Climate change, water and poverty_IDRC Introduction_Dr Sara Ahmed
- 1. Climate Change, Water and Poverty: Understanding the Role of Research Sara Ahmed, PhD IDRC, August 2010
- 2. IDRC: The Institution • A public corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 • Supports Southern researchers to enable them to find practical, long-term solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems
- 3. IDRC in South Asia • 192 Active Projects (2009, many regional) • India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan & China • Health, food security and agriculture, climate change and water security, gender rights, citizenship, peace and democracy, evaluation research • Think Tank Initiative – policy research
- 4. IDRC in Nepal • Supporting research since 1972 • Fish cage culture for affected farmers in Kulekhani reservoir flood (1988) • Plant breeding research to improve quality of rice, grains, also value chains • Reduction in animal-human disease transmission • Sustainable options for shifting cultivation • Food security and climate change in mid-hills
- 5. Climate Change and Water • Impact of climate change on water is profound – availability, quality, disasters • But also tremendous uncertainty • Gap in research capacity, particularly in south • Interdisciplinary knowledge: science and social science, systems approach • Knowledge needs to inform decision-makers
- 6. Program objectives • Improving the quality and availability of water in areas highly vulnerable to water stress - technology, services • Managing risks and unexpected impacts from climate change events • Improving and informing decision-making at all levels • Decentralised governance
- 7. Monitoring progress: indicators • Increase in the capacity of researchers to undertake ‘messy, complex’ analysis • Improvements in methodologies to assess the costs/benefits of adaptation and vulnerability • Evidence of improved communication between researchers and policy-makers, communities • Ability to disseminate high quality research results – peer-reviewed articles, policy change
- 8. Research trends and challenges • Lack of local data – global models, trends and political boundaries (water) • Investments in the science of climate change, but not in understanding wider systems that support adaptation, e.g. finance, education, migration • Sector approach, big solutions, small change • Multiplicity of actors, weak climate focal points and short-term research agendas (NGOs) • Role of private sector needs to be explored • Partnerships, process-oriented, transformatory