The document summarizes outcomes from the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food's (CPWF) research from May to November 2013. Key messages include: - Benefit-sharing mechanisms can create a virtuous circle between ecosystems and peoples' welfare. - Sustainable intensification relies on water infrastructure and markets to incentivize production and ecosystem investments. - Modeling tools can support capacity building, consensus building, and more effective policy analysis, planning and implementation. - While many partners adopted CPWF's research for development model, continued impact requires long-term engagement and overcoming discontinuities from institutional reforms.

1. CPWF Science Report
May – November 2013
Alain Vidal, CPWF Director

2. Outline
A viable R4D model
Outcomes and key messages from basins
Global messages
A resilient transition
Finance and personnel

3. Policy dialogues, stakeholders
engagement, outcomes and impact
Research…

evidence-based
to deeply understand problems

development challenges of
relevance to those living in a basin
and target interventions or solutions…

“innovations”, “interventions”, “strategies” or “alternatives”
through engagement and learning processes…
where stakeholder behavior is influenced and outcomes
achieved

Engaged and informed stakeholders themselves choose to change
practice because they perceive as to their own advantage

4. Communications
Leadership
Action
Research
Trust
Development
Learning
Partnerships

5. Outcomes and key messages

6. BSMs in the Andes : a virtuous circle
between welfare and ecosystems
Designed with local social and
hydrological context in mind
Continuously revised to respond
to ever-changing needs of
communities and environment
Most successful in watersheds
with high downstream demand
and seasonal water supply
upstream
Power imbalances related to
access to information require to
develop ‘hydro-literacy’

7. Pathways to sustainable intensification
of polders in the Ganges Delta
Huge potential to improve
food security and livelihoods
Salinity not a constraint
everywhere – even an
opportunity
Lots of viable cropping systems
possible with crop
diversification, fish and shrimp
Need for political changes at
national and local levels
Canal maintenance and
management
Shifting from rice monoculture

8. Limpopo: Innovation platforms for
more resilient livelihoods
Complex rural livelihoods within
broader complex systems
requiring multi-level and multisectorial engagement
Livestock more water efficient
than crops hence more effective
to improve livelihoods
Platforms for dialogue and
negotiation on water
infrastructure, production
systems and governance have
generated traction

9. Mekong: Sustainable hydropower
for better livelihoods and environment
Sustainable HP needs coordination
across cascades and boundaries
Transparency and protocols critical
ingredients in (multi-purpose) HP
planning and ops
Ag & water applications can
contribute to livelihoods and
environmental
enhancement, increasing HP
benefits
Multi-stakeholder platforms can
strongly influence decision-making

10. Nile: a new integrated watershed
rainwater management paradigm
Local community empowerment is
critical to sustainable RWM
Partnerships “learning by doing”
based on scientific principles
Need to align and implement
innovation incentives for all (incl.
markets and value chains) with
due consideration for risk mgt
Integrate multiple RWM
interventions at basin scale
More attention to downstream
and off-site benefits of RWM

11. Volta: Innovation platforms and
small reservoirs to unlock potential
Identified successes (soil-water
conservation, small
reservoirs, and small pumps)
and failures (culture and
gender-sensitivity) can be
extrapolated
Innovation platform help
better link crop-livestock
farming with market value
chains
Resilience analysis helps
evaluate common threads
driving or limiting innovations
(e.g. water quality in small

12. CPWF’s 10-year
main global messages
Water is not scarce, it's the way we
manage it : addressing water and food
issues means tackling “wicked problems”
Technical innovation and institutional innovation go hand in hand
- a long-term, non-linear and risky social process (R4D)
Benefit sharing mechanisms create a virtuous circle between
ecosystems and peoples’ welfare
Sustainable intensification relies upon water infrastructure and
upon markets as incentives to invest in production & ecosystems
Modeling tools can support capacity- and consensus-building and
increase the effectiveness of policy analysis, planning and
implementation

13. A resilient transition
Many partners and researchers in basins adopted our R4D model
Not relying on WLE only but have multiple pathways for
continuing work…
…to move from outcomes to impact as planned in CPWF’s initial
design – phase 3 (as early noted by external review)
Basin
WLE
Other CRPs
Non CG led
Comment
Andes
+
+
++
Ganges
++
+++
Limpopo
+
++
FANRPAN
Mekong
++
++
Being explored (VFI, M-POWER)
Nile
+++
+
LS&F, HumidTropics
Volta
+++
+
HumidTropics?
CONDESAN with CIAT (CCAFS)
AAS (& GRiSP)

14. Successes and failures
R4D requires dedicated people, time
and continuity


Best outcomes achieved where 5-10
years engagement
CGIAR reform has created discontinuities
Evidence that our R4D model is viable



Many outcomes, still few impacts
Partners incl. CG researchers convinced
by our model
Momentum continuing in basins thanks
to resilient partnerships and processes