The Good Practice, Better Finance project is an ISEAL Alliance (ISEAL) funded project that aims to develop and test methodologies, as well as improve monitoring tools, which would allow for improved access to affordable finance for farmers. This improved access would be through reward systems based on the integration of farmers’ risk management and sustainability strategies with financial institutions’ own risk assessment frameworks.

The purpose of this report is to provide a baseline understanding of the Inkomati-Usuthu Water Management Area in order to characterise the area in terms of its socio-economic and environmental issues. This baseline assessment is based on information acquired through discussions with relevant project partners, review of available literature, and data collection and analysis.