Recursos

El agua tiene una importancia fundamental para el desarrollo humano, el medio ambiente y la economía. El acceso al agua y la seguridad hídrica son primordiales para mejorar la seguridad alimentaria, los ingresos y los medios de vida de las comunidades rurales. La falta de acceso seguro a los recursos hídricos es una gran limitación para millones de agricultores pobres, principalmente los que habitan en zonas de secano, pero también aquellos que realizan una agricultura de regadío. El cambio climático y los cambios que ocasiona en los patrones de las precipitaciones representan una amenaza para muchos otros
agricultores, quienes se encuentran en riesgo de perder la seguridad hídrica y caer nuevamente en la trampa de la pobreza. Por lo tanto, es preciso insistir en la necesidad de fortalecer la capacidad de las comunidades para adoptar y difundir las tecnologías de gestión del agua para uso agrícola.

The primary objective of the project was to promote innovative approaches and ICT-based technologies for timely transfer of weather, water-and crop related information and advice to relevant end users in Africa for informed decision-making and enhanced negotiation capacity with water and farm-related service providers.

Between 2009 and 2012, the IFAD-supported Scaling up Micro-irrigation Systems (SCAMPIS) project developed a market approach for the dissemination of locally adapted drip irrigation kits. 

The approach identifies the technology that is best suited to the local context and appropriate for the most vulnerable rural inhabitants. It then builds a sustainable local supply chain for the irrigation equipment that makes the technology affordable and available, not just for the duration of the project but in the long term.

In just three years, the pilot project was able to dramatically change the lives of 30,000 farmers and their families (in total, around 150,000 poor rural people) on three continents.

In 2005, IFAD and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) formed a partnership to promote a better understanding of the links between rural poverty, livelihoods and water access.

Together they developed an approach to map information relating to poverty, livelihood activities and water availability across sub-Saharan Africa.

By correlating this information, they have been able to substantiate context-specific proposals for water investments.

IFAD and UN-Habitat, through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), have entered into a partnership to implement the „Land and Natural Resources Learning Initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa (TSLI-ESA)‟. 

The initiative aims to improve knowledge management strategies and approaches towards pro-poor and gender-sensitive land and natural resource tenure rights in selected East and Southern African countries. 

The Jr/Sr twinning project was developed in the context of IFAD‟s Initiative for Mainstreaming Innovation. The project seeks to enhance IFAD's capacity to promote innovations that will have a positive impact on rural poverty: testing new methodologies to respond to old and new challenges with new solutions.  

Un des enjeux majeurs auquel l’humanité sera confrontée au cours de ce nouveau millénaire, est sans conteste la gestion durable des ressources en eau face aux demandes pressantes d’une population sans cesse croissante. 

In parts of Kenya, local communities have been empowered to take control of their own development. The success of the project rests on community involvement
and mobilization of local financial, natural and human resources.

Agriculture is a thirsty business, with irrigation alone accounting for about 70 per cent of freshwater withdrawals. 

Meeting demand from a world population expected to top 9 billion people by 2050 will require a 10 per cent increase in water for agricultural use. 

Enormous efforts will be needed to reduce water demand and improve water use efficiency.