Experts discussed water tenure for food security at FAO workshop
Water tenure, meaning a relationship between people with respect to water resources, is a relatively new concept. But as the world’s population is growing, requiring more food, the need for water for food production will increase, even though people already suffer from water scarcity in parts of the world. Thus, sustainable allocation and management of water resources is, and will become, crucial to secure people’s livelihoods and food security.
To develop the current work on water tenure further, FAO organized a hybrid workshop “Promoting Water Tenure for Food Security, Climate Resilience and Equity" on 28-29 June 2022 in Berlin, Germany and online.
The workshop was organized in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany (BMEL) and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), on behalf of Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and adelphi, an independent think- tank based in Berlin.
The workshop aimed to increase awareness about water tenure and its relevance for equitable and sustainable development. 40 participants from governments, civil society, academia and international organizations discussed how the use of a water tenure approach can help to address water and related challenges and explored avenues of how different actors can help to promote awareness and mainstreaming good governance of water tenure.
On the first day, the workshop focused on three topics: water tenure and climate resilience, social inclusion, and food security. Overall, six cases were presented including “Peatlands and Water tenure in Indonesia” by Mova Al’Afghani, to “Addressing water tenure through simplified management plans and local conventions in Boeny in Madagascar” by Anni Valkonen, followed up by a lively discussion on entry points for water tenure.
The second day aimed to push the fruitful discussions and presentations into practice - what stands in a way of mainstreaming water tenure concept and countries using it?
First, three different development paths were presented; Tim Brewer from Water Witness presented Initiative Sustainable Water Footprint for private sector and civil society engagement; Barbara Schreiner from Water Integrity Network talked about hybrid water law, in the context of national and local governments, and; Jippe Hoogeveen from FAO concentrated on the international level by presenting the Initiative for a global dialogue on Water Tenure which will be discussed during the next session of FAO’s Committee on Agriculture in July.
Next, the topic was discussed in small groups and later by a panel focusing on perspectives from Asia and Africa. The panelists talked about possibilities, for example how water tenure offers a holistic approach for water governance that can again empower vulnerable groups, and challenges, such resistance to new concepts.
At the end of the workshop, Kiersch reminded on key events ahead, for example FAO’s Committee on Agriculture will meet in July and World Water Week will be held in August. In his closing remarks, Hoogeveen reminded that even though the KnoWat project is coming to an end at the end of year, there is still work ahead to mainstream the concept. A clear majority of the participants found the workshop “very satisfied”.