By 2050, global population will increase from 7 to a staggering 9.5 billion people and the demands this will place on food and water systems, already under pressure from climate change and over-use, will inevitably push the ecological resilience of river basins over the edge. While it is politically convenient to visualize an inevitable global water and food crisis in which increasing demand for food and water results in increasing poverty, food insecurity and conflict, the future reality is expected to be far more nuanced and revolves around the politics of equitable and sustainable development of resources.

CPWF aims to increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production. It does this by focusing on the nexus between water, food and poverty in developing countries. It develops water-related innovations to reduce poverty, improve food security, strengthen rural livelihoods, and maintain ecosystems services. CPWF does this through an innovative research and development approach that brings together scientists, development specialists, policy makers and rural communities.

In the last ten years of work, CPWF has experience in more than 68 projects carried out throughout the world including in the Andes, Ganges, Limpopo, Mekong, Nile and Volta river basins. As CPWF’s approaches to natural resources management and scientific research continue to evolve, CPWF has learnt that improved water productivity is only one piece of the resources puzzle. Equally important are equitable access to water and better water governance that, when integrated across scales, helps to reduce poverty, improve livelihoods and enhance ecosystem resilience and services.

Our Message

Despite challenges in many river basins, overall the planet has enough water to meet the full range of peoples’ & ecosystems’ needs for the foreseeable future, but equity will only be achieved through judicious & creative management.

1. Wise use of our water resources for strengthening (rural) livelihoods and ecosystem services requires simultaneously using it more productively and sharing water and its benefits more equitably.
2. Higher water productivity and greater social equity can be obtained only through a radical in change of policies and institutional arrangements in both developed and developing nations.
3. The CPWF R4D strategy identified and promotes the policy, institutional and technological innovations required in developing countries for people to increase water productivity and ecosystem services in an equitable and sustainable manner.

The CPWF is an international, multi-institutional research initiative with a strong emphasis on partnerships, adaptive management and participation of stakeholders to manage water more equitably, efficiently and sustainably.

The CPWF represents the largest, most comprehensive investment in the world on water, food and environment research. Through the paradigm of water productivity – developing ways to produce more food within constraints on water and other resources – it offers a new approach to natural resources management and scientific research within the CGIAR.The CPWF works together with institutions, NGOs and community groups in partnerships, which seek meaningful impact for the people who use the new innovations developed by CPWF’s scientific research.

The future of the CPWF

In 2011, the CPWF board was merged with the Board of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in preparation for the The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (CRP5) which began operations in 2012. This new program combines the resources of 14 CGIAR centers and numerous partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management  research, and to the delivery of its outputs. The program focuses on the three critical issues of water scarcity, land degradation and ecosystem services, as well as sustainable natural resource management. It will also make substantial contributions to improved food security, poverty alleviation and improved natural resource management.

Read more about CPWF’s  connection to CRP5 or visit IWMI’s CRP5 site.

For more information contact us by email at CRP5@cgiar.org.