Seminar deliberations will revolve around four main themes:

1. Water availability and Access – focusing on the growing vulnerability of communities as they face increasing physical (where water resources have been over-allocated) and economic (where access to water is difficult because of lack of investment) water scarcity
2. Public Policy and Investment – focusing on the critical need for increased public investment in a wide range of agricultural water management options in order increase availability and access for agricultural production, as well as, a conducive policy framework to ensure increased productivity and growth
3. Water and Society – focusing on water governance issues to ensure more efficient, equity and sustainable use by all users, as well as, the relationship between current levels of investment in IWM, current growth rates; and current poverty and hunger levels
4. Knowledge Support Systems – as a cross-cutting theme focusing on information and knowledge support systems in IWM as an evidence-based decision-support-tool to inform all policy and investment decisions

Click here for the Call for Papers

Click here for more details on Terms of References for preparing the paper (PDF)

Expected outputs

Four main outputs are expected to emerge from the seminar:

• A community of practice – An ACP-wide community of practice and decision-makers that will serve as ambassadors and advocates for increased public investment in integrated water management for improved agricultural productivity and growth in the region
• Best practices – innovations (both local and engineered) and best practices including information and communication strategies in integrated water management – as well as – practical experiences and options for scaling these up and out in order to improve agricultural productivity and growth in ACP countries
• An Action Agenda – concrete steps and action agenda, in the form of a clear information, communication and knowledge support strategy - to address the knowledge gaps and existing challenges identified
• Action-Research Agenda - a shared terms of reference for action-research to enable comparative case studies and analysis for addressing the existing knowledge gaps; and to exchange results