The Challenge Program on Water and Food: A new paradigm for research in the CGIAR - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 2

and implement a few . . . Global Challenge Programs (GCPs), which are
focused on specific outputs and are based on an inclusive approach to priority
setting . . . They should be funded significantly by additional resources.”
One possible GCP identified by the CDMT was “Improved water manage-
ment practices for agriculture.” Although this set the stage for the submission
of a GCP on water in agriculture, there were already powerful movements
towards increasing global recognition of the critical state of water, food
production and poverty.
World Water Council activities, 1998-2000
In 1997, the World Water Council created a long-term vision on water, life and the
environment in the 21st century (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 1998), which detailed
a comprehensive series of activities leading up to the 2nd World Water Forum
and a parallel Ministerial Conference in The Hague in 2000. Amongst the
activities, which were “meant to move us from where we are today to where we
need to be to meet future water needs and ensure the sustainable use of water,”
were consultations to obtain visions of the needs for “ water for food (including
both rainfed and irrigated agriculture” (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 1998),
emphasis is from the original paper). The 2nd World Water Forum, with 5500
delegates, and the parallel Ministerial Conference, with 600 delegates, including
120 ministers, were major international events. Their recommendations
influenced subsequent deliberations in the CGIAR and elsewhere.
The Challenge Program on Water and Food, justification and intent
In early 2002, the CGIAR interim Science Council (iSC, which superseded
the TAC), chose the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) together
with two others 4 to go forward for development as full proposals by mid-year.
The full proposal of the CPWF was, “an ambitious research, extension and
capacity building program that will significantly increase the productivity of
water used for agriculture . . . in a manner that is environmentally sustainable
and socially acceptable.” The intermediate objective was
[T]o maintain the level of global diversions of water to agriculture at the
level of the year 2000, while increasing food production, to achieve
internationally adopted targets for decreasing malnourishment and rural
poverty by the year 2015, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas in river
basins with low average incomes and high physical, economic or
environmental water scarcity or water stress, with a specific focus on low-
income groups within these areas.
The iSC endorsed the CPWF proposal at the end of August 2002 for approval
by the Executive Council (ExCo). ExCo endorsed the proposal and recom-
mended its approval by the CGIAR on 22 September 2002. ExCo noted that