"This year’s World Water Week was of a changed nature.

The water community’s increasing openness to ‘other’ sectors - including water and food – was strong, and once-unfamiliar groups were actively seeking ways to work with each other.

You may like to view a quick SWWW09 interview of me regarding these very changes at www.watercube.tv

For the CPWF, it was our first opportunity to present a united concentration of Phase 1 research results within a non-program congress, with five presentations accepted in the oral workshops, and five as poster-based discussions.

From a total of 70 posters presented at the conference and evaluated by a scientific review panel, the CPWF project 'Quesungual Slash-and-Mulch Agroforestry System' was accorded the Best Poster Award for their submission entitled "Improving the efficiency of rain water use on hillsides in the sub-humid tropics: Agricultural & environmental benefits of Quesungual system”. My congratulations go to Aracely Castro and the Project 15 team.

Additionally Manuel S. Magombeyi, a PhD student from our IWRM for Improved Rural Livelihoods project was awarded an honorable mention for his poster "Simulation of smallholder farming systems in the Olifants River Basin, South Africa". Well done to Manuel.

SWWW09 showcased how the CPWF does things differently within the sector. Starting from the green-to-blue water continuum popularized by IWMI’s Comprehensive Assessment, we used work from our benchmark basins to demonstrate that increasing water productivity and improving farmers’ livelihoods simply must be based along this continuum. 

You can access and share the powerpoint presentations at www.slideshare.com/CPWF

I feel a narrow focus upon any one isolated part of the green-to-blue water continuum is still too often demonstrated. Yet, through its interdisciplinary approach the CPWF continues to promote the real technical, managerial and institutional changes. CPWF results, shared among peers in Stockholm, clearly demonstrate how interdisciplinary research supports the productivity and resilience of social and ecological systems.

Indeed the insight of the Challenge Programs' design and purpose was fortified during SWWW through some real signs of change in the sector: the value of cross-disciplinary and partnership founded work was recognized by many research stalwarts.

This is a remarkable development and I was glad to have the chance to support this progress by emphasising what makes the CPWF so inspiring.

Our approach of research for development anchored in strong and lasting partnership is not our least attracting feature, because it enables breakthroughs – and will enable more – in the complex area of water and food.

We do detect signs that our ‘different’ approach is of high interest for the CGIAR on-going change process, and it will certainly play a significant role in designing future megaprograms.

The challenge continues."

Alain
a.vidal@cgiar.org