Publications

Refugee and hosting communities of the Somali Region of Ethiopia are deeply impacted by water insecurity. Water supply and irrigation systems developed by UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations suffer from weak value chains, high running costs, and overburdened infrastructure/equipment, hence are unable to respond to the needs of growing populations. This has led to insecure livelihoods and over-dependence on humanitarian aid. This report aims to identify priority areas to improve water security, as both water supply and irrigation systems are vulnerable to the effects of droughts, floods, and other weather extremes. It recommends prioritizing anticipatory action, enhancing adaptation to climate change, and increasing resilience to economic stresses to strengthen the resilience of water supply and irrigation systems. Anticipatory actions, including identifying locations for water harvesting, upgrading and protecting key infrastructure, and raising community trust in climate forecasts, can minimize the effects of disasters and protect developmental gains. Adaptation to climate change can be enhanced with the identification of new clean water sources and the development of innovative water utility models. Finally, resilience to economic stresses can be mitigated by strengthening value chains, encouraging innovation systems around solar power, and filling water system gaps with local enterprises.; Policies, strategies, and frameworks already in place can support the development of anticipatory action and climate adaptation measures to address water-related challenges. National- and regional-level initiatives prioritizing integrating refugee and host communities and developing livelihoods and economic opportunities can help build resilience to economic stresses. Finally, water supply and water resource management policies can help inform how the range of interventions, cutting across water, livelihoods, energy, and disaster planning, can be harmonized. New governance approaches are required to match the area’s needs with organizational capacity and resources. A movement towards decentralized, flexible, and adaptive water systems, informed by transition governance, can mitigate current forms of water insecurity, and effectively respond to future needs. This would entail reevaluating institutional mandates so that actors’ roles and responsibilities are aligned with realistic expectations. It also involves grappling with key contradictions inherent to the humanitarian space and agreeing on the role that UNHCR needs to play to encourage localized development programming.

We conducted stakeholder mapping and analysis in the Dolo Ado and Bokolmayo districts in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia to improve our understanding of how to co-create and co-plan nature-based solutions (NbS) to address the vulnerability of displaced people and host communities to natural hazards such as floods and drought. Diverse stakeholders such as government development agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), research and development institutions, international humanitarian entities, the private sector, communities and community-based organizations participate in the planning, design and implementation of NbS in multiple ways. The modes of their participation include provision of expertise, material and financial support, community mobilization, implementation of interventions, and monitoring and evaluation. Our analysis found that most of the stakeholders have strong perceived legitimacy in their field of endeavor. This facilitates access to political support and helps in the mobilization of local communities. There were similarities among various stakeholder groups in respect of strategic aims, such as development vision, relationships, management, conflict resolution, and capitalizing on experience. Although stakeholders had similar views on the importance of NbS in addressing societal challenges, they differed in terms of the degree of influence they have on planning, design and implementation of NbS. Stakeholders from the government sector and humanitarian organizations were influential enough to support, accelerate, obstruct or block the process at several points. On the other hand, most of the stakeholders classified as NGOs and community and community-based organizations did have influence in some areas or on specific issues but no veto on the process. Our results indicate that there is a low degree of trust among government agencies, international humanitarian organizations, NGOs and the private sector. This trust deficit could be attributed to the lack of continuous communication between stakeholders and also to the lack of efforts by stakeholders to make their interests and intentions more transparent to others. The strength of alliances or relationships between different stakeholders in terms of continuing information exchange, coordinated action, and co-production with common resources ranged from weak to intermediate. This can affect the implementation of NbS to address the vulnerability of livelihoods to natural hazards and efficient use of limited resources, leading to productivity reduction. Analysis of empowerment and exclusion in the stakeholder groups suggested that most of those from the government sector lack full access to and control of resources. Regarding competencies, we found that most government agencies lack the basic skills to plan, design and implement NbS, though they can communicate societal challenges and suggest possible solutions. We think it is important to build the capacities of local p

