IFAD-PTA (Water and Institutions Desk) are pleased to invite you to the workshop ‘Balancing Hardware with Software for Sustainable Agricultural Water Management'.

Balancing adequately ‘hardware' (infrastructure) with ‘software' (institutions) is a necessary condition to guarantee sustainable Agricultural Water Management (AWM) and consequently long lasting benefits for poor rural people. The workshop aims to explore different approaches in achieving the right balance between hardware/software and to stimulate a debate on how to enhance sustainability of AWM, considering imminent challenges such as climate change, growing water scarcity and increasing food demand.

International Organizations attending the workshop

FAO, IFAD, IWMI, UNESCO-IHE, World Bank and CIHEAM.
Balancing adequately ‘hardware' (infrastructure) with ‘software' (institutions) is a necessary condition to guarantee sustainable Agricultural Water Management (AWM) and consequently long lasting benefits for poor rural people. But documented examples and guidelines for an appropriate and context specific H:S balance are not readily available. Often lack of specific studies and empirical evidence renders advocating for ‘software' vs. ‘hardware' difficult, especially where governments or other investors prefer high-visibility, quick-impact and fast recovery of initial cost.

Aims of the workshop

The workshop aims to explore different approaches in getting the hardware/software balance right and to stimulate a debate on how to enhance the sustainability of AWM in the future, considering imminent challenges such as climate change, growing water scarcity and increasing food demand.

Sessions

Two sessions will take place during the day.

Morning session

Time: 9.30-12.30 (Open session)

Topic: Sustainable AWM - past, present and future challenges

During the morning session different presentations will set the scene of past/current/ future approaches and challenges for sustainable AWM with contributions from FAO, IFAD, IWMI, UNESCO-IHE, World Bank and CIHEAM.

In particular this session will be dedicated to exploring the following questions:

• Why is balancing hardware with software important for sustainable AWM?
• What is the appropriate level of software investment in irrigation projects?
• Are Water Users' Associations (WUA) a panacea for sustainable AWM? Or just blind faith?
• What are the future trends and challenges that will influence irrigation water management?
• What can be done to address these?
• Which measures/institutions should be put in place to guarantee sustainable AWM?

An open discussion will follow.

Afternoon session

Time: 14:00-17.30 (Technical session for FAO, IFAD, IWMI, UNESCO–IHE, WB and CIHEAM)

Topic: Forging partnerships on the H:S issue

The afternoon session will be entirely dedicated to exploring opportunities for an inter-organizational collaboration, with the aim to promote implementation of successful approaches and to advocate for well-balanced H:S for project sustainability.