"It is a pleasure to greet you as the Challenge Program on Water and Food’s Program Director.

02 June 2009

The CPWF community has much of which to be proud.  After only five years in the field of ‘water for food’ research, the Program is producing remarkable results. Through its participatory research methods involving stakeholders from all walks of life – from maize farmers in Mozambique, governance specialists in the Mekong region and indigenous crop researchers in the Andes - CPWF projects entwine vigorous scientific work with development tools created for and with the very communities in which they work.

It is very exciting for me to join the CPWF, personally, but in regards to the greater global agenda, the program’s promise is very timely. The world must double food production over the next 40 years. We must unite to reconcile our rapidly increasing demand for food with the reality of limited global water resources, and we must do this now. The CPWF knows that within agriculture, and regarding water productivity especially, there is huge potential for improvement.

Phase 2 built upon Phase 1 successes

"The CPWF continues in its streamlined ‘Phase 2’ form to work with its hard-won successes built over the last five years. In continuity with ‘Phase 1’, we’re looking at all the different aspects of water productivity – whether it be the practices of collective fishers or the policies of governments – and try to unlock the constraints that prevent people in developing countries from improving the quantity of food and income they can generate from cropping, fisheries and livestock. It will also be more focused.

Through improved rainwater management, strengthened and resilient multiple use systems, and better sharing of benefits from water, we aim to help people and their ecosystems become more resilient to local and global change. Geographically we will concentrate our efforts on six basins (Andes, Ganges, Limpopo, Mekong, Nile, Volta), and even in those we will focus on sub-regions where the potential impact of improved water management on poverty and livelihoods is the highest.

Partnerships and Program Community

"On a personal note, after working with the CPWF on a part-time basis for three years (although with the CPWF, the definition of ‘part-time’ is unique), I continue to impressed by the CPWF’s progress in, and commitment to, developing real working partnerships across professions, scientific disciplines and geographic regions. With 19 years experience in research in agricultural water use, I can tell you it is a remarkable achievement seldom seen elsewhere.

Along with new CPWF team leaders Larry Harrington (Research Director), Boru Douthwaite (Impact and Innovations Director) and Sophie Nguyen-Khoa (Associate Director), I invite you to contribute to continuing the excellent work nurtured by Jonathan Woolley and bearing results now.

Six-basin Stakeholder Meetings, and Inception Workshops

"After the first three stakeholders’ workshops, that were held during these last weeks, both commissioned, closed and open competitive calls for new projects for the Nile, Mekong and Andes basins will have early September deadlines; inception workshops and contracting for these three basins will occur during last quarter of 2009. Be prepared!

And, of course, to discuss this, or the provisional agenda regarding the next three basin stakeholder workshops in the Volta, Limpopo and Ganges, or their competitive calls, please contact us, using the email links above.

More information will be available from the website at the end of June.

I look forward to working with you."

Alain