The issue of quality in developing small-scale irrigation projects (SSIPs) in Sub-Saharan countries has become a concern. This necessitated the development of a quality management system (QMS) toolkit covering all phases of irrigation project development. The current toolkit was developed to provide guidance and support to establish a robust system that aligns with irrigated agriculture development best practices, standards and regulatory requirements. Literature from the three focal countries – Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda – was reviewed and stakeholder consultations, field visits and focus group discussions were conducted to learn lessons and gain insight to enrich the proposed parameters and checklists. Based on the lessons learned, the QMS toolkit was created, including a comprehensive set of guidelines, checklists, tools, resources, forms and templates that can help irrigation agencies and stakeholders at all levels implement and maintain an effective quality management system. It is an essential tool for organizations such as irrigation and agriculture ministries, regional bureaus and county offices to assess and improve their performance by meeting quality requirements, standards, regulations and specifications. The toolkit is prepared in two volumes. Volume II is a series of checklists of key parameters that need to be considered when implementing an irrigation quality management system. The checklists cover the first three phases and associated stages, components and subcomponents of an irrigation development process. These checklists will aid in streamlining quality management review processes and ensure consistency in quality control practices. By following the checklists in this volume, irrigation implementing agencies (IAs), organizations and project managers can ensure that each task is completed correctly and in compliance with established procedures, guidelines, methodologies, standards and technical specifications. Volume II also provides QMS workflow charts for each phase and stage of an irrigation project, which serve as quality control mechanisms that track whether tasks and services provided are fully completed and adhere to specified standards. This volume also contains proposed institutional arrangements for implementing a QMS initiative. These arrangements include a generic organogram, human resource requirements and job descriptions for key positions within the proposed QMS implementation team. Volume II includes the following three annexes: - Annex II-1 QMS forms and templates for pre-construction phases - Annex II-2 Forms and templates for project implementation and construction phase - Annex II-3 Annotated Terms of Reference (ToRs) for pre-construction phases

The Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected and cut across Food, Land and Water (FLW) systems. But the formulation and implementation of national policy objectives to attain the SDGs may be fragmented and uncoordinated. The CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS), aims to contribute to agri-foods system transformation, by identifying ways of building stronger FLW policies with greater coherence and investment capacity, to support Nigeria in addressing current crises and future development needs. This flagship report focuses on (in)coherence in policies related to FLW systems in Nigeria, through the lens of Policies and Institutions Landscape Analysis Framework. To achieve policy coherence for sustainable development, the report highlights the need for: 1. strengthening staff and institutional capacities for FLW contextual and policy analysis to effectively identify, anticipate and respond to crisis. 2. developing systemic polycentric decision-making and governance, involving multi-stakeholders at the Federal, State and Local levels. 3. providing sustainable funding for the effective implementation of policy objectives, projects and programmes in the relevant FLW-related sectors 4. maintaining continuity of the implementation of ongoing transformative FLW policy objectives and programmes when an incumbent government comes into power. 5. promoting evidence-based (real time and high-quality data) policy formulation, monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

The most populated (urban) area in Sri Lanka is its Western Province with Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital. This “Megapolis” depends for its food supply significantly on different geographical areas of Sri Lanka. These foodsheds differ by commodity. Peri-urban agriculture plays a minor role and until very recently, urban farming did not get (institutional) attention, although the role of both, urban and peri-urban agriculture is mentioned in the national agricultural policy. The policy also calls for the identification and strengthening of city region food system (CRFS) to better link rural and urban communities, also in view of climate shocks and other disasters. The need for this became clear during the Covid-19 epidemic and subsequent economic crisis of the country when the Colombo Municipal Council started actively to support urban food production.

Over the last thirty years, Ghana’s population in towns and cities has more than tripled, from 4 million to nearly 14 million, exceeding growth in the rural areas. In fact, rural-urban migration is an important factor for urban growth. It is estimated that the urban population will reach over 70% by 2050, calling for fast and sustainable strategies for facilitating the main challenges deriving from rapid urbanization including urban food security and food system resilience against shocks. Several projects mapped urban foodsheds and the overall extent of specific city-region food systems. But not only food quantity, also food safety is at stake. A particular challenge for the farmers is widespread water pollution in urban area resulting in the contamination of irrigated vegetables. The largely informal nature of irrigated urban vegetable farming as well as the street food sector makes it difficult to regulate, promote or control compliance with food safety measures which are needed from farm to fork.

