexus – including:

  • Water Finance and Governance
  • Transboundary Water Cooperation
  • Stormwater Management & Water Reuse
  • Rural and Agricultural Water Management
  • Urban Water Quality Management


USWP members can participate in reverse trade missions , meet with foreign water leaders through the International Visitor Programs, and host or engage with Water Environment Federation  LIFT SEE IT awardees.

Global Water Security Coalition

(GWSC)

GWSC’s partners include:

Moving information to implementation

With the Wilson Center, U.S. Water Partnership co-chairs the Global Water Security Coalition (GWSC) - an international network that identifies and shares innovative approaches to elevate water security as a cross-cutting issue.

With the Wilson Center, U.S. Water Partnership co-chairs the Global Water Security Coalition (GWSC) – an international network that identifies and shares innovative approaches to elevate water security as a cross-cutting issue.

Based on the premise that water insecurity threatens global, national, and human security, GWSC focuses on moving information to implementation by:

  • Convening strategic players to share best and emerging practices
  • Providing regional practitioners with a larger platform to share insights
  • Integrating/coordinating activities across Development, Diplomacy, and Defense
  • Bringing researchers to the policy table


Since 2018, the Coalition has held a series of high impact forums
to examine:

  • U.S. Global Water Strategy progress
  • Hydro-diplomacy and women’s resilience
  • Regional water security in South Asia
  • Building effective partnerships
  • The role of water in climate
  • Water accessibility models

Women coming together for water-sustainable fashion value chains

In 2021, USWP partnered with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs’ Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rise (POWER) initiative, the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to bring together women from across the fashion industry to identify solutions to achieve more water-sustainable fashion.

The fashion industry, one of the world’s largest water users and polluters, can make sustainability leaps with the leadership of its majority female workforce and consumer base.

By advancing and highlighting women’s agency across the fashion value chain, the Women for Water Sustainable Fashion platform enables the exchange of knowledge, tools and best practices to change the course of the sector’s water sustainability.

USWP co-hosted five high-profile roundtables to develop water sustainable fashion value chains. 

U.S. Water Partnership teamed up with the following partners to design and implement the platform:

Rancho Ancon, Baja

Championing resilient dryland restoration platforms

In partnership with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), local NGOs and with a grant from Alumbra Innovations Foundation, USWP is working to develop a model platform for dryland restoration through a groundwater study project in Baja California Sur, Mexico.

By assessing arid land use and hydrogeologic conditions on a 250-acre working ranch, and through best-practice water and land management partnerships, the effort will enable a quantifiable understanding of economic groundwater and biodiversity benefits — helping to increase:

  • Land acreage under management
  • Groundwater levels
  • Soil moisture and groundwater recharge
  • Biodiversity and habitat capacity

The five-year project will lead to the development of an international arid lands water management institute to inform desert and dryland restoration.

The Governance Research on Water Systems

(GROWS)

Innovative governance and private sector models to improve water services in sub-Saharan Africa

As part of a consortium funded by the USAID Africa Bureau Office of Sustainable Development, USWP supports implementation of The Governance Research on Water Systems (GROWS).

The objective of GROWS is to improve water services to reduce extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The program identifies and shares innovative governance and private sector-derived model with support from USAID Democracy and Governance (DG) mission officers.

GROWS focuses on rural water services to explore links between good governance and private sector engagement leveraging the critical role water plays in community health and economic development.

GROWS is implemented through a consortium of partners including:

Supporting water access for underserved U.S. Communities through innovative finance

USWP collaborates with the Water Finance Exchange (WFX), a public private effort to solve the funding shortage for water infrastructure projects in underserved communities across the United States.

The WFX model identifies financial solutions that enable communities of any size to develop sustainable and safe drinking water and wastewater systems. By partnering with communities, WFX eliminates financing hurdles and connects communities to expertise and resources.

WFX’s goal is to help build replicable and scalable community solutions by:

  • Deploying revolving Pre-Development Funds
  • Supporting communities with expertise
  • Identifying financial mechanisms to partially mitigate project risk
  • Providing catalytic capital through risk mitigation and loan funds