Agriculture and water resources development are seen as major drivers of environmental degradation, reducing the capacity of the ecosystems they alter to deliver services to people. At the same time, our reliance on ecosystems services to secure food and livelihoods, increasingly comes at a pric

"A fifth of the world's people, more than 1.2 billion, live in areas of physical water scarcity, lacking enough water for everyone's demands. About 1.6 billion people live in water scarce basins, where human capacity or financial resources are likely to be insufficient to develop adequate water resources" (Water for Food Water for Life, Summary, Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture).

IWMI's focus on applied scientific research for development means that for many projects attribution of our work's impact has been a difficult task. How do we tell whether our work is making a difference in the lives of people who could benefit from it? Where can we say that our research has had an edge? How can the sources and communicators of our research best work together to influence policy?

In all areas of IWMI's research, 'knowledge' and the way it is created, captured and communicated is crucial. Knowledge exists in two different forms, tacit and explicit. Often, the most important knowledge is 'tacit' or 'hidden'; it's what accumulates experience and study and is hidden in people's heads, making it difficult to capture and pass on. Explicit knowledge, on the other hand, is what can be expressed, captured, stored in libraries, and is what constitutes our contributions to global public goods. IWMI has set itself the goal of becoming a world class Knowledge Center on Water, Food and the Environment by 2008. This issue of Water Figures presents IWMI's latest efforts in putting these two types of knowledge to work.

This issue of Water Figures devotes much space to the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA) and the imminent launch of its findings after five years of intensive research and consultation. One aspect of this interaction that I was fortunate to experience is its involvement in the cross-cutting assessment of Gender Mainstreaming in Water Management for Agriculture.

The change may seem superficial to those familiar with the 'Research Update'-but it is significant. WATER FIGURES is our understanding of what research in development is meant to do. It communicates the work done at IWMI as it affects change. It's also about our renewed commitment to sharing knowledge with more people.