An integral component of the Secretariat's activities during the reporting period consisted of the interactions with both donors and partners; the cornerstones of our partnership. The latter include those governments of developing countries where IPTRID has targeted activities or from which special requests for the Programmes' interventions have been received. Some of the most relevant contacts established during 2005 by the Programme Manager with donors, partners and governments are briefly summarized below.
DONORS
Undoubtedly, fund raising is a crucial and time consuming activity of the Secretariat. The Programme Manager is responsible for establishing contacts with potential donors and keeping relations with current ones. There is a clear need to follow up and remain visible by informing donors of the Programme's direction and plans too. Also, the IPTRID Consultative Group, primarily through its Chair, is to assist the Manager in this task by keeping him abreast of latest developments or changes within the IPTRID donors entities.
In 2005, the following donors assisted the Programme through three main funding modalities such as direct core, in-kind or project related:
Contacts with each of these entities were held during the year, a brief summary on the nature of the relation follows.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
FAO continued to be our major donor and main partner, both through the support of Secretariat staff and in its hosting capacity. Contacts are kept on a daily basis with relevant staff and through the Chair of the Programme's Management Committee who is currently the Chief of the Water Resources Development and Management Service, Land and Water Development Division. The current arrangement with our partner-donor under an FAO-IPTRID Memorandum of Understanding runs until 31 December 2007; while no change is foreseen at the moment, the on-going FAO reform process could eventually impact on the nature of the relationship.
Department for International Development-DFID, UK
The Department for International Development (DFID) of UK has been a major and uninterrupted supporter of IPTRID since 1998. At the request of our donor, a meeting in London, held on15 June 2005, to discuss the Programme's new arrangements and direction was attended by IPTRID's Programme Manager and the Chair of its Consultative Group. The presentation made of the Programme, covering the period 2002–2005, was well received and prompted statements of further support. However, DFID has informed that it will be necessary for IPTRID to change its current link with the Policy Division to the Central Research Department (CRD) which will now be the more relevant unit for the Programme. The CDR official present in the meeting confirmed that, based on the presentation, the Programme seemed to fit well with their funding criteria.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), France
This ministry has undergone substantial reform during the past two years. The reorganization of MAE is part of a broad institutional reform of the French aid to developing countries. Now, the funds for strategic issues will be managed by the MAE Division for Development and Technical Cooperation and those for research and higher education by its Division for Scientific and Academic Cooperation. The MAE announced, and fulfilled within this year, the provision of a new Associate Professional Officer (APO) to the Programme and provided it with a 2005 contribution. The Ministry has also identified a Medium level position that is to join the Secretariat in early 2006.
Ministry of Agriculture (MAAPAR), France
IPTRID's focal point is the Service of International Relations of its Department of International and Economic Policies. However the Department of Forestry and Rural Affairs, has expertise on irrigation and drainage and can facilitate the development of stronger relations with IPTRID. A MAAPAR survey concluded that IPTRID must be viewed as one of the key international institutions dealing with water management, the other ones being GWP, IWMI and OIEau. At the beginning of June, MAAPAR approved the secondment of a Senior civil servant in replacement of the ongoing one who concluded his services at the end of September 2005. The new staff is scheduled to start activities at the Secretariat in early 2006.
Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA), Spain
Until March 2005, the Ministry continued to provide the secondment of an Associate Professional Officer to the Secretariat. In addition, it provided the opportunity for IPTRID to become involved, through collaboration with the Water Resources Development and Management Service of FAO, in forthcoming projects still to be decided in Latin America and North Africa. Finally, the Ministry reaffirmed its willingness to support the publication in Spanish of IPTRID's flag magazine GRID. In fact, Issue 23 of August 2005 became our first Spanish version of the magazine under this arrangement.
World Bank (WB)
During this period, the Bank finalized its contribution for our activity in Egypt on the Rapid Assessment Study for Integrated Planning of Irrigation and Drainage in Egypt. This activity was brought to closure with the publication of the corresponding Final Report in June 2005. During a visit to the Bank, the Programme Manager met the Sector Manager for Agriculture and Rural Development who has been the contact person for the Bank's funding contribution to IPTRID. The Manager was informed that due to new funding guidelines the World Bank will no longer support IPTRID directly from HQ-based funds but rather that the Programme has to approach the Regional Managers on specific projects, again with the support of the respective countries interested in carrying out specific activities.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
During this reporting period, the Programme finalized and brought to closure the activities related to IFAD's grant on “Appropriate water-lifting technologies in West Africa”. Three promotional events, described elsewhere in the report, were held to fulfil the final requirements of the contribution. Subsequent meetings with the IFAD officials indicated that further work on the subject matter will be subject to IFAD's current revision of its own strategic framework and where the role of small-scale irrigation is under review. Under existing guidelines for allocation of grants, it will be necessary for IFAD itself to decide on further requests for IPTRID support to its activities; no unsolicited proposals are contemplated.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), Netherlands
The contribution of the Ministry during this year is reflected through the ongoing IWMI collaboration project in support of IPTRID activities. This particular activity runs until the end of 2006; suitable follow-up is already under consideration. The Programme has also made several contacts at the Ministry in order to bring back this important donor to contribute to our efforts. Several avenues are under consideration at the moment, including the request for secondment of a Dutch national to IPTRID and collaboration through a Dutch partner institution under similar arrangements as the one currently in place with IWMI.
Other contacts
French Development Agency (AFD), France
AFD is in charge of implementing French bilateral cooperation; strategic as well as regional and multilateral issues remain with MAE. AFD has indicated that they would welcome opportunities to develop collaboration with the IPTRID Programme. This could start with some IPTRID inputs on AFD ongoing projects. At present, AFD activities on irrigation focus on three countries: Mali (rice production in the Office du Niger), Ghana (bas-fonds) and Madagascar (hill crops and conservation agriculture).
