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What are ways in which researchers and the World Bank can work together to help each other toward our mutual goals?

Till now, most of the research done on the Congo Basin has been in the confines of traditional forest, climate, and water sectors. It’s only now that recent developments in water scarcity in the northern and southern parts of the continent, especially the tragedy unfolding in the Lake Chad Basin, are gradually shifting the interest toward issues such as forest‐climate and water linkages.

Studies suggest that the Congo Basin is the source of precipitation for a number of other sink regions. It is also hinted that as much as 75–95% of rainfall is recycled within the Congo Basin, (Brinkman, 1983) and that the loss of the Congo Basin rainforest may decrease rainfall by 42%. (Belle et al., 2015). Under this scenario, lower forest cover will not only result in greater carbon emissions, less water retention, further drying, and thus fire risks, but it will also have serious impacts on ecosystem services, including the loss of sequestered forest carbon and associated atmospheric feedbacks.

This underscores the need for the forest‐climate‐water nexus research to become mainstream in the Congo Basin as pressure mounts to allow multiple interbasin water transfers, which may have disastrous consequences on the forest cover and exacerbate climate change impacts on rainfall patterns and on hydrology not only in the Congo Basin but across Africa if not well managed. To date, key information gaps and scientific uncertainties hinder our ability to predict events and emphasize the need for a coordinated research effort.

Climate change is a threat to the core mission of the World Bank Group (WBG): to end extreme poverty and increase shared prosperity in a sustainable way. Current weather extremes are already affecting millions of people, putting food and water security at risk, and threatening agricultural supply chains and many coastal cities.

In order to meet these challenges, the World Bank is currently positioning itself to lead the global effort on climate change. It is working to launch its Climate Change Action Plan 2.0 aimed at supporting systematic climate action at the country level. The World Bank recognizes that the climate challenge can only be met through collective action and partnerships. The Action Plan will strengthen partnerships, engage in focused global advocacy, develop and share knowledge and solutions, and align internal processes to support staff and partners in implementation. It will work with others to benefit from what they do best, and ensure synergies across actors active in the field.

A collaboration with researchers will help build capacity, produce the needed data to inform policies, and help decision makers to tackle the thorny interbasin water transfer issue and climate change consequences by creating shared, piloted, and implemented new and innovative solution packages to meet the challenges, especially those that contribute to the regional/global debate on climate, water, and development.