Conventional water resource governance and monitoring systems, while essential, are falling short of requirements to address urgent challenges and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, the global north and wealthy regions are typically overrepresented in science, while marginalised, disaffected and indigenous regions in developing countries, especially in the global south, remain underrepresented. Addressing these challenges requires diversified involvement that includes local community members who are disproportionately impacted by environmental and social problems.; In the late 2000s, the non-profit Duzi-uMngeni Conservation Trust (DUCT) helped establish the Enviro-Champs, a community-based citizen science-driven monitoring initiative, in the Mpophomeni and Shiyabizali townships in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), South Africa. The initiative offers a range of impressive and important social contributions, such as communicating flood risks across the community and monitoring of wastewater effluents, but knowledge co-creation and data collection via citizen science has always been at its core. Despite gradual technological progress within the data capture and reporting framework of the initiative, there has been a need for a digitally integrated system to assist with data capture, submission, collation, visualization, reporting, and feedback. Collaborating within the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation, we aimed to address these issues to increase the power, impact, and scalability of the Enviro-Champs initiative. Initially, we consolidated the knowledge from the community of practice that had formed around the Enviro-Champs and similar initiatives to synthesise a recruitment and training framework for the Enviro-Champs initiative. We then customised a version of the Open Data Kit (ODK) mobile data collection app, called ODK Collect, which submits data to Formshare1 , a CGIAR-based cloud-hosting infrastructure. Here, we report on piloting the use of this system of ODK Collect for citizen science data collection, with Formshare for cloud-based data collation and storage, within the Mpophomeni Enviro-Champs initiative. As part of this pilot, we aimed to use an Excel macro-coded data cleaning process coupled with Microsoft Power BI2 dashboard for real-time, semi-automated data handling and visualisation. The pilot was undertaken in collaboration with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) who are the managing authorities of the Mpophomeni Enviro-Champs initiative. This pilot showcases the process of codeveloping a digitally integrated system of data collection, curation, and reporting for the Enviro-Champs initiative, as a model method to co-develop and establish a community-based, collaborative, coordinated, and technologically integrated citizen science driven monitoring program in a rural and previously disadvantaged area.

Among many other efforts, high spatial and temporal resolution water quality monitoring data are required to help mitigating the ongoing global freshwater crisis. Citizen science is said to have a high potential to contribute valuable water quality monitoring data, while at the same time offering a range of qualitative benefits such as generation of a social fabric, environmental education, and improved relationships between citizenry and authorities. The potential of citizen science is elevated by integration with technology, especially smartphones, which allow for easy data capture and information sharing among a range of other powerful features. ; As part of the CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation, we aimed to test some of the most prominent smartphone applications (apps) to investigate their scalability to developing regions for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.3.2 indicator water quality parameters or other key water quality metrics. We used southern Africa as a case study, since it characterises numerous key challenges to citizen science water quality monitoring using smartphones in developing regions. We evaluated five smartphone apps that are plug-and-play, assessing both their quantitative accuracy as well as their qualitative suitability to a southern African context. We found that the Hydrocolor and EyeOnWater apps showed theoretical promise but would not be useful for typical citizen science monitoring of streams, river, and dams from the banks of those water bodies given their requirement for deep water. The MQuant StripScan App was not useful given that the reference cards required to use the app could not be sourced and that the app did not function to read the Mquant nitrate test strips. The Nutrient App showed some promise but has ceased being supported, illustrating the critical importance of designing and developing tools with sustainable financing and maintenance in mind (as well as the need for funders to support key tools so they remain freely accessible) so that the great efforts that go into research and development are not ultimately wasted. The Aquality app was fairly user friendly, intuitive, and accessible for free via the Play Store and the Apple App Store. The development and support team were helpful and responsive, with ongoing research and development regarding the app showing good potential for upscaled functionality and implementation in the future. However, we found that there were significant qualitative and quantitative issues with the app that should be investigated further and addressed to ensure the app is suitable for global use, especially in the context of developing regions. These included that i) the material requirements for the app (i.e., a reference card mailed directly from Deltares in the Netherlands and Hach nitrate test strips) were difficult to source in South Africa (which is likely to be the case in many other countries), ii) each test carried a significant finan

Transitioning towards a circular economy requires investments in new businesses and for this, a supportive environment and business models that can attract private entities are needed. Operating in countries where the enabling factors are minimal or weak proves extremely challenging for private enterprises. The present cross-country study tried to assess the investment climate for promoting a circular bioeconomy, i.e., businesses or public-private partnerships based on organic (municipal) waste. The main indicators used for the assessment are existing regulatory frameworks; business climate and associated procedures; governance in provision of infrastructure; incentives; access to finance; and entrepreneurial ecosystems. While most of the countries analyzed indicated evidence of regulations on waste management and policies related to promoting circularity, the divide is mainly on aspects related to business environments, access to finance and governance. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index and Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) indicate that Southeast Asian and Latin American countries are better positioned than most other Asian and African countries. National economies are challenged by these barriers that need to be addressed to foster the widespread adoption of a more circular bioeconomy.

