IWMI won the award for “Best Public Services Sector Implementation” at the SAP ACE 2007 Awards for Customer Excellence held in New Delhi on 27th August, 2007. SAP is a financial and management accounting/project management system. IWMI’s award was in recognition of the successful implementation of a project that has helped the Institute provide separate accounts for donors and management, control project and corporate assets while keeping the least possible administrative overheads to maximize the on-ground impact.
Aditi Mukherji, IWMI Postdoctoral Fellow, won the first prize in the Natural Resources: Risks and Implications for Sustaining Development category at the 2007 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition in Brisbane, Australia. Her paper was titled, The Paradox of Groundwater Scarcity Amidst Plenty and Its Implications for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation in West Bengal, India: What Can be Done to Ameliorate the Crisis?
Population pressure and increasing water competition in a changing climate require us to take stock of the availability and use of water across scales. Water availability not only influences farmers’ commercial prospects but also irrigation-related enterprises and agri-businesses. Greater water scarcity could jeopardize irrigation and agricultural markets while excessive water use can lead to declining ecosystems, water quality and soil health. IWMI advises development partners and the public and private sectors on all aspects of water resource availability and use through a variety of advanced modeling and remote-sensing products and tools, including 
The ability of farmers to engage in or expand irrigation depends on the prevailing socioeconomic, ecological and political contexts, which are often complex, non-linear and changeable. Overcoming systemic barriers to farmer-led irrigation development while taking advantage of existing opportunities 
A lack of affordable credit, particularly for women and resource-poor farmers, is one of the main barriers to expanding farmer-led irrigation in low- and middle-income countries. But 
Scaling farmer-led irrigation requires strengthening human capacity and knowledge exchange among all actors and stakeholders involved. IWMI takes an action research approach, working with national and international research institutions, governments, extension agents and public and private organizations to co-develop the scaling ecosystem and strengthen capacity to drive scaling networks and collective action. We support the