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FAO at the 4th World Water Forum
1. The 4th World Water Forum, Mexico, 16 - 22 March 2006 The 4th World Water Forum is an initiative of the World Water Council that has the aim of raising the awareness on water issues all over the world. As the main international event on water, it seeks to enable multi-stakeholder participation and dialogue to influence water policy making at a global level, thus assuring better living standards for people all over the world and a more responsible social behaviour towards water issues in-line with the pursuit of sustainable development. The 4th Forum is focusing on local actions and knowledge and is organized around five main themes. FAO will have an active presence throughout the Forum, but especially on Monday 20 March, the day that is dedicated to the Theme “Water Management for Food and the Environment”. The programme is available from the Forum website. More information on FAO supported activities is provided in the following items. 2. FT4.12 Water for Food and Ecosystems - The Way Forward Monday 20 March, 16:30 - 18:30 FAO, together with the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, IUCN and the Mexican Comisión Nacional del Agua, is convening a topic session on water for food and ecosystems. This session will discuss and illustrate how cross-sectoral collaboration and integration among agriculture, water and environment can lead to concrete advances in sustainable water management that services multiple and productive uses across the sectors. The session will include keynote addresses by the convening organizations and local actions on water valuation in El Salvador, restoring the Deschutes river basin in the United States of America and multiple use water services in South Africa. These will be followed by an interactive panel discussion with experts in the field of water for food and ecosystems. Specific attention will be paid to market-based mechanisms, local governance and water valuation. The latter is the subject of a new report to be presented in the session, which brings together experiences with stakeholder-oriented valuation from FAO, IUCN, IWMI and Imperial College. For further information, contact Gerardo van Halsema 3. FT4.20 Capacity development strategies and social learning among stakeholders for a sustainable irrigation and drainage sector Monday 20 March, 16:30 - 18:30 The International Programme for Technology and Research in Irrigation and Drainage (IPTRID) of FAO, in collaboration with UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, the World Bank and Centro del Agua para Zonas Áridas de América Latina y el Caribe (CAZALAC) will organize a two-hour topic session on capacity development strategies and social learning among stakeholders for a sustainable irrigation and drainage sector. IPTRID will contribute with a presentation of a local action by Action Against Hunger titled “Capacity development for food security in Nicaragua”. The project is based on agricultural diversification and alternative solutions to improve poor farmer’s incomes and to reduce food insecurity. The other local actions to be presented at the workshop are: Water Sector Capacity Building in Palestine ; Revitalization of Smallholder Rainfed and Irrigated Agriculture in South Africa ; Educational Program for School Children about Sustainable Management of water resources in Chile . An Expert Panel composed of internationally recognized professionals from various institutions such as IPTRID-FAO, CAZALAC and the Water Research Commission of South Africa will comment on the actions and facilitate a multi-stakeholder dialogue with the participants of the conference. For further information, contact Carlos Garces 4. FT4.08 Financing water for agriculture Monday 20 March 16:30 – 18:30 The World Water Council, the Global Water Partnership and FAO (AGLW and IPTRID) are convening a session on innovative models for financing investments and management of water management infrastructure for agriculture. During this session, a high level panel under chairmanship of Ismail Seralgadin will present and debate the findings of the working group on financing water for agriculture. This will be based on series of local actions and regional consultations that were held in India , South Africa and Egypt in October-November 2005. The session should result in recommendations to further enhance finance and access to finance for local authorities, operators, users associations and communities for investments in and management of water management infrastructure for agriculture. For further information contact Carlos Garces or Jean-Marc Faurès 5. FT4.37 The Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Monday 20 March 14:15 – 16:15 The Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture (CA) assesses trends, conditions, challenges and responses in water management for agriculture in order to identify appropriate and effective investments for enhancing food and environmental security over the next 50 years. Currently, the CA is close to finalization before publishing and CA, FAO, Ramsar and IWMI are convening a session in Mexico as a last event for user input into the assessment before publishing. The main aim of the session is to discuss and debate the findings of the Comprehensive Assessment on water, agriculture, livelihoods and environment, with specific attention for livelihood and environmental trade-offs. This will contribute to a further refined assessment, including the overview for policy makers. It will help bridge the gap between people with different points of view about how water is managed through debate and discussion. For further information contact Jean-Marc Faurès 6. FT4.24 Enhancing investments for water management in agriculture in Africa Monday 20 March 11:00 - 13:00 “Agricultural water management” is critical to poverty reduction and growth. Increasing agricultural employment and incomes creates subsequent employment and poverty reduction opportunities, inducing growth in local and national economies. The session aims (1) to showcase the range of smallholder land & water management innovations for securing human livelihoods and generating multiple goods and services (2) to identify cost-effective and sustainable investment options in agricultural water management, and (3) to present and discuss recommendations for increasing the contribution of agricultural water management to poverty reduction and growth in SSA. This builds on a Collaborative Program of AfDB, FAO, IFAD, IWMI and the World Bank, which has reviewed the experience of agricultural water investment in sub-Saharan Africa to date and has identified the conditions for successful investment in sustainable, cost-effective agricultural water management. For further information contact Jacob Burke 7. Other sessions of specific interest
On Saturday 18 March: FT2.19 Implementation of IWRM in National Plans 2005 (WWAP/UNESCWA/UNESCAP/WB/FAO)
On Monday 20 March: FT4.07 Improving agricultural water productivity in dry areas (ICARDA)
On Wednesday 22 March: Launch of the World Water Development Report (UN Water/WWAP)
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