The Challenge Program on Water and Food: A new paradigm for research in the CGIAR - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 7

Poverty and development: the broader context
Many scenarios of the future forecast conflict (The 2030 Water Resources
Group, 2009; Deloitte, 2012; KPMG, 2012; McKinsey and Company, 2012)
and conclude that food and environmental insecurity and poverty will be
widespread, paying little attention to constructive solutions such as adaptation
and innovation. In contrast, in the second phase the CPWF addressed these
issues in a wider global context. It researched the drivers of change, and how
development priorities evolve within global socio-political realities. The
CPWF used water as an entry point to identify the most pressing current and
future development challenges within an R4D framework, and solutions to
address these challenges.
This approach drew on thinking that links local realities with global influ-
ences by understanding how people interact with the complex natural
environment. Interlinked planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009) were
merged with social boundaries (Raworth, 2012) and overlain with the notion
of common-pool resources and collective self-governance (Ostrom, 2009).
This provided the framework for the CPWF's R4D that seeks relevance,
impact and equity.
The CPWF placed R4D within a context of poverty and development.
Poverty has no single definition with measures of poverty ranging from head
counts of people living on a certain minimum amount of income to people-
centered approaches of how well people meet their livelihood goals. The
CPWF focused on people-centered approaches using participatory method-
ologies while also recognizing the importance of economic dynamics at and
between all levels of society. It also included the concept of social exclusion
acknowledging that multiple forms of discrimination impact severely on the
poor and their capacity to influence decisions that directly affect their lives.
People-centered perspectives allowed the CPWF to consider the causes of
poverty, including the importance of human agency, empowerment and
institutional accountability. Human agency is what poor people can do for
themselves, and empowerment is creating conditions that allow them to do so.
These perspectives not only recognize the strategic importance of economic
development, but the role of institutions as possible root causes of poverty.
Water and poverty
The CPWF focus on water management and social and ecological resilience 7
led to research on the connections between water and poverty. Water poverty
identifies water-specific forms of poverty, such as livelihoods that depend on
water, and which are subject to water hazards or lack of development (Black
and Hall, 2004; Cook and Gichuki, 2006). For example, people living more
than one kilometer from a safe water supply are water poor (Sullivan, 2002).
When the BFPs started in 2005, the CPWF had identified that key issues
were the links between water productivity, water scarcity and water poverty.