Middle East Water and Livelihoods Initiative

1. Middle East Water and Livelihoods Initiative Report on Initiation Workshop July 2008 Aleppo, Syria

2. Participants Held at ICARDA Also � UNDP, GTZ CGIAR centers ICARDA IWMI IFPRI U.S. universities UF TAMU USU UCD/UCR UIUC U.S. government agencies USAID USDA NARES Universities Syria Lebanon Egypt Yemen Jordan Iraq Palestine

3. What do you notice? Workshop participants

4. WLI Background and Philosophy WLI is all about partnerships: NARES, CG, Advanced Research Institutes NARES have the needs CG provides research in the region, facilitation and an anchor in the Middle East ARIs to bring in new ideas and technology Donors decide whether to support

5. T. Oweis, ICARDA Defining the benchmark sites Switch to Oweis� pdf

6. Irrigated Rainfed Badia Policies Institutional setups Markets Capacity Building Benchmarks & Cross-cutting issues

8. The Benchmark Approach Defined The benchmark: 1. Represents and captures the diversity of biophysical and socioeconomic conditions found in agro-ecological zones 2. Adopts an INRM approach which: - Sees end-users as essential partner in the research and development process - Regards agricultural development as a complex, non-linear and social process - Is multidisciplinary - Involves top-down to participatory approaches - Develops on-farm research, where technologies are developed together with end-users 3. Involves a wide range of stakeholders - Note that sometimes stakeholder interests are conflicting 4. Should be large enough to allow work on three important dimensions: - Institutional and policy factors driving the evolution of farming systems - A broad partnership of stakeholders to enable scaling-up. - Building NARES capacity in new participatory research and extension methods. From the proposal:

9. The following slides are taken from a presentation by: Kamel Shideed, Director of Social, Economic, and Policy Research Program at ICARDA

10. Benchmarks Defined Represent and capture the diversity of biophysical and socioeconomic conditions found in agro-ecological zones Adopt INRM approach Sees end-users as essential partner in the R&D process Sees agricultural development as a complex, non-linear and social process Multidisciplinary From top-down to participatory approaches On-farm research, where technologies are developed together with end-users Involves a wide range of stakeholders with multiple interests (sometimes conflicting)

11. Benchmarks Defined- cont. Benchmark area should be large enough to allow work on three important dimensions: Institutional and policy factors driving the evolution of farming systems A broad stakeholders partnership required for scaling-up. Building NARES capacity in new research and extension methods, including participatory approaches How many and where benchmarks should be? Multiple benchmarks in each agro-ecological zone, based on: Stakeholders to decide on the location and number of benchmarks Area covered by the agro-ecological zone Variations in the socioeconomic conditions within an agro-ecological zone Population density NR degradation indicators Agreement of NARES leaders to build the needed political support (NARES buy-in) Other criteria

12. Benchmarks Defined- cont. Stakeholders to agree on action plan and XX- year budget proposal Governance of benchmarks (through steering committees) Benchmark and livelihood characterization and baseline information (different scales) How to achieve impact? Targeted research to producing knowledge and technologies to solve problems faced by a broad range of farmers Research priority setting (potential for adoption and impact) Concentrating research in a geographically defined area, and better integration among breeders, social scientists and NR scientists Building Scaling-out and scaling- up approaches Creating an enabling policy environment for the technologies/ solutions

13. Benchmarks Defined- cont. Characterization Socioeconomic context Policy environment Livelihood characterization Production systems NR endowments Constraints New opportunities Tested and proven technologies New policy frameworks

14. Benchmarks Defined- cont. Modeling Aspects Objective function (s) to be optimized Data requirements/availability Relevant indicators and their quantification Model calibration and validation Scale of analysis Scenarios (benchmark and alternatives) Outputs of the modeling exercise Economic Environmental benefits (externalities) Social dimensions

15. Benchmarks Defined- cont. Beyond the Modeling exercise Policy consultation (s) Experimentation (implementation of the modeling solutions) at pilot level Emerging constraints Refining and packaging the solutions at the benchmark level for scaling out Scaling out (requires policy changes -enabling policy)

16. A new institutional model An integrated watershed model Training Short term Graduate Sustainable water and land use Improve rural livelihoods Outputs

17. Finalize proposal UF capabilities statement incomplete Areas of interest by partners include many interdisciplinary and cross-cutting issues: Modeling Community participation Extension Policies Markets All kinds of irrigation Organic agriculture Gender and women�s issues Submit all or parts to various donors USAID likely to provide $500,000 for start-up Set up governance structure Next steps in WLI process