CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems

An Overview for Science Focal Meeting

Amman, December 2013

Contents• Over-view of WLE –

Goals, Objectives

• Emerging WLE Program Areas of Work

• How we are organized

• Examples of innovation & how WLE intends to work

The challenges facing our global food

production systems

Water Land and Ecosystem Vision:

A world in which agriculture thrives within vibrant ecosystems, where communities have higher incomes, improved food security and the ability to continuously improve their lives

CGIAR System Level Outcomes

1. Reduce rural poverty

2. Increase food security

3. Improve nutrition and human health

4. Sustainable management of natural resources

WLE IDO: Income

Increased and more equitable income from agricultural and natural resources management and ecosystem

services in rural and peri-urban areas

WLE IDO: Productivity

Improved land, water and energy productivity in rainfedand irrigated agro-ecosystem

WLE IDO: Risk Management

Increased ability of low income communities to adapt to environmental and economic variability, demographic

shifts, shocks and long term changes

WLE IDO: Gender

Women and marginalized groups have decision making power over and increased benefits derived from

agriculture and natural resources.

WLE IDO: Equity

Increased resilience of communities through enhanced ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes.

Goal: Sustainable intensification of agricultural development

WLE Portfolio 2013/2014

Activities Mapped into SRPs and Activity

Clusters

WLE Innovation Fund

Focal Region Activities

• 2013 CPWF Related Activities ending in 2013/2014

• Regional Representation

• Design of focal region programs

• 160 Activities mapped into SRPs

• ESS Related Scoping Activities

• Gender related activities

• Moving promising activities to scale

• Centrality of partners

• Gender and ESS play central role

Where WLE is moving towardSRP Led

Global Pathways

Examples• Resource Recovery

& Reuse• Land Degradation• Water, Food &

Energy Nexus• Small Scale

Irrigation in SSA• Salinity

Focal Regions

West Africa

East Africa

SE Asia

South Asia

Latin America

Southern Africa

Central Asia

Middle East

Cross-Cutting Initiatives

• Environmental flows• Mapping ESS and

resilience into Focal Regions

• Gender across program

• Information decision-making

WLE research outputs

WLE research outcomes

WLE Intermediate Development Outcomes

WLE Uptake Framework: CGIAR/ISPC

Impact Pathways/Theories of Change

System Level Outcomes

WLE research outputs

WLE research outcomes

WLE Intermediate Development Outcomes

Opportunity identification

Client analysis

Decision analysis

Partner engagement

Levers and incentives

WLE uptake strategy: significant focus

on the research client

System Level Outcomes

Risk analysis: major decisions affecting agro-ecosystems that support

large numbers of people

Opportunity analysis: research needed to provide alternatives that improve ecosystem

services for human development

Client analysis: decision makers demand research

Niche analysis: limited research available

WLE opportunity

space

In each focal region, WLE is identifying the “opportunity

space” for research to support client decision making

WLE integrated portfolio of research is designed to capitalize on this opportunity

Example of client focus: WLE resource recovery

and reuse

Issue: Urban areas are growing and consuming more resources. How do we recover nutrients and water at scale? Technical knowledge is available, but few projects go to scale. WLE seeks to change this by analyzing business models and returns on investment.

Clear client focus: the private sector, public private partnerships, and business schools

The research portfolio is designed for the client: analyze successes and test promising business models for replication at scale

Multi-disciplinary research team includes economists, business developers, and environmental scientists

Faecal sludge Nutrients for agricultural production

WLE research outputs

WLE research outcomes

WLE Intermediate Development Outcomes

Opportunity identification

Client analysis

Decision analysis

Partner engagement

Levers and incentives

Supporting research client decision making through

decision analysis

System Level Outcomes

Example: the decision analysis process

Northeast Kenya: Tap the Merti aquifer to pump water > 100 km to town of Waiir?

Identify risks and uncertainties in decision of interest

Engage decision makers

Make probabilistic cost/benefit impacts on

different stakeholder groups of likely outcomes of decision

Compute value of additional information (uncertain variables

with high information value = priorities for measurement) Probabilistic outcomes

(benefits/negative impacts) for different stakeholder groups

Applied Information Economics D. Hubbard, “How to Measure Anything”, 2010

WLE research outputs

WLE research outcomes

WLE Intermediate Development Outcomes

Opportunity identification

Client analysis

Decision analysis

Partner engagement

Levers and incentives

Focused partner engagement, levers and incentives

System Level Outcomes

Farmers receive training and capital to : - Rehabilitate

wetlands- Forest conservation- Improve farming

practices

CPWF/Andes: uptake incentives through benefit sharing

$

Canete River Basin, PeruUpper basin: subsistence agriculture, extensive degradingMiddle basin: hydropower companyLower basin: urban and tourism

How we are organized

WLE Operations Team

Resource Persons

Lead Center Board

Lead Center DG

WLE Steering Committee

Program Director

SRP Leaders

ESS/R Lead

GPI Lead

Management Committee

GPI Program Management

Comms/KMME&L

West Africa

East Africa

Mekong GMS

South Asia

Focal Regions

Latin America

Southern Africa

Central Asia

Middle East

Science Focal

Points

Research Coord.

Partnership for Outcomes

LANDSCAPE

NATIONALREGIONAL

GLOBAL

DELIVER RESEARCH OUTCOMES – impact multiplies through partners

Potential beneficiaries 10’s of thousands

0 –

6 y

ears

3 –

6 y

ears

6 –

9 y

ears

• Global initiatives informed and inspired by research, support national and landscape investments

• New investments made by IFAD, GIZ, GEF• Public and private• Policy, Regulation, Incentives support adoption

Strategies adopted that are site specific, gender & equity sensitive

FAO, GSP, UNCCD, ELD, GEF, UNEP, UNDP

National Agriculture and NRM policy CAADP, IFAD, GIZ, SDC

Communities, civil society, NGO’s, national extension, ARI’s, IFAD, SDC

100’s of thousands Millions

Capacity Building

• Embedded into Impact Pathways

• Beyond PhDs and training

• Mentoring and Young Professionals

• Putting national partners in the lead

Challenges for Us to Address• Vision for where we

are going

• Complexity and adaptation: We cannot solve complex problems with simple solutions

• Integration and working together

• Change management

Science with a human face

Visit the website at:

WlE.cgiar.org

Thank you