Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 1.3 Benchmark basins
South America: A group of small basins in the Andes, São Francisco.
Africa: Volta, Limpopo, Nile.
Asia: Karkheh, Indus-Ganges, Mekong, Yellow.
of the benchmark basins was to integrate research across themes at the basin
level by working closely with stakeholders and prioritizing the research most
relevant to each basin. Teams within each basin developed baselines against
which progress and impacts were assessed.
Toward the end of Phase 1, the iSC criticized the lack of geographical and
thematic coherence in the first round of 55 approved projects. In response, the
Consortium Steering Committee created Basin Focal Projects (BFPs) to
present a globally coherent picture of whole-basin systems that recognized the
large differences in hydrology (and consequent livelihood systems) within and
between basins. The work of the BFP teams was to show the link between
poverty, agriculture and water within each benchmark basin, and to develop
rigorous conceptual frameworks to enable scientists to analyze these links in
other river basins at various scales of resolution. The CPWF responded to an
external review commissioned by the iSC and to changes within the CGIAR
by shifting the focus away from research outputs, to an emphasis on broader
outcomes produced as a result of research. We discuss this evolution below.
Water, development and poverty
During the initial phase (2003-2007), CPWF research for development (R4D)
was in the context of diverse, water-related problems and focused on identi-
fying and selecting what strategies had most potential to improve food security
and reduce poverty. As the CPWF gained understanding of the complex
relationships between agricultural water management and poverty—and the
dynamics of water, food, and poverty—it saw that the level of socio-economic
development was a key driver. It also saw that the natural-resources manage-
ment (NRM) approach it was using was well suited for research into many
development issues (World Commission on Environment and Development,
1987). The second phase of the CPWF therefore focused on alleviating
poverty and increasing farmers' and farming systems' resilience, which is often
driven by external global forces at different spatial and institutional levels, such
as shocks to financial markets and climate change.
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