The Outcomes of the First WASAG International Forum held in Praia, Cabo Verde, 19-22 March 2019

Stockholm, 27 August 2019

Ruhiza Jean BorotoWASAG Team Leader

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

WASAG Partners (61 Partners from more than 22 countries)

Five Groups of WASAG partners (from the

TORs)

▪ Group 1: United Nations agencies and other United Nations bodies.

▪ Group 2: Other intergovernmental organizations and State actors (including governments, public and governmental agencies).

▪ Group 3: Academia and Research institutions.

▪ Group 4: Civil society organizations, including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

▪ Group 5: Private sector organizations and trade associations.

WASAG Key Steps

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October 2016Endorsed by the Summit of Water Ministers at the Second World Irrigation

Forum in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

November 2016

The Global Framework on Water Scarcity was

officially launched during the UNCCC COP22 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

January 2017

Endorsed by 83 Ministers of Agriculture during the

9th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference at

the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA),

and the G20 Ministers of Agriculture

September 2017

Endorsed by the UNCCD COP 13 as a knowledge-

sharing partnership to help countries develop their drought preparedness plans in Ordos, China

October 2018

Supported by the Committee on

Agriculture (COAG)

Rome, Italy

19/20 April 2017The First meeting of Partners adopts the Rome Statement and establishes an Interim

Steering Committee

27 August 2018An elected new Steering Committee is established

March 2019First WASAG International

ForumPraia, Cabo Verde with the adoption

of the Praia Commitments

WASAG umbrella programme:

▪ Impact: By 2030, agricultural production and productivity will be enhanced by reducing the impact of water scarcity and drought in agriculture.

▪ Outcome 1: Water productivity is increased to ensure nutritious and sustainable food production for all

▪ Outcome 2: Lessen the impact of droughts and the risk posed by extreme weather events

▪ Outcome 3: Enhance women's access to adequate resources to raise agricultural production and productivity

WASAG umbrella programme focus on SDGs:

Partners leading the working groups

Six working groups established since August 2017 with the aim to focus the work of WASAG on emerging issues (also for quick wins):

▪ Water and Migration (GWP, IWMI)

▪ Drought Preparedness ( UNCCD, DWFI, WMO, GWP)

▪ Financing Mechanisms (World Bank, Climate KIC, IFAD)

▪ Water and Nutrition (IFPRI, SIWI, IFAD)

▪ Sustainable Agriculture Water Use (IWMI, IFPRI, ICID, IFAD)

▪ Saline Agriculture (ICBA, Iran)

(*) Leaders and Co-Leaders of the working groups

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Some activities of the working groups

• Water and Migration - finding water - related solutions to provide alternatives to (rural) migration and increase resilience to water stress.

• Drought Preparedness - (1) harmonized toolbox, (2) repository of international experts available to countries

• Financing Mechanisms - a financing framework to facilitate access to innovative financing

• Sustainable Agriculture Water Use - guidelines for pressurised irrigation; harmonisation of glossary

• Water and Nutrition - guidelines on nutrition sensitive water management in agriculture

• Saline Agriculture - sustainable food production systems in saline soil and water environments

WASAG Working Groups

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Drought Preparedness Water & Migration

Water & Nutrition

Financing Mechanisms

Sustainable Agricultural Water Use

Communication

Countries support to WASAG

▪ Canada/ Quebec - internship programme

▪ Cape Verde – hosted the first WASAG forum

▪ Italy – established a chapter of WASAG with a structure mirroring the WASAG working groups – co organized the forum/ leading guidelines for pressurized irrigation in agriculture

▪ Spain – training in irrigation technologies for West African countries/ Symposium on unconventional sources of water (November 2019)

▪ Switzerland (FOAG)- support to the WASAG umbrella programme

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> 300 participants>30% of women48 countries

Day One field trip - more than 120 participants

Days 2 & 3: opening and technical sessions

300 delegates48 countries30% women

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Praia Commitments

From Praia Commitments to Projects

Example of the Saline Agriculture WG

13. Propose ways to live with salinity, particularly in SIDS- Contribute in the production of the Global Soil Salinity

Map led by Global Soil Partnership (GSP)- Raise awareness on biosaline agriculture in the

affected countries involving governments and policy makers

14. Integrate climate-smart agriculture and innovative practices including drought/salt tolerant crops.- Develop a Quinoa Project Proposal -under way- Develop a crop drought/salt tolerance database to be

shared with all the affected countries- Cabo Verde Climate Smart Agriculture proposal

development with field mission

From the Praia Commitments to Projects• Innovative and new solutions, rather than traditional

• Support to stakeholder (mainly country) activities on the ground

• Pilot project

• New methodologies, concepts, guidelines and tools (as ‘public good’)

• Technology development

• Training and capacity building material

• Conference, HL-Panel etc. (advocacy, political will)

• Other

• Relevance to WASAG mission: water scarcity in agriculture in a changing climate

• Readiness for implementation (actionable, funding availability)

• More than one WASAG partner involved (partnerships)

• Budget assured

• Actual deliverables within 2 years

• Potential for upscaling or replication

From the Praia Commitments to Projects

Participants views about the forum

Cabo Verde , 12

Italy, 5

Nigeria, 3

USA, 3

Tunisia, 3France , 2

Senegal, 2

India, 2

Spain, 2

Portugal , 2

The Netherlands, 2

Mexico, 1

Togo, 1

Barbados, 1

DR of Congo, 1

Trinidad WI, 1

Caribean, 1

Burkina Faso, 1

Cameroon, 1

Bangladesh, 1

Jordan, 1

Canada, 1 Kenya, 1

Greece, 1

Ethiopia, 1

Strenghts of the Forum

• Knowledge sharing with different country experts

• High political representation from Cabo Verde and Focus on concrete examples

• Networking, field trip and diverse participation

• Themes diversity, plurality of speakers and views

Weaknesses of the Forum

• Dense agenda, more days would have been useful

• Lack of time for presentations and interactions between participants and panels

• Needed higher representation of farmers and of local experiences/ other SIDS

Field trip

• 95% of respondents agree the field trip addedgreat value to the Forum

• Participants witnessed the challenges of water scarcity in the field and interacted with others

• Althought it took the first full day, participants would have liked more time to interact with locals, visit irrigation installation and salt affected areas

Technical sessions

• Respondents agreed they gained useful technicalinformation from the main technical sessions and that these sessions achieved their expectedoutputs (scores from 7.5/10 to 8.9/10)

• The technical session on saline agriculture received the highest scores from respondents(clear expected outputs, adequate and sufficienttime allocated to the session and for eachspeaker, etc.)

Market Place and Networking Area

• Respondents found the Market Place interesting, lively and educational, had a good diversity of stands and was and opportunity to socialize

• 90% of respondents said they liked the Networking Area

Future Forum

• 76% of respondents agreed the Forum shouldtake place every three years

• Some respondents called for more frequentforums or smaller meetings/ technical sessions during the interval

• Respondents were happy with the location of the venue. 42% of respondents agreed Cabo Verde isthe preferred venue for all future forums. Otherssuggested to change the venue for each forum, suggesting Sahelian countries, for example.

The 1st WASAG International Forum on Water Scarcity in Agriculture was a success!

Now there is a pressing need to translate the adopted Praia Commitments into actions and report back on progress at the next edition of the Forum

THANK YOU!

Contact us at Water-Scarcity@fao.org