Understanding the gender dimensions of community-based groundwater governance is important because men and women differ in their need for and having access to groundwater, and their participation in the development, management and monitoring of the resource. The leading role played by women in obtaining and safeguarding water is not usually reflected in the institutional arrangements for water management. Addressing this gender inequality could lead to the equal participation of men and women in monitoring and sustainable management of groundwater, and women’s empowerment.

Drought is one of the main causes of food insecurity. In 2011, the horn of Africa has faced the worst drought in 60 years. An estimated 12.4 million people suffered from a massive food shortage. To mitigate the impact of agricultural drought, it is of high importance to dispose of timely and reliable information of the condition of food crops and grassland areas in all regions and countries in the world.

The NENA region already exposed to chronic shortage of water will face in the coming decades a severe intensification of water scarcity due to several drivers, including demographic growth and its related food demands, urbanization, energy demand and overall socio-economic development. Furthermore, NENA is experiencing more frequent, intense extreme events (in particular droughts) as a consequence of climate change.

Given the scarcity of land and water resources, global strategies to increase food production should focus efforts on increasing production per unit resources, i.e. the combined increase of production per unit land surface (yield expressed in kg/ha1) and the increase of production per unit water used (water productivity expressed in kg/m³).

This brochure highlights the objectives and key information of the FAO project entitled “One million cisterns for the Sahel”. It aims to illustrate the project activities’ expected positive impacts in terms of food security, agricultural activities and nutrition among beneficiairies. The objective is to inform FAO partners and donors on this innovative initiative aiming to introduce rainwater harvesting and storage systems at the community level.

The forest-water nexus is crucial for ensuring water and food security, as well as for achieving sustainable development objectives. Only by recognising the interlinkages of forests and water, and how the management of these resources influences productive multi-functional landscapes can appropriate long-term benefits from landscape planning and management be actualized. And while it is important that generalized assumptions about the forest-water nexus are not widely applied due to their complex and context specific nature, the knowledge is available to lend guidance.

Au Sahel, le changement climatique accentue l’irrégularité des pluies et les chocs climatiques, tels que les sécheresses répétées et les inondations. Les conséquences sont désastreuses pour les ménages ruraux les plus pauvres, qui peinent à y faire face et voient leur vulnérabilité s’accentuer. Les femmes sont généralement les plus touchées. La gestion efficace et durable des ressources en eau est plus que jamais une priorité pour améliorer la résilience des communautés vulnérables.

This paper attempts to summarize available knowledge, and identify the gaps in that knowledge, on marine fisheries and fishery resources in the Bay of Bengal region. It provides information on Bangladesh, Burma, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand—their marine fisheries, fishery resources, status of important stocks, etc.