Gender and social dimensions of access to and use of water resources are often overlooked in policy and programming despite their importance in shaping water security. This study examines factors affecting water security in urban Pakistan through a gender lens. We surveyed 560 men and women in two towns in Islamabad and Rawalpindi facing water and sanitation challenges. Through a binary logit model and marginal effects analysis, we analyzed the relationship between water security and multiple variables, including gender, education, age, employment status, payment for water, urban wealth quintile, drinking water source, individual water concern level, water satisfaction, and water quality perception. While more than 50 percent of both genders experience water insecurity, the prevalence of water insecurity is notably higher among women. Men in the surveyed population had higher levels of employment, wealth, and education levels compared to women. The regression analysis across both genders reveals that paying for drinking water negatively and significantly impacts water security, while concern about future water issues, satisfaction with drinking water, and water quality significantly and positively impact water security levels. For women specifically, access to improved drinking water sources, higher education levels, and employment significantly improve their water security level, underscoring the importance of promoting women’s education and economic empowerment. For men, age and wealth levels emerged as significant factors impacting their water security, with older men more vulnerable to water insecurity than younger men and women. These findings underscore the complex interplay of individual, social, and structural dynamics shaping water security experiences, emphasizing the need for gender-responsive and intersectional approaches to water interventions in urban Pakistan and beyond. Equitable water policies and programs necessitate the collection of more disaggregated data. This study marks the first application of the Individual Water Insecurity Experiences (IWISE) Scale used in Pakistan’s urban context, with recommendations for its broader implementation to improve decision-making that can lead to sustainable water solutions across diverse gender and social groups.

As the world’s population increases, the growing demand for food intensifies the generation of agricultural waste, leading to several environmental issues. Intensive research indicates black soldier fly (BSF) larvae Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758) as efficient converters of organic waste into nutrient-rich biomass suitable for animal feed. Using a structured questionnaire and volunteer farmers (N = 595), we investigated the potential for adoption of BSF larvae composting technology for sustainable agricultural waste management in Greater Ahafo-Ano. Almost all surveyed farmers declared they generated a significant amount of biowaste on their farms and were willing to learn how to use the BSF-based technology to transform it into value-added products. The waste generated was mainly disposed of in pits at Ahafo-Ano South-East (56.2%), by composting at AhafoAno South-West (34.9%) and by sale at Ahafo-Ano North (34.4%). Across the three districts, awareness of the BSF was very low – 14.5% in Ahafo-Ano South-East, 14.1% in Ahafo-Ano South-West and 0.5% in Ahafo-Ano North. However, high acceptance of the technology was recorded. It was found that about 8% of farmers surveyed in Ahafo-Ano South-East had already tried BSF farming on a small scale. Indicating this district as a good entry point to introduce the technology into Greater Ahafo-Ano.

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) holds substantial importance as a foundational chemical that can be potentially transformed into biofuels and various additional high-value products. Fructose is gaining popularity as one of the raw materials for the facile formation of 5-HMF. However, it is not as abundant in nature as glucose, the primary product derived from biomass breakdown and the most abundant monosaccharide globally. Producing fructose through glucose isomerization is an economical approach in this context. This study investigates several types of novel, facile, and reusable hydrogel catalysts for the isomerization of glucose into fructose and dehydration of fructose into 5-HMF in green solvent media. This study marks the first application of both amine and amide functional groups within a single catalyst (PEGDA-DMAPMA) for glucose isomerization. The results of glucose isomerization using Brnsted-base PEGDA-DMAPMA hydrogel catalysts reveal a 45% glucose conversion rate and a 27% fructose yield, with a 61% selectivity at 110 C, within a 2 h reaction time. Brnsted-acid PEGDA-3SMP-H gave a fructose conversion rate of 93%, yielding 65% 5-HMF at 120 C after 6 h. A significant observation was made for PEGDA-3SMP-H, indicating an increase in the catalytic ability with regeneration cycles. The synthesized catalysts PEGDA-DMAPMA and PEGDA-3SMP-H exhibited stability up to 120 C despite an increase in swelling ratio at higher temperatures and times. Furthermore, PEGDA-3SMP-Cu2+ demonstrated a considerable yield of fructose compared to other metal ion-modified Brnsted-acid catalysts. Additionally, an efficient heating method for this process was identified. In conclusion, the prepared hydrogel catalysts are preferred for industrial applications in carbohydrate conversion.

