Research. Education. Networking.
Paro: A three day capacity building training cum workshop was organized on Impact of Climate Change on Mountain Ecosystems for Bhutanese water professionals here. This was the second in a series of such workshops, part of the special allocation of CB project for Bhutan for building capabilities on IWRM.
The workshop was divided into three parts: the first session dealt with the contextual understanding of climate change and its impact on mountain ecosystems, focussing on water resources management and livelihoods. The second, explored Climate change and its impacts in the relation to Bhutan. The final session studied the strategies, technologies and best practices that could be adopted at the local level.
While, SaciWATERs was represented by Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Dr. Anjal Prakash, other resource persons included, Mr. Deepak Gywali, NWCF, Kathmandu, Nepal, Mr. K.N. Vajpai, Convenor, Climate Himalaya Initiative, Dehradun, India, Dr. Anamika Barua, IIT, Guwahati, India, Mr. Yeshey Penjor, CC Policy Specialist, UNDP, Thimphu, Mr. Tenzin, Department of Agriculture, Mr. Ichharam Dulal, DUDES, Mr. G. Karma Chhopel, National Environment Commission and Ms. Rachel Sayre, Master’s Candidate, Pennsylvania State University, Intern at RSPN.
Colombo: Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture (PGIA), University of Peradeniya, hosted “Write-shop” a writing workshop for Ph. D –level SAWA students from January 17th to 20th under the auspices of the Crossing Boundaries Project here. The workshop attended to impart students with the important but practical skill of writing for social change and progress. The Lead Facilitator of the workshop was Dr. Edwin Rap from IWE.
Day 1 of the workshop focused on developing core writing skills. Sessions on composing effective paragraphs, writing correct sentences and using optimal words. On Day 2 of the workshop, Writing for Science was the primary topic of discussion. Students were trained to develop a particular concept and to organise one’s ideas. Concepts such as “Key Message Sentence” and techniques such as Mind Mapping were also imparted.
Part two of Writing for Science took place on Day three of the workshop. Students learnt to prepare an outline for writing a paper, and ended the day learning how to develop an outline for a Ph. D thesis and how to integrate findings of social and technical analyses.
“Writing for Advocacy” was the topic of the last day of the workshop. “Advocacy” was defined