The coastal polders of Bangladesh are characterized by extremes in terms of both challenges and opportunities. The polders are home to about 8 million people, where 85% of rural householders live under the national poverty line. The polders are subjected to flooding during the rainy season; drought and salinity during the dry season, and cyclones. In addition, the impacts of climate change, especially sea level rise, will be most severe in this region.

In 2009, the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) set out to “improve governance and management of rainwater and small water infrastructure in the Limpopo basin to raise productivity, reduce poverty, and improve livelihoods resilience.” Over the following four years, CPWF, led by the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) and partners, coordinated five inter-connected research- for-development projects in the basin. The program

The objective of this study is to
develop an integrated basin planning framework for analyzing
and prioritizing water resources development options in
Afghanistan, and to demonstrate its application in the Kabul
River basin. Accordingly, the study focuses on the tasks of:
(a) analyzing the medium and long-term options for
developing the water resources of the Kabul River basin for
multiple purposes, including domestic and industrial water

The overall goal of this report and the
accompanying report summarizing the findings and
recommendations, both based on the economic and sector work
(ESW), is to advance the understanding and integration in
operational terms of environmental water allocation into
integrated water resources management. The specific
objectives of the reports are the following: 1) document the
changing understanding of environmental flows, both by water

Country Assistance Strategies (CASs)
have been periodically reviewed from a variety of different
perspectives. This review assesses how environment is
integrated in CASs for 2005 and also compares the progress
made by 37 countries over the period of 1999-2005. Five
themes are used to assess the 23 CASs across an established
methodology also used in previous reviews. The five themes
are: issues identification, treatment, mainstreaming,

The Ganges Basin Development Challenge (GBDC) Program of the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food is focusing on improving livelihoods and increasing productivity sustainably in the coastal polder zone, and has developed and tested innovative cropping systems and water management practices suited to the local conditions.Before a new cropping system can be recommended, it is important to identify its “extrapolation domain,” which determines where it could be successful.

In eastern Africa, termites are perceived by farmers, livestock keepers, and many development agencies as serious agricultural pests that destroy pasture, crops and wooden infrastructure. Commonly use control measures have proven to be ineffective. When the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) undertook research aimed at increasing agricultural water productivity in eastern Africa, termites destroyed early experiments designed to rehabilitate degraded land and increase water productivity.

Disasters are increasing worldwide, with
more devastating effects than ever before. While the
absolute number of disasters around the world has almost
doubled since the 1980s, the average number of natural
disasters in Middle East and North Africa (MNA) has almost
tripled over the same period of time. In the MNA, the
interplay of natural disasters, rapid urbanization, water
scarcity, and climate change has emerged as a serious