Strategic Counsel

The trust of the local population and government officials cultivated through our work in the basin has placed us in a unique position to provide advice on issues, beyond just health care delivery. We understand the complex dynamics between the Great Lakes’ transboundary countries which affects U.S. national security, foreign aid and trade. These dynamics contribute to the region’s instability and limit effective engagement by the U.S., Europe and others with respect to dialogue and investment in the region. Without new and innovative approaches, the cycle of conflict, human rights abuses, and costly aid to quell the humanitarian crisis will continue. It will make it near to impossible to develop a strong public health system and trade partners in the under-invested but mineral and energy rich region of Central and Eastern Africa.

WAVE’s policy and development recommendations to stakeholders in Lake Tanganyika and the Great Lakes region are blueprints designed to be adapted in other energy rich regions of Africa, as well as other water centric communities across the globe.

These concepts are applicable to multiple stakeholders with intersecting interests in Africa, whether applied to build health infrastructure, nurture emerging economies, extract minerals and energy resources responsibly, streamline production rates, end poverty, lower maternal and child mortality rates, save endangered animals, create sustainable fisheries, protect one of the largest freshwater bodies in the world, or encourage good governance or enforce security along porous borders. All of these intersect one another, yet most development programs address only one or two of these connections, limiting the sustainability and outcomes of regional development initiatives.