This study aimed to create a foundational hydrological model for the transboundary Limpopo River Basin (LRB) in Southern Africa using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool Plus (SWAT+) model. The model is a crucial part of a larger project to develop a digital twin of the river basin. The SWAT+ model simulated streamflow and other important hydrological processes in the LRB, using various data sources such as global gridded rainfall and other weather parameters, soils, landcover datasets, and in-situ discharge measurements from seven locations in South Africa for calibration and validation. The automatic calibration routine IPEAT+, freely available as part of the SWAT+ framework, was used for model calibration. The model was run for 23 years, from 2001 to 2023, with the calibration and validation periods varying for each gauge location. The calibration of the LRB SWAT+ model primarily consists of the discharge data from South Africa with Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique still awaited from the stakeholders. The results showed that the foundational LRB SWAT+ model achieved a good performance in simulating streamflow in the South Africa part of the LRB, with Nash Sutcliffe efficiency values ranging from 0.42 to 0.69. Further calibration in other sub-basins and the incorporation of additional reservoir data are expected to improve the overall performance of the LRB SWAT+ model. The partially calibrated and validated foundational SWAT+ model for the LRB (mainly in the South Africa part of LRB) will be the initial core of a river basin digital twin that is under development. It will integrate seasonal rainfall forecasts to simulate seasonal water availability. The fully calibrated foundational SWAT+ LRB model is expected to be available by the end of this year. It will serve as the basis for several planned applications as part of the LRB DT. The first application will focus on deriving flow patterns in the LRB catchment under unaltered natural conditions. The next application will concentrate on integrating ECMWF seasonal rainfall forecasts to predict water availability at 310 sub-basins and key channel reaches critical for environmental flows in the LRB. An updated version of the SWAT+ LRB foundational model is currently in progress. It aims to enhance the representation of reservoirs and their operations within the SWAT+ model and provide additional calibration sites within different sub-basins. This model will act as a baseline to create multiple planned applications co-developed with stakeholders.

In contexts where conventional environmental monitoring has historically been limited, citizen science (CS) for monitoring efforts can be an effective approach for decentralized data generation that also raises scientific literacy and environmental awareness. To that end, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) is considering citizen science (CS) as a mechanism for producing ambient water quality data to track progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.3.2: quot;proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water qualityquot;. However, the alignment of SDG 6.3.2 monitoring requirements with citizen science capacity and results in low- or middle-income countries has not been assessed. Through a systematic literature review of 49 journal publications, complemented by 15 key informant interviews, this article examines the methods and outputs of CS programs in resource-constrained settings. We explore the potential of these programs to contribute to tracking SDG 6.3.2. Using the Citizen Science Impact Assessment Framework (CSIAF), we evaluate broader outcomes of CS programs across 5 domains: society, economy, environment, governance, and science and technology. Despite large variability in scope, CS programs were consistently found to generate useful data for national-level reporting on physicochemical and ecological parameters; however, data quality is a concern for CS measurement of microbiological parameters. The focus in literature to-date is predominantly on scientific data production which falls only within the apos;science and technologyapos; outcome domain. Societal, governance, economic, and environmental outcomes are infrequently evaluated. Of the studies reviewed in this article, 75% identified some form of pollution but only 22% of them reported follow-up actions such as reporting to authorities. While CS has important potential, work is still needed towards the apos;formalizationapos; of CS, particularly if intended for more vulnerable contexts.

A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of an object or system that spans its lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision making. The use of Digital Twins to aid decision-makers to make realtime decisions in complex systems is a growing field, with large potential for water system management. The CGIAR Initiative on Digital Innovation is developing a prototype Digital Twin for the Limpopo River Basin in close combination with stakeholders, to enable better management and conservation of this imperilled natural resource upon which millions of people depend. The Digital Twin will provide an attractive and easy-to-use interface for users to intuitively understand large volumes of data and modelling results for timely management decisions, and to simulate the impact of these decisions on the complex river basin ecosystem before they are put into action. This includes an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to interrogate and visualize key actionable data and forecasts. It will be developed in a phased approach according to stakeholder priorities.

Adoption of improved seed varieties (ISV) is considered one of the key ingredients to sustainably increase crop yields and incomes and reducing hunger. Previous research has extensively demonstrated that there is a positive link between adoption of ISV and several agricultural and health outcomes. However, most prior research focused on a single crop only, particularly maize, yet most smallholder farmers grow multiple crops simultaneously. Additionally, most of the existing studies are largely case studies using cross-sectional data, where controlling for possible unobserved confounding factors is difficult. We attempt to address these caveats by testing the hypothesis that adoption of ISV improves crop productivity and income, dietary diversity, and short-term child nutrition outcomes. To do so, we use a decade (2010–2020) of nationally representative panel data from Malawi. Our panel data regression results show that adoption of ISV is positively correlated with value of crop production, dietary diversity, and weight for age z-scores. Our findings suggest that intensifying development and promoting use of nutrition-sensitive ISV among smallholder farming households could be key to sustainably address food insecurity and child malnutrition.

