Notes from the field: The power, influence and the networking ability of water and climate organisations: The AfriAlliance Stakeholder Map

The successful interaction amongst relevant stakeholders in water and climate management in Africa is of principal importance when trying to address local water challenges and provide effective solutions. Yet there was no mechanism in place to know who has the information, which organisations are the bridges, and which are the bottlenecks to water and climate change knowledge exchange. The AfriAlliance Stakeholder Map, based on a detailed Social Network Analysis, serves to identify, visualise and understand stakeholder connections in the fields of water and climate change in Africa and Europe. With its continued use and updating, this map will be a major asset to any research, innovation and/or development project in water and climate in Africa, further reducing fragmentation in this space. The future ambitions of the AfriAlliance Stakeholder Map are to prove its use in different environments and to plan for societal adaptation, which require refining it further together with relevant stakeholders. More generally, with wider use and continued investigation, SNA and network maps can provide the tools to reduce fragmentation in the water and climate change space.