Women in Leadership: behind the scenes
- Blog By Eleanor Ross, Strategic Communications Specialist, IWMI This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is female leadership. When we hear these words, the women who come to mind are those visible in the political arena who are inspirational to many. Women like Angela Merkel, Jacinda Arden, Michelle Obama, Malala Yusuf and Greta Thunberg. Making their presence felt, their voices heard in ...more
A new tool to help scale water innovations
- Blog By Thai Thi Minh, Senior Researcher – Upscaling Innovations, IWMI Petra Schmitter, Research Group Leader – Sustainable and Resilient Food Production Systems, IWMI Making innovative water management and irrigation technologies available to farmers on a massive scale is crucial if we are to meet growing food demands and mitigate climate change impacts. However, scaling efforts often fall short because they do ...more
Can you hear me? Covid-19 and building women’s resilience in northern Ghana
- Blog Esther Wahabu, Research Officer – Social Sciences, IWMI, Accra, Ghana Women planting onions in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Photo: Hamish John Appleby Covid-19 has been a huge barrier to women’s empowerment, both in the global north and the global south. In both regions, women have found themselves suddenly away from the workplace and back in the home, responsible for ...more
After the flush: How a project in Ghana is turning human waste into an economic resource
- Blog United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to ensure clean water and sanitation for all. The two are closely interconnected: a lack of adequate sanitation and waste management infrastructure and processes has long-term negative impacts on water supply and quality. Workers turning compost made from fecal sludge and organic waste. Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI Several countries have successfully introduced initiatives to ...more
Experts: new thinking and approaches needed to scale up farmer-led irrigation
- Blog As technologies such as solar-powered pumps become cheaper and more accessible, smallholders across the Global South are gradually expanding their irrigated land. This farmer-led irrigation (FLI), whereby farmers drive the establishment, management and improvement of irrigated agriculture, has the potential to transform food and water security, enhance resilience to climate change and promote sustainable livelihoods. But with a long way ...more
Rural women are reshaping gender norms in northern Ghana
- Blog Esther Wahabu, Research Officer – Social Sciences, IWMI, Accra, Ghana Prachi Patel – Migration Communications Consultant, IWMI, USA Woman cleaning maize in Gwenia, Kassena Nankana District in Ghana (Photo Credit: Axel Fassio/CIFOR) In northern Ghana’s Upper West Region, climate variability, migration and Covid-19 are transforming the region. Women are adapting by forming farm cooperatives, making, selling and trading goods and taking ...more
Thomson Reuters: It’s time to look underground for climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa
- While we all know groundwater is a key water resource for farmers, small communities and larger cities alike in sub-Saharan Africa, it is largely missing from existing analysis of climate change impacts on water. Yet, Cape Town, which was greatly supported by groundwater development in its struggle to push back Day Zero when the city was projected to run out ...more
When small is beautiful – but not spectacular
- Taking stock of a widespread water intervention in Africa Woman fetching water from a small reservoir close to a pumping point. Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI As African countries respond to worsening natural disasters, there is a risk that quick fixes may come at the expense of long-lasting solutions. Such appears to be the case with small reservoirs across Africa, ...more
The road to climate resilience
- It can start in any rural community Data collection from wheat fields in the Bahir Dar area near Lake Tana and the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia. Photo: Maheder Haileselassie / IWMI Rural communities across the developing world face growing pressures from climate change impacts and other problems associated with unsustainable agricultural practices, water pollution and the overuse of aquifers. These ...more
EnviroNewsNigeria.com: Why Ghanaian rural communities seldom take water for granted
- The theme for this year – “Nature for Water” – calls attention to an underappreciated solution for this growing threat. While the conventional response is to sink more money into “built” infrastructure (like dams, reservoirs and formal irrigation schemes), research in Ghana and other countries suggests that “natural” infrastructure (such as wetlands, floodplains and watersheds), when properly managed, can also ...more
Home News & Events