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), USA
Contacts with this potential donor were made as part of the proposed and forthcoming IICA-IPTRID collaboration; which had previously identified it as a potential source of funding for the joint programme under consideration. Given the special relationship that IICA seemed to hold with USAID, allowing for the provision of unsolicited proposals under existing arrangements, there were high expectations that funding could be secured. While USAID indicated that indeed IICA could make unsolicited proposals, the recent changes introduced in the Agency's funding mechanism had made this type of funding highly unlikely to succeed. It was advised that rather than the Central Office the various country offices be approached - with the support of the respective countries - to seek funds for the type of programme being envisioned.
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Sweden
Contacts were made in the country offices to explore potential for supporting IPTRID activities in Zambia. The Government of Sweden is interested and works on issues dealing with small-scale irrigated agriculture. The Programme Manager was informed that funding at regional level (that includes Ethiopia) has already been allocated for the period up to 2006 and therefore it would be recommended that IPTRID pursue Swedish funding through the main office in Stockholm. The Swedish official indicated that water is a major theme of current interest where water for agriculture is included. He also indicated to be familiar with IPTRID from a previous mission.
At the moment, exploratory contacts are being made with the Governments of Japan and China. In addition, contacts are underway with Arab countries to explore the possibility of their support in an Arabic version of the GRID magazine.
PARTNERS
During the Programme's existence, it has received support from more than 20 international organizations and government agencies, and has cooperated with more than 60 organizations in about 40 developing countries and countries in transition.
Today, the network counts among its members a number of centres of excellence such as:
A few of the key partners and their roles during the reporting period are presented briefly below.
International Water Management Institute, (IWMI)
The collaboration with IWMI continued at a very good pace as contemplated under the ongoing IWMI-IPTRID Letter of Agreement. This year, the second of the three-year project, saw renewed interaction between the two partners. Of particular importance were the activities related to the strengthening of our networking that included the IWMI support to a number of events both in terms of their own staff and professionals drawn from a wide range of institutions. Likewise, great impulse was given to the on-line irrigation benchmarking system with the addition of new countries and professionals. More detail on this collaboration is found further down in the report.
International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, ICID
The interaction and special relationship with this main partner continued at a renewed level during this reporting period. Once again, ICID provided the opportunity for IPTRID to hold its Governance meetings within the framework of its own Congress. The national chapters of ICID have been instrumental in the establishment of contacts with governments of developing countries, to pursue specific activities like workshops or seminars and in the identification of relevant actions required in some of the target countries where IPTRID is exploring opportunities for interventions. Likewise, joint collaboration in certain countries had led to successful implementation of activities. The ICID working groups have provided the way for our Programme to channel and identify new undertakings. Finally, the ICID Advisory Committee for IPTRID continued its role in support of the Programme, although there is some thinking within ICID to streamline this particular body, by merging it the Research and Development Working Group.
H.R. Wallingford
While the funding arrangements in place through which this partner used to collaborate with IPTRID has come to closure, the relationship continued strongly. Currently, ways under which this collaboration can be continued at the same level is under review. Our central partner continued with its Regional Workshops on Management and Prioritization of Research, held in Malaysia and Tanzania. In addition, Wallingford provided support in the preparation and publication of our GRID magazine. Their staff participated in several IPTRID-related events and ways to provide support to emerging projects are being considered.
Alterra-ILRI
The collaboration with this partner has been below what both entities would desire. Again, the constraint has been mostly associated with funding opportunities. However, it should be noted that this central partners has been an untiring supporter of the Programme. It is playing a key role in pursuing renewed funding to IPTRID by the Netherlands Government, and has kept the Programme informed of relevant issues in the countries of their influence. Exploration for joint work has been a consideration during this period and joint future activities are anticipated for 2006.
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)
Contacts were made both in Washington, D.C. where their office for Strategic Partnerships is located, as well as with their Headquarters office in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Institute is a specialized agency of the Inter-American system and its purpose is to support and foster agricultural development and rural wellbeing of its members. Currently, all nations in the region are members, and IICA has representational offices, including selected professionals, in all of them. Thus, there is already an existing network on agriculture-related issues that could be of high importance to IPTRID, as a way to develop partners in the region. Two concept notes, one promoting a clear capacity development oriented focus and the other one directed to a more field-based research and development approach, have been prepared in order to explore the basis for joint collaboration. Considerations are underway for IICA to become a new central partner of the Programme.
National Water Research Centre (NWRC), Egypt
IPTRID's activities in Egypt have been enhanced and facilitated thanks to the close association with the country's National Water Research Centre (NWRC), a unique organization developed in Egypt to operate as a central water-related research body for studying, analysing and solving problems. It has become a model not only for Egypt but also for the region. The NWRC conducts research at the highest policy-making level and deals with water utilization policies and the promotion/utilization of unconventional water resources for sustainable development. The Centre has now established twelve research institutes that read like a list of problems faced by Egypt's water sector. A number of joint activities have been identified, with one of them already executed during the reporting period, as can be seen further down in the report.
Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO) Zambia
Contacts made with officials of the Ministry led to a specific request to IPTRID from the Zambian Government to provide assistance in the area of capacity development in the irrigation sub-sector. As an initial reaction, IPTRID in collaboration with FAO country office has designed a pilot project activity to identify the needs of smallholder irrigators around small-scale dams. The project, scheduled to start in early 2006, would identify problems and constraints to enhance irrigated agriculture including conducting a capacity needs assessment of the farmers-beneficiaries. The medium term goal will be to upscale the pilot activity to other regions in the country.