Vendors in traditional urban food markets in West Africa offer locally produced vegetables. These may be unsafe, carrying pathogens and posing potential risks to consumers’ health; or safe, being free from pathogens. Safe produce is rarely differentiated from unsafe produce through certification or price differentiation. Consequently, there is no market data on consumers’ actual payments for certified safe vegetables. Therefore, we aimed to find out whether there is a demand for certified safe vegetables and whether such safety certification is profitable for small-scale farmers. Previous studies have used experiments to elicit price premia consumers’ state to be willing to pay. In contrast, we offered pathogen-free cabbage certified as safe on traditional food markets in Tamale, Ghana, and observed what consumers actually paid. We noted consumer’s actual purchases, who – at the same market stalls – chose between ordinary cabbage of unknown safety status and certified safe cabbage, which carried a price premium to be paid in addition to the price of ordinary cabbage. Our results show that 176 consumers purchased certified safe cabbage and 123 bought ordinary cabbage during the test sales. Consumers’ probability to buy certified safe cabbage is explained by the size of the price premium charged, households’ characteristics and perceptions of local production modes. Estimating customers’ demand function for certified safe cabbage revealed that a pioneer farmer should charge a monopolistic price premium of GHS 1.48 (+46 % on top of the average price for ordinary cabbage valid during the test sales) to maximise the profits from introducing certified safe cabbage into the market. We find that the most promising certification option is for groups of geographically concentrated farmers to jointly apply for safe vegetable certification.

Advancing food security requires multi-level and inclusive approaches. This article presents a novel framework to (E) evaluate the social inclusiveness of policies and interventions (PIs) towards (V) vulnerable social groups in (A) agricultural value chains. The EVA-framework is applicable to any value chain, geography and vulnerable group. We apply it to the irrigated vegetable value chain of Mali, analyzing the social inclusiveness of weighted PIs towards women and youth. We find that respective PI formulation in Mali is largely not inclusive. Only few PIs set specific targets, quotas or a financial budget for women and youth inclusion. To be inclusive PIs need to consult targeted social groups, include clear targets, budgets, and accountability mechanisms, and be monitored and evaluated.

Study region: The Shashe catchment, Limpopo River Basin, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Study focus: The Shashe catchment is the third largest flow contributor to the Limpopo River Basin. Water availability in the Shashe catchment is highly seasonal due to high seasonal rainfall variability. The seasonality and inter-annual variability cause shortfalls (demand exceeds the average water availability) in certain months and years. Storage is needed to bridge the seasonal water availability “gap” and mitigate the deficits in drought years, i.e., inter-annual variability. While the need for water storage through grey infrastructure such as dams has long been known, there is growing recognition of the need for approaches to water storage that capitalize on all storage types. However, the current capacity to plan in ways that utilize all storage types is limited. The analyses conducted for this paper assessed the volume and spatial and temporal variability of different storage options – large and small dams, sand dams, soil moisture, and aquifers – in the Shashe catchment of the Limpopo River Basin. An integrated SWAT-MODFLOW model and remote sensing approach were developed for 2015–2020. New hydrological insights for the region: The total annual water storage in the Shashe catchment is approximately 44,000 Mm3 , dominated by groundwater. The annual storage is about 42,000 Mm3 in aquifers, 1500 Mm3 in soil, 700 Mm3 in large dam reservoirs, 45 Mm3 in small dams/ponds, and 0.13 Mm3 in sand dams. There is high seasonality in water storage availability. Soil moisture storage is at its maximum from January to March and lowest from July to September. Dam storage is at its maximum from March to May, and the water storage is relatively stable throughout the year. Aquifer storage is relatively stable during the dry seasons compared to other storage options. Optimizing water use considering the seasonal variation in different storage types could improve water availability and climate resilience.

The water–energy–food–ecosystems (WEFE) provide vital resources that are essential to human existence. Exploring synergies and trade-offs in these systems has been of interest in recent years to increase economic gain while sustaining the environment. The Tana-Beles Sub-basin of Ethiopia is challenged by population density, climate change, and ecosystem degradation that requires a WEFE Nexus thinking. To understand the current WEFE nexus interactions in the basin, a systematic review of 102 scientific research articles published from 1991 to 2021 was undertaken. Additionally, the systematic review is complemented by spatial data analysis to identify synergies and trade-offs among the WEFE nexus indicators. The analysis revealed the dominance of food–water–ecosystem interdependencies in WEFE nexus research for the Tana-Beles Sub-basin. This dominance is driven by extensive food production activities, which lead to substantial water abstraction and hydrological alterations to meet the intensive water demands of crop cultivation. Simultaneously, the energy-ecosystem interactions are critical due to excessive biomass utilization that exceeds the biomass production potential of the area. Furthermore, the available vegetation cover of the area is very limited to supplement the growing fuel wood demands, which is exerting extreme land degradation and threatening the ecosystem in the sub-basin. This study identifies gaps in WEFE understanding, highlights specific challenges and opportunities within the basin, and calls for coordinated stakeholder action for sustainable resource management through a Nexus approach.

