Governance and policy blog posts

The Indus Basin is a system that supports a great number of people within and beyond its borders, but it is a system under considerable biophysical, social, economic and political stress. Planning for the future of this ever-changing, over-stretched system requires an open dialogue between scientists and policy makers.

As the world marks World Water Day, it is clear we need better groundwater governance to avoid the next big crisis.

Sanitation services and waste collection have long been a financial burden for the public sector. A new series of business models shows how this trend cannot only be reversed, but how recycling and reusing waste can be a lucrative endeavor.

What if the prevailing narrative that youth migration is responsible for the deterioration of rural agricultural livelihoods needs to be rethought?  

With growing populations and the worst food crisis since World War II, implementing the SDGs in a way that takes advantage of overlaps while accounting for conflicting interests is more important now than ever before.

Ahead of the 11th International Conference on Community-Based Adaptation (CBA11), Daphne Nansambu looks at an aging agricultural population in Uganda and considers why so many youth are migrating away from farming, as well as what can be done to keep them in the sector.

Providing crop insurance for smallholder farmers has been difficult in the past, leaving them vulnerable to floods, droughts, and other disasters. Now, satellite technology opens the door for insurance companies to provide affordable, timely coverage, reducing farmers' risks.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Assessment for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has been drafted and is ready for external review. Get involved!

This week marks the launch of the new CGIAR research portfolio. Izabella Koziell, Program Director, lays out the ambitions of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE).

What changes need to take place in order to make agriculture socially, economically and environmentally sustainable while also being productive? What role does research play in bringing about this transformational change?

The WLE Focal Regions (2014-2016) were an ambitious attempt to apply the fundamental underpinnings of WLE at scale: sustainable intensification of agriculture and substantive investment in gender.