The River Nile provides an invaluable source of livelihoods to over 160 million of people who dwell in its valley. The river valley is renowned for being a cradle of civilisation. As the populations grew and civilisation evolved, the demand for more water resources took a toll in the region. The more recent visible climate change effects have further compounded water management in the basin. Water and food security in the region is under threat, hence the need for robust transboundary water management. An effective institutional arrangement is a key factor in facilitating this process.

Water and soils are increasingly becoming a limiting resource for meeting the food requirements
of a growing world population. Integrated concepts for managing natural resources in a sustainable
and environmentally sound manner show encouraging impacts, if applied on a large scale and
over a long period like in Tigray, the northernmost regional state of Ethiopia.

Poverty in rural households have deepened in the past two years through world events: unprecedented rises in food and fuel prices were followed by global economic meltdown, all amidst growing climate uncertainty. Balancing water availability within and across growing seasons, water harvesting helps to buffer households against drought. Research on water harvesting in South Africa has focused on rural household livelihoods. Innovative results on appropriate water harvesting technologies and food security facilitation techniques are now being implemented in villages across South Africa.

Water is scarce in India's semiarid zones of Rajasthan. Climate change is putting additional pressure on the rare resources. Irregular or no rainfall forces many small farmers to abandon their fields, at least temporarily, and seek work in the towns. Participative water management projects as practiced in Bhipur village, growing crops with low water requirements and more sustainable farming practices are adaptation strategies that allow farmers to continue their activities despite climate risks.

Developing countries, as a group, are the ones most threatened by the hydrological impacts of global climate change. Water is a critical resource in development, and it is affected by climate change in multiple, complex ways ? through changes in temperature and rising sea levels, changes in precipitation patterns, and melting snowfields and glaciers.

Many adaptation measures urgently needed in agriculture today as a consequence of climate change concern water in agriculture and were already devised and implemented in the 1980s as a part of rural development activities. However, most of the experience and knowledge have sunk without trace. Systematic knowledge management at that time would have made it possible to benefit from this experience today in the planning and implementation of water-related adaptation measures, providing effective support for these measures and hastening their implementation.

The Himalayan region is not only tectonically active and ecologically fragile but is it also one of the most economically underdeveloped and most densely populated mountain ecosystems on the planet. These natural as well as human characteristics render the Himalayan region highly vulnerable to the impacts of development, degradation and climate change and in particular the impact of melting of glaciers and changes in the patterns of precipitation.

The economy of the Amazon region relies heavily on water for transport and livelihoods. Important also for the regional water cycle, the Amazon ecosystems are threatened by climate change, although there is little knowledge about the likelihood of adverse events and potentially related vulnerabilities. Therefore research and building up capacities for collective action are cornerstones of adaptation to climate change. Since 2008, strategic policy approaches have emerged. The region has only started to prepare itself for the things to come.

Le groupe des pays en développement est celui qui est le plus gravement menacé par les conséquences hydrologiques du changement climatique mondial. L'eau, qui constitue une ressource essentielle pour le développement, est affectée par le changement climatique de multiples manières complexes : variations de température et élévation du niveau des mers, changements intervenant au niveau de l'abondance des précipitations et fonte des champs de neige et des glaciers.

En 2008, le Fonds pour l'innovation en micro-assurance a attribué une subvention à Planet Guarantee (en partenariat avec AGF Afrique et Swiss Re) pour la réalisation d'une étude de faisabilité sur l'assurance indexée destinée aux producteurs de coton du Mali. Trois types d'indices ont été évalués. Étant donné le risque de base élevé que présente l'indice climatique et les ressources techniques importantes requises par l'indice satellitaire, l'indice de rendement est considéré comme l'approche la plus prometteuse.

L’importance des forêts pour atténuer le changement climatique et favoriser la conservation des espèces, comme moyen de stockage de l’eau, de production d’oxygène, de protection du sol et comme source d’humus, est bien connue. Toutefois, plus de 13 millions d’hectares de forêt disparaissent chaque année, surtout dans les zones tropicales.

La crise des prix alimentaires qui sévit actuellement est la