222893e

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON WATER SCIENCES AND RESEARCHand deserve all the support they can get, to collaborate as researchpartners and continue the tradition of innovation in this region.International partners seeking to build peace, prosperity andstrong economic ties across the region know that they need tomove beyond emergency assistance to restore and rejuvenate thelands once considered to be the breadbasket of Europe. In a worldfull of new uncertainties at home and abroad, many donors areunderstandably reluctant to jeopardize public funds and reputationsin pursuit of research that may not yield instant results.Some feel obliged to stick with instant ‘band-aid’ solutions, butothers might be willing to consider research and innovation.Experienced research partners with a long-term stake in successfulwater management research can use their accumulated knowledgeto capitalize on emerging discoveries and accelerate the effectivenessof assistance to research for development, reducing the risksfor donors. Pooling of resources among multilateral and bilateralpartners in support of promising research and extension successescould further encourage regional research institutions to incubateand explore new technological solutions and foster the enhancedlong-term thinking needed to address regional climate change,water scarcity and food security challenges.The Water and Livelihoods InitiativeThe United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s)best-bet solution for activating accumulated knowledge to addresswater scarcity and land degradation is its longstanding collaborationwith the International Center for Agricultural Research in the DryAreas (ICARDA) and its established cooperative ties to NationalAgricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) across theregion. Together, ICARDA, USAID and the NARES have establishedthe Water and Livelihoods Initiative (WLI), which offers donors theopportunity to contribute to a collaborative multi-partner undertakingwhere the anticipated impacts of improved scientific waterresources management are systematically verifiable, and underwrittenthrough participation by USAID and other cooperative partners.Through WLI, knowledge generated by NARES inEgypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia andYemen is harnessed with insights drawn from regional andinternational partners including:• three CGIAR centres (ICARDA, the InternationalWater Management Institute (IWMI) and theInternational Food Policy Research Institute)• a consortium of six United States universities(University of Florida, Utah State University,University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, TexasA&M University and University of California Davis)• regional and national universities• the United States Department of Agriculture,Agricultural Research Service• community-based organizations (CBOs) suchas private enterprises, cooperatives, producers’organizations, fishing associations, water users’associations, women’s groups, trade and businessassociations and others focused on naturalresource management.WLI has faced challenges to develop integrated scientificagendas for land and water management cooperation andcollaboration across MENA. Many of these are similarto the challenges encountered by previous single-donorinitiatives at the land-water interface, including themulti-donor Regional Initiative for Dryland Managementand the Flemish-funded United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization, United NationsUniversity and ICARDA international cooperativeresearch project on sustainable management of themarginal drylands. In each case, there is a need to setcommon agendas, identify objectives and ensure thatpartners’ progress towards them is recognized. Regionalplatforms and multi-donor undertakings addressingSustainable water and livelihoods framework for sharing success in scientific cooperation to enhancerural land and water managementAsset/capitalHumanPhysicalNaturalFinancialSocialVerifiable indicator in use or under considerationNumber of men and women benefiting from short-term training delivered through WLINumber of scientific publications resulting from long-term scientific research supported through WLIAgricultural land in the benchmark sites (ha, tons and value of dominant and target crops)Land under pilot testing of improved land and water management strategies and techniquesWater balance in the target watershed/irrigation district (available water resources compared to existing water use)Agricultural water use volumes (m 3 /ha) measured in the field under unimproved and improved management practicesOn-farm income (gross margin per hectare from selected crops with and without improved management)Total household income in relation to the rural poverty line with and without water management improvementsProducers’ organizations, water users’ associations, women’s groups, trade associations and CBOs receiving assistance(disaggregation of data on all above indicators by gender)Reporting2012-2012-2014-2012-2014-2014-2014-2014-2012-2012-Source: Water and Livelihoods Initiative 1st Quarterly Report. Available online at http://temp.icarda.org/wli/pdfs/WLIFirstQuarterProgressReport_2013.pdf[ 316 ]