In this paper we study the case of contract farming for exports with farmers in remote hilly areas of Nepal. The prospect for contract farming in such areas with accessibility issues owing to underdeveloped markets and lack of amenities is ambiguous. On the one hand, contractors find it difficult to build links in these cases particularly when final consumers have quality and safety requirements. On the other hand however, remoteness makes the contracts more sustainable. The latter happens if there are product specific quality advantages because of agro-ecology and more importantly due to lack of side selling opportunities. At the same time concerns remain about monopsonistic powers of the buyers when remotely located small farmers do not have outside options. This study hence quantifies the benefits of contract farming on remotely located farmers’ income and compliance with food safety measures. Results show that contract farming is significantly more profitable (58% greater net income) than independent production, the main pathway being higher price realization along with training on practices and provision of quality seeds.

Simulation models are useful decision-support tools for designing and analyzing subsurface drainage systems in irrigated lands. However, the challenge is determining the soil hydraulic data inputs required by models to achieve reliable and accurate simulation of water table depths (WTDs) and drainage discharges (DDs) at various drain depths and spacing combinations. This is particularly important for data-scarce areas, such as middle- and low-income countries (MLICs), that lack facilities to determine in-situ soil hydraulic properties. We evaluated the performance of WaSim and DRAINMOD models to simulate WTDs and DDs at a field scale in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) and soil water retention ( (h)) values were determined using the in-situ pumping test and a pressure plate apparatus. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) in the Rosetta computer program also estimated these soil parameters. The DRAINMOD and WaSim models were calibrated using the in-situ measured Ksat and laboratory-measured (h) data, while the validation exercise used the PTFs-estimated Ksat and (h) data as soil hydraulic inputs. The models’ performance in simulating WTDs and DDs was assessed using Nash-Sutcliffe Model Efficiency (NSE), Modified Index of Agreement (d), Coefficient of Determination (R2 ), and Mean Absolute Error (MAE). During validation, DRAINMOD simulated WTDs with NSE, d, R2 , and MAE of 0.86, 0.81, 0.89, and 5.3 cm, respectively, whereas, for DDs, the model registered NSE, d, R2 , and MPE of 0.81, 0.79, 0.83, and 0.17 mm.day-1, respectively. During the validation period, the WaSim model simulated WTDs with NSE, d, R2 , and MAE of 0.76, 0.74, 0.78, and 9.0 cm, respectively. For the same validation period, the WaSim model simulated DDs with NSE, d, R2 , and MAE of 0.74, 0.73, 0.77, and 0.2 mm.day-1, respectively. The results suggest that both models, with either in-situ measured and laboratory-measured soil data or PTFs-estimated soil data, can be used to design and analyze drainage systems in data-scarce environments with a reasonably high confidence level. Designers of subsurface drainage systems in Pongola, South Africa, can use any of the two drainage models as decision support tools. We recommend using DRAINMOD and WaSim models with PTFs-estimated hydraulic soil data based on soil textural information, soil particle size data, bulk density, and (h) data at field capacity and permanent wilting point.

This report outlines policies and recommended policy engagements to promote agroecology practices in food production systems in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Literature reviews and field consultation visits were used to collect data on factors and challenges influencing the integrated rice-fish farming practices by farmer households and policy engagements to enhance their local potential and address challenges that may prevent further expansion and sustainable practices. The study found ‘good progress’ in terms of policy and institutional framework, facilitating a gradual transition from conventional farming practice to agroecology into food production systems, although there are some implementation gaps. To facilitate the transition toward improved agricultural practices, the following policy engagements are recommended: ; Conduct regular recognition programs and knowledge dissemination events such as farmer-to-farmer peer learning support households in influencing uptake or scaling and farmer-led hatchery learning. ; Use evidence-based costs and benefits of the rice-fish farmer field trials in policy research. ; Conduct policy research to identify factors enabling integrated fish production in rice fields during dry seasons when many households experience lower production. Some incentives were outlined in the National Policy on the Promotion of Livestock and Aquatic Animal Production. ; Continuing to involve policymakers from sectors in the CGIAR Agroecology Initiative to maintain policy support for agroecological farming practices in the community and further expansions across the country.

