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From
Policy Innovations Science Program
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Published on
10.10.25
Stakeholders visit the River Level Station on the Lower Sabie River, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Photo: Ryan Nehring/IFPRI
By
The new IncoMaputo multi-stakeholder platform ensures that farmers, civil society and businesses from Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa are directly involved in the management of their shared rivers.
In a milestone for transboundary water governance, the Incomati and Maputo Watercourse Commission (INMACOM) has officially adopted guidelines for a multi-stakeholder platform (MSP). The decision, taken at INMACOM Technical Steering Committee meeting in July 2025, is more than a procedural step. It marks a potential turning point for a region long defined by water stress and the complex challenge of sharing resources across borders — and could even have echoes beyond the region.
The new IncoMaputo MSP creates a formal, inclusive structure to channel the voices of farmers, civil society and businesses from Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa directly into the management of their shared rivers. It is the culmination of a deliberate, two-year process of research and trust-building that offers a powerful lesson in how to overcome the political inertia that often stalls transboundary cooperation.
A lifeline under pressure
The Incomati River Basin is a lifeline for the 2.3 million people who depend on it. But it is a system under immense stress. Home to the iconic Kruger National Park, its waters are heavily developed for commercial agriculture, hydropower and growing cities. Competing demands and the escalating impacts of climate change, felt most acutely in downstream Mozambique, have made equitable water management a critical, long-standing challenge.
While inter-governmental bodies to manage the basin have existed for over 40 years, evolving from the Tripartite Permanent Technical Committee (TPTC) in 1983 to the more formal INMACOM in 2021, a critical gap remained: a structured way to include the voices of those living and working in the basin in high-level decisions.
The power of witnessing
A key breakthrough in building the consensus needed for change came during a workshop in Mozambique in March 2024, which underscored the profound difference between abstract knowledge and direct experience. Stakeholders from upstream regions in South Africa had read reports about downstream flooding, but for many, it was their first time visiting the floodplains and speaking directly with those affected.
Workshop participants — comprising stakeholders from the three countries as well as INMACOM, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) — visited the Maragra sugar plantation, which had been devastated by a major flood the previous year, wiping out a majority of its production and impacting the livelihoods of thousands of smallholder outgrowers. Witnessing the scale of the destruction firsthand transformed the abstract concept of “downstream impacts” into a tangible, human reality. It created a shared sense of urgency and a powerful, collective understanding of why coordinated, basin-wide management was not just a political aspiration, but an economic and social necessity.
From an analytical gap to a “best fit” design
That shared urgency fueled a two-year partnership between INMACOM and a team of researchers from the CGIAR Initiative on NEXUS Gains. The project began by identifying an “analytical gap” — the lack of practical, comparative research on how to best design an multi-stakeholder platform MSP for a transboundary context. The research to fill this gap became a hands-on process of learning which involved practitioners in other major African river basins and INMACOM, and was guided by IWMI and IFPRI, to design an MSP that is suited to the INMACOM context.
The team analyzed different models from Africa and Asia, each with its own trade-offs.
The semi-autonomous model, like the Nile Basin Discourse, operates as an independent civil society body. This allows it to “speak truth to power” but can leave it reliant on donor funding and limit its direct influence on official policy.
In the state-based model, like that of the Mekong River Commission, engagement is managed by each member state’s government. This model prioritizes national sovereignty but could be seen as more “top-down” and potentially less inclusive of non-state actors.
Models like the Zambezi Watercourse Commission that formally integrate the MSP within the River Basin Organization (RBO) itself, give stakeholders a guaranteed seat at the table but requires them to work within the political realities of the official body.
Through a process of “brainstorming, iteration and further refinement” with stakeholders, the consensus landed on the RBO-incorporated model as the most pragmatic “best fit” for the Incomati.
A new “gold standard”?
Based on these findings, stakeholders developed a set of guidelines for the IncoMaputo platform which is formally housed within INMACOM’s own structure, ensuring its recommendations have a direct and formal channel to decision-makers. The two-level platform consists of a 24-member MSP Committee of government officials and key stakeholders who will meet semi-annually, while a broader MSP forum will convene once a year for wider engagement. With its level of detail, the guidelines could potentially serve as a model for other basins.
Crucially, the platform is not just a forum for discussion; it is designed to be an evidence-based body. It will work in tandem with new scientific tools, such as a basin-wide decision support system (DSS) for modeling water allocation — exactly the kind of advanced systems modeling championed by the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus Policy strand of the CGIAR Policy Innovations Program. The DSS provides the evidence, and the MSP provides the forum for stakeholders to deliberate on what that evidence means for the basin’s future. This structure aims to transform decision-making from a closed-door, technical exercise into an open, evidence-based dialogue.
Given the fact that many regions with transboundary water governance issues grapple with political inertia, this new platform offers a way to “lubricate” the process of cooperation. By creating a formal space for diverse voices and grounding discussions in shared science, the IncoMaputo MSP has the potential to break through old bottlenecks and catalyze the collective action needed to build a more secure and sustainable water future for all.
Ryan Nehring is a Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Buyani Fakudze is a Data Manager at the Incomati and Maputo Watercourse Commission (INMACOM); and Jonathan Lautze is a Research Group Leader for Integrated Management of Basins and Aquifers at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).