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land degradation an water scarcity in drylands also face these chal-

lenges, and have sometimes had to admit collective failure. Following

these experiences, considerable comparative achievements have been

made through WLI so far, and the lessons learned may be useful in

enabling the transition from a single-donor initiative to a successful

multi-donor scientific cooperation and collaboration across MENA.

The available literature on communities of practice and collective

action highlights the need for groups to identify common objectives

and establish trust through standard procedures for evidence-

based decision-making and an agreed plan of action. Three years of

consultation enabled WLI to develop a set of common objectives to

demonstrate that integrated land and water management can improve

the livelihoods of rural households. Another three years of seed-

funded collaborative field testing work by ICARDA, NARES and US

and MENA universities has nurtured a budding research for devel-

opment initiative, which could bear fruit. There is now a need for

this to be collectively recognized and projected across an appropriate

timeframe for sustainable land and water management

impact – i.e. at least 10 years.

Innovative approaches for research and

development

WLI is a grounded, site-based initiative that brings inter-

national partners to the field, not just the debating table.

It follows the proven ‘Water Benchmarks’ approach estab-

lished by ICARDA for various agro-ecologies, whereby

scientific cooperation concentrates donor support for

pilot testing of integrated water, land use and livelihood

strategies developed at selected sites across the region. The

critical mass and layering of successive investigations at

these sites ensures that a strong body of data and analysis

from different disciplines is available to track and verify

the effects of land and water management strategies and

technologies, and evaluate their suitability for scaling up/

out to other areas of rain-fed, irrigated and rangeland agro-

ecosystems. Much of the research is participatory, and is

often carried out with farmers on their own land.

WLI donors and partners are committed to working

together in the drylands and enjoy spending time in the

field with collaborators and beneficiaries. However, some

WLI sites are in areas difficult to access. To keep track of

the WLI research teams’ progress and share information

among research partners, beneficiaries, donors and the

public, WLI has established a monitoring and evaluation

system using USAID’s Feed the Future indicators.

Moving beyond the tracking of progress, USAID has

championed the projection and measurement of liveli-

hood impacts from improved land and water management

throughWLI in the belief that these are at the heart of every-

one’s development agendas. The WLI teams have adopted

only a small number of indicators that are already opera-

tional or can be operationalized during the coming year,

without resorting to using an over-burdensome system.

Although no indicator alone captures impact, together

they provide the best available means to do so. Other

international scientific initiatives, including several funded

through the European Union and the Global Environment

Facility, have previously designed and operationalized such

a system, but were not able to design a system that would

be acceptable to all concerned national governments and

donors. Through WLI, instead of endlessly searching for a

perfect blueprint, the system can be declared operational

when it is already in place across the region. This is thanks

to scientific support from ICARDA and participating

universities, which has given the NARES the confidence to

adopt workable methodologies and benefit from a network

of peer-reviewers to improve them.

Cooperation to measure impacts

Creating an operational system for monitoring progress

in integrated land and water management to improve

rural livelihoods was a daunting task that none of the

partners could have achieved alone. Although research-

ers and resource managers intuitively knew that they

were improving rural livelihoods by enhancing land

and water management, most were not well-equipped

Image: T. Oweis

Modelling the effects of improved on-farm water management

at the basin scale

Land and water management technologies, such as the microcatchment

water harvesting technique practised in Jordan, use the landform to collect

scarce water resources, conserving them in the soil and increasing water

availability for natural plant growth or crop production. Collected water is

used to supply barley fields and shrubs through a series of constructed

basins and outlets. Farmers have to be prepared to invest labour in

construction and maintenance of the systems, and require skills to evaluate

and maximize their effectiveness. The Jordanian National Center for

Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE) works in collaboration with

farmers and farmers’ associations to demonstrate and transfer these skills

through practical experimentation on farmers’ own land, and organizes field

days for farmers and decision-makers to view the results. Methodological

support for the use of focus groups and other rapid appraisal techniques is

provided through collaboration with the University of Florida and ICARDA’s

Socioeconomic, Gender and Policy Research Program.

Collaborative studies undertaken with the Jordanian University of Science

and Technology and Texas A&M have introduced a soil water assessment

tool to model the effects of the water harvesting on hydrology, erosion and

vegetation. Scientific exchanges involving WLI research teams from other

countries, ICARDA and IWMI have introduced the research team to water

evaluation and planning tools for assessment of the water balance at basin

scale. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign have

introduced consideration of downscaled global climate models and climate

change scenarios. From 2014 collaborative research and cooperation will

enable the WLI teams to project future basin-level water balance scenarios

with and without water harvesting and other integrated land and other

water management practices.

Water harvesting involves the collection and conservation of scarce rainwater

resources to increase water availability for plant growth and combat desertification