Governance and policy blog posts

Throughout the river basins of the world, water management issues have been caused or exacerbated by instances of destructive conflict. Collaboration will help mitigate water issues, but it must be grounded in science and involve multi-stakeholder engagement.

The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), would like to engage partners and readers of the Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog in a debate on how we unite agricultural production, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. To start the debate, Andrew Noble, Program Director for WLE, explains why we need a farming revolution...

Is it surprising that in the aftermath of the financial crisis, in a global economy growing on credit, physical assets like land and crops are gaining value? The startling and frankly criminal scale of income disparities between citizens in the global economy have been growing larger for more than a generation now.

For Africa to be able to feed itself, agriculture needs to become a more attractive option for youth. But just how can this be accomplished? Some clues might be drawn from examining the AASW6 social media team of over 165 young reporters.

For researchers trying to get from outputs to outcomes, one way to grasp experience is set up an ‘engagement platform’. In general terms, an engagement platform is an opportunity for individuals and people representing organizations with different backgrounds and interests to come together to diagnose problems, identify opportunities and implement solutions.

Taking an integrated approach is central to the new CGIAR strategy, which is now implementing its research through 16 cross-cutting CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs).

In the end of June, CGIAR Research Program leaders, along with donors and external stakeholders, met to discuss the development outcomes that the CGIAR Research Programs aim to achieve. We caught up with David Bergvinson of the Gates Foundation to ask him some questions.

Over the past five years, the idea of sustainable intensification – of producing more food from the same area of land while reducing the environmental impacts – has been gaining traction in policy debate.

A response to Water Alternatives Special Issue on Shedding Light on Hidden Dynamics in the Water Sector. Don’t speak your mind until you’ve retired. That’s one message readers might take from Water Alternatives special issue...

A recent UN Women paper examines gender equality in 49 African constitutions. Most contain statements relating to equality and non-discrimination, with many including specific reference to property rights.

Expectations were high for the WLE Design Workshop held in Accra between 28th and 30th May. Perhaps too high.

Metals, excess nutrients, and sediment are processed and filtered out as water moves through forests, wetlands, natural grasslands and riparian zones. It is usually easier to prevent pollution harnessing the forces of nature than to clean up the mess with costly technology.