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hoods framework, they should look forward to engaging

further additional support through a multi-donor

initiative. This is needed to scale out the innovations

achieved in MENA so far. The key to successful coop-

eration in the water sector is ensuring that everybody

wins, especially the most vulnerable rural households

in water-scarce areas, whose livelihoods mainly depend

on agricultural water management. To succeed in this,

a wider collaboration involving more scientific partners

donors, and rural communities will be needed.

Image: Caroline King

to measure these impacts. In the eyes of potential donors, this was

a problem that prevented investment in scientific cooperation and

collaboration – a problem that is now solved within WLI.

To share the WLI solution with other donors and benefit other

collaborative scientific initiatives across MENA, a series of chal-

lenges still remain, and cooperative work among a widening range

of partners and parallel initiatives will be needed. National experts

in land and water management are not familiar with the tools and

concepts of livelihood assessment, and often feel unqualified or

reluctant to use them. On the other hand, development partners are

well-versed in analyzing the determinants of poverty and economic

development, but often do not have a practical understanding of

the complex pathways through which these may be affected by a

particular plant variety or cultivation practice. They also struggle

to comprehend the possible effects of confounding factors, and

may be uncertain about whether their support would ever be able

to demonstrate that it has achieved any solidly attributable benefit.

Land and water managers need to be able to reassure them of this.

Collaborative work throughWLI has focused on the shared challenge

of identifying the best available scientific methods for capturing and

measuring livelihood impacts from innovative land and water manage-

ment. With technical guidance and support from USAID and ICARDA

through WLI, reporting of the first five indicators in the sustainable

water and livelihoods framework by collaborating research teams began

during 2012. This included target-setting for the coming three years in

terms of technological development, capacity building and implementa-

tion of improved management strategies in the field. For the remaining

five indicators, scientific cooperation is enablingWLI to develop neces-

sary methodological guidance. This will equip the research teams to

use, critique and improve available scientific methods for the estimation

and tracking of agricultural water management and productivity, basin-

scale water management and effects on the income of rural households.

Rewarding international cooperation

From 2014 it is anticipated that baselines and targets for quantifiable,

verifiable and collectively recognizable success in improving land, water

and livelihoods will be in place for all 10 indicators in the framework.

Where impacts are systematically recognizable, shared, quantifiable and

underwritten through USAID participation, it is hoped that more part-

ners will decide to invest their support, and share the common success.

Ongoing collaborative work among WLI partners demonstrates

the progress made towards the operational use of the remaining

five indicators needed to connect water management innovations

to measurable impacts on livelihoods. Work remains to be done

on the framework and indicators, but the collaborative approach

among scientific and development partners is the surest way to

achieve it. Scientific exchange and collaborative work is also the

best way to ensure that measurement methods meet universally

applicable standards of scientific rigour and reliability. Collective

methodological and measurement challenges will no doubt

remain, in order to refine the indicators and enhance the quality

and specificity of results to meet all stakeholders’ expectations.

Appropriate methods for assessment of rural livelihoods, poverty

and income generation are sensitive topics for public debate and

national policy attention, as well as priority concerns for the inter-

national donor communities.

Partners collaborating in WLI so far have a lot to be proud of and,

finally, a great system for sharing their achievements with others.

Over the coming years, thanks to the sustainable water and liveli-

Field monitoring of agricultural land

and water productivity

NARES are well-experienced in recording hectares of land

under agricultural uses, and assessing the volumes and

values of crop production. But they do not systematically

combine these statistics with water use and water

productivity assessments to calculate the full potential water

savings that could be achieved through innovative water

management practices.

Fruit trees offer a less water-intensive alternative to

cereals, and can be cultivated at the water-scarce tail-

ends of irrigation canals or under drip irrigation. The WLI

research team in Lebanon is working to raise the value of

the more drought-tolerant indigenous soft fruit varieties by

classifying and certifying them, promoting their tastes and

qualities for export, and mentoring farmers in integrated pest

management techniques, among other things.

Researchers are interested to learn how controlled water

stress introduced to fruit crops through deficit irrigation can

enhance their productivity and flavour. The WLI research

teams are uniquely placed to observe these stresses, and

ensure that producers in their countries can benefit from

research findings. Knowledge exchanges with ICARDA

scientists and US university partners focused on modelling

crop-water requirements and productivity. WLI researchers

in Tunisia are seeking knowledge from university partners

in Florida and Spain to help them to model the effects of

climate change on citrus production.

Collaborative work among the Egyptian Water Management

Research Institute, Agricultural Research Institute, American

University in Cairo and citrus producers’ agricultural

associations is already enabling WLI researchers in Egypt to

connect their collective research capacities, and record effects

on water productivity in US dollars per hectare and per cubic

metre of water. WLI is now preparing to report these impacts

from integrated land and water management research to

USAID and any other interested donors on an annual basis.

WLI researchers in Egypt are working to raise the water

productivity of citrus fruit trees