Addressing water, food and poverty problems together--Methods, tools and lessons

This sourcebook entitled “Addressing water,food and poverty problems together: Methods,tools and lessons” is part of a wider process to capitalize on results from the Phase 1 of CPWF (2004-2008). Phase 1 of CPWF cast its net widely. Sixty-eight individual research projects were carried out in ten river basins around the world. The learning was immense. Unfortunately, many Phase 1 lessons and experiences are locked away in people’s minds or hidden in long technical and scientific reports that are difficult to access, particularly for non-researchers. The articles in the sourcebook provide development professionals and the wider research for development community with concise information on methodologies, approaches and lessons learned on agriculture water management. The articles are not intended to provide comprehensive information on the project nor are they intended to serve as project summaries. Typically, one or more aspects of the research, usually an approach, have been highlighted in the source book article. There are some limitations to the articles themselves as the reports and journal articles are often from research that took place three to four years ago and has not been updated. The sourcebook is divided into 12 chapters. Chapter 1 provides a short overview of the CPWF project, based on its strategic and medium term plans. Chapter 2 discusses water in the context of food production and security, information that is based on CPWF’s Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management for Agriculture (2007). Chapter 3 has three articles all based on Basin Focal Point (BFP) project outputs previously published in Water International (Issues 35 and 36). As such, Chapter 3 provides an overview of river basin issues and discusses in some detail the connection between poverty, water and food. Chapters 4 to 12 are drawn from CPWF project level engagement in the various river basins. These chapters focus on innovative frameworks, methods, approaches and tools. Each chapter consists of a cluster of articles, each standing on its own. Sourcebook articles were repackaged from previously written material. This means that secondary materials - primarily project reports and peer-reviewed journal articles – were used as the basis for creating these articles. Professional writers and artists were employed as part of this effort and an initial workshop was held with CPWF partners to get feedback on the initial drafts. After improvements, project leaders and external reviewers commented and approved the repackaged articles.