Conflicts and violence affect around 2 billion people over the world. Almost 60 percent of global population lives amidst fragility. Economic, social and environmental vulnerability hampers any development gain and undermines prospects of stability and peace. Rural livelihoods are particularly exposed as they mostly derive their income from agriculture and rely on natural resources to enhance their condition.

Investing in local capacities to upgrade the skills and knowledge in natural resources management is a key strategy to strengthen long-term resilience and address food insecurity in fragile contexts. Therefore, the FAO Land and Water Division is organizing a weekly series of 13 webinars to strengthen natural resources management capacities to revitalize agriculture in fragile contexts. The webinars will be attended by professionals from national institutions, research centres, and the academia from Libya, Mali, Niger and Yemen on the following topics:

1. Land Resources Planning
2. Water Productivity
3. Water Use Efficiency and Performance Assessment
4. Investment in Agricultural Water and Energy
5. Renewable Energy uses for Irrigation
6. Climate Change and Agriculture: Mitigation and Adaptation strategies
7. Integrated Drought Management
8. Water Harvesting and Agroforestry
9. Agricultural Indexes for Performance Assessment
10. Early Warning Systems
11. Irrigation Asset Management
12. Hydro-economic Modelling for river basin management
13. Monitoring and Evaluations

The series kicks off on May 26th, with a webinar on the Evolution of the Crop Water Productivity Approach: Sustainable Agricultural Water Management and Enhanced Crop Water Productivity.

The webinars are by invitation only, but will be recorded and made available to the public shortly after taking place.