CA Info Bulletin No. 7 - 30 November 2005 -
The CA assesses current knowledge and experience to identify the most effective investment and management decisions in water management for agriculture for reducing poverty and enhancing food and environmental security.
Apologies for Cross-Postings
News on the assessment synthesis
The comprehensive assessment chapters are going through an internal review process - across chapters to ensure good integration across themes and disciplines. A revised chapter will be prepared for a second scientific review and open consultation starting after the 15 December. The draft chapters to be reviewed are on key questions of water management in agriculture: rainfed agriculture, irrigation, groundwater, marginal quality water, fisheries, livestock, rice, land degradation, river basins, water productivity, poverty, policies & institutions and ecosystems. If you have not yet been involved and are interested to review a chapter or contribute, please contact: David Molden.
Workshops
? 5-6 December 2005 Gender workshop-Towards a minimum agenda for effective gender maintreaming in water management . Workshop gathering gender experts and practitioners in Amsterdam, Holland to 1) examine how gender is handled in the knowledge base created by the CA (existing chapters) and 2) to review the ways guidelines are used in the field to link practice to knowledge. The CA considers critical to integrate gender as a key cross-cutting issue in its synthesis effort. In this spirit, it joined efforts with Both ENDS, the Gender and Water Alliance to find out the reasons why engendered policies and available guidelines still do not result in gender mainstreaming in practice. This short term project supported by Novib, will enhance gender expert participation in the CA synthesis process.
? 9-13 January 2006: Expert meetings to work on the scenarios and the Summary for Decision Makers section of the CA, Rome, Italy (hosted by FAO).
CA at conferences
CA will be represented at the following events:
? 5 December 2005: The comprehensive assessment looks at climate change implication on water management in agriculture : CA organises at 18.00 pm a side event at the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-11), Montreal, Canada (28 November - 9 December) . You will be able to view the side-event live from this link: http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php (see the box "At the Conference" on the right hand side of the page and the link: LIVE Webcast). You can also follow the event on the ENB website: http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop11/ (CA contact in Montreal: Lisa Schipper).
? 5-9 December 2005 - The CGIAR Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Morocco. The CA is presented through posters on the program itself and findings such as a new poster on "does food trade save water" This poster summarizes the findings presented in the CA research report 4 " does international cereal trade save water? The impact of virtual trade on global water use".
CA was represented at the following events:
? 8-15 November 2005 - the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention in Kampala, Uganda had the theme "Wetlands and Water: Supporting Life, Sustaining Livelihoods." The Ramsar Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), with which it shares a joint workplan on inland waters, are sponsors of the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA), as well as being intergovernmental end-users of the outcomes of the assessment. David Molden presented an overview of the CA and some agriculture-wetlands issues addressed by the CA. Max Finlayson, a lead author of the CA ecosystems chapter, is chair of the Ramsar Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel and Rebecca Tharme, an author of the CA chapters on irrigation and ecosystems, co-leads the Working Group on Water resource management, and leads the Ramsar Agriculture cross-cutting group IWMI was selected as an International Organisation Partner at the meeting, underscoring the importance of considering wetland and agriculture interactions.
? 15-18 November 2005- IAASTD Global authors meeting, Istanbul, Turkey. Several CA authors are also involved in the IAASTD to ensure good linkages with CA findings. http://www.agassessment.org/docs/AgendaIstanbulNov.pdf. The International Assessment of the Role of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) assesses the historical lessons and plausible futures of agriculture with an emphasis on agriculture knowledge, science and technology and the driving institutions and policies. Water features as major theme in the IAASTD, and the CA process is to provide the water-agriculture material into the IAASTD. A separate report under the IAASTD banner on water has been suggested. Several CA. CP and IWMI lead authors have been selected as IAASTD lead authors to bring in this linkage. In addition, and to help facilitate this process, a small working group on Water as a cross-cutting issue has been established in the IAASTD, with members from a number of organisations around the world. Through the lead authors and water working group, it will be possible to bring in key water issues into the IAASTD by tapping others in the CA network.
CA new publications
IWMI-CA Policy Brief, Environment Flows: Planning for Environmental Water Allocation. New research shows that, in many parts of the world, not enough water is being left in rivers to sustain the valuable environmental services that they provide to society. This is jeopardizing species that depend on fresh water—as well as the livelihoods of farmers, fishers, and downstream communities and water users. Tools have now been developed to help planners establish the water needs of specific environments, even when little data is available. But policymakers need to recognize the urgent need to allocate water to satisfy environmental demands. Download Briefing [PDF 349 Kb] based on CA research report 2 "Taking into Account Environmental Water Requirements in Global-scale Water Resources Assessment" by Vladimir Smakhtin, Carmen Revanga and Petra Doll and IWMI Research Report 89 “Planning for Environmental Water Allocations: An Example of Hydrology-based Assessment in the East Rapti River, Nepal” [Download PDF 442 Kb] and the Environmental Flows Newsletter [Download PDF 268 Kb]
CA Discussion Paper No. 2, 2005. Integrated Management of Water, Forest and Land Resources in Nepal:Opportunities for Improved Livelihood, Dhruba Pant, Sabita Thapa, Ashok Singh, Madhusudhan Bhattarai and David Molden [PDF]
CA Research Report 8, 2005. Meta-Analysis to Assess Impact of Watershed Program and People's Participation Joshi, P.K., A.K. Jha, S.P. Wani, Laxmi Joshi and R.L. Shiyan [PDF]
IWMI Research Report No. 95, 2005. Irrigation and Water Policies in the Mekong Region Current Discourses and Practices, François Molle [PDF]
IWMI Research Report No. 94, 2005. Balancing Irrigation and Hydropower : Case Study from Southern Sri Lanka. Molle, François, Priyantha Jayakody, Ranjith Ariyaratne and H.S. Somatilake, (PDF)
Other publications can be downloaded from Publications, including the Blue Paper: Investing in Water for Food, Ecosystems and Livelihoods, Stockholm 2004 and the book, Water Productivity in Agriculture: Limits and Opportunities for Improvement