Abstract The economic development of rural economies across the global south is often related to access water and infrastructure. It has been argued that construction new dams would unleash agricultural potential African nations are exposed seasonal scarcity, strong interannual rainfall variability, associated uncertainties in availability. While security presented as pathway poverty alleviatio...

After a 30-year hiatus, large-scale irrigation projects have returned to the development agenda in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, magnitude and drivers of past schemes’ performance remains poorly understood. We quantify performance, measured as proportion proposed irrigated area delivered, 79 schemes from across SSA by comparing planning documents with estimates current scheme size satellit...