The main objectives of this study were to assess the prevalent and most challenging climate risks in the Zambezi River Basin countries, understand the role of digital technology in climate adaptation, and thereby propose interventions to accelerate and scale up the use of digital technology in climate adaptation for small farmers and businesses. The report is based on the findings of the rigorous literature review, analysis of secondary data, and a series of stakeholder consultations conducted in 2023.; According to the findings, the nature and extent of climate risks in the Zambezi basin countries vary across the countries, and the severity is increasing over time, calling for context-specific solutions. The extent, popularity, and use of digital technologies in climate adaptation are in their infancy but vary across countries and are increasing in use. The most frequently used digital technologies with the potential for climate adaptation include radios, satellite televisions, mobile phones, drones, computers, mobile applications, and data-enabled insurance services. However, the adoption and scaling of digital technologies are replete with many constraints and challenges, mostly related to availability, access, affordability, issues related to gender and social inclusion, absence of an appropriate enabling environment, poor macroeconomic conditions, cultural and family norms, and poor user skills. Adopting data-enabled technologies is constrained by low digital penetration, high mobile data costs, low levels of literacy, cyber-safety concerns, and poor requisite infrastructure.; The study recommends measures needed to address the issues related to the enabling environment, capacity, skills, and technological characteristics. It is important to continue awareness campaigns and skill development programs through formal and informal education systems at national and regional levels to enhance knowledge and skills on the availability, relevance, and use of digital technologies. A regional framework on digitization and a stringent cyber security regulatory framework for the region and its member states are needed. Measures are proposed to reduce digital technologies and increase affordability. Addressing the gender disparity associated with ownership of mobile phones, usage skills, and financial access, may liberate women from cultural barriers that prevent them from using mobile technology for livelihood activities. Non-farm income, including remittances and other sources of resilience, is important and should be supported in program design.

Farmer-led irrigation development (FLID) has been part of the farming system for hundreds of years, but has only recently attracted increased attention from government institutions, donors and development organizations. Yet, despite its vast potential, FLID has only been expanding slowly. Barriers to scaling include inadequate policy and legal frameworks, underdeveloped irrigation technology and supply chains, a lack of affordable finance, and limited access to input and output markets. Transformative scaling of FLID requires identifying the sociotechnical innovation bundles that fit, designing and implementing effective scaling strategies, and fostering multi-actor engagement and partnerships to achieve impact and trigger changes across farm, local, national, regional and global scales.

At a rhetorical level, the SDGs provide a unified global agenda, and their targets and indicators are believed to drive action for social and environmental transformation. However, what if the SDGs (and their specific goals and indicators) are more of a problem than a solution? What if they create the illusion of action through a depoliticised and technical approach that fails to address fundamental dilemmas of politics and power? What if this illusion continues to reproduce poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation? This paper addresses these questions through a focus on SDG 6.5.1 – the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM), measured on a 0-100 scale through a composite indicator. The paper presents an empirical analysis of SDG 6.5.1 reporting in Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Malaysia, and the UK, drawing on research from the Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub.1 An evidence review and series of expert interviews are used to interrogate the local politics of IWRM measurement, specifically three dilemmas of global composite indicator construction: (1) reductive quantification of normative and contested processes; (2) weak analysis of actually existing institutional capability, politics, and power; and (3) distracting performativity dynamics in reporting. The paper concludes that SDG 6.5.1 is an example of a apos;fantasy artefactapos;, and that in all countries in this study, IWRM institutions are failing to address fundamental and apos;wickedapos; problems in water resources management. We find little evidence that these numbers, or the survey that gives rise to them, drive meaningful reflection on the aims or outcomes of IWRM. Instead, they tend to hide the actually-existing political and institutional dynamics that sit behind the complexity of the global water crisis.

This brief summarizes key recommendations from a decade of research to help overcome some of the governance challenges that hinder the effective implementation of landscape management practices. This study was supported by projects, such as the European Union’s Supporting Horn of Africa Resilience (SHARE) I and II projects, and the Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable and Inclusive Development (NSSID) program which is built on the outputs of the Growth for Future (G4F) project. At the onset, the brief describes the concepts of landscape and landscape management. Thereafter, the context, policy actions and gaps in agricultural landscape management in Ethiopia are explained followed by the findings on landscape management practices such as PFM, freshwater ecosystem conservation, protected area management, hydro-sediment monitoring, and changes in ESVs due to land conversion relating to the ecoregional development framework are detailed. Lastly, the brief provides recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders to build community and environmental resilience, giving due consideration to diverse practices that benefit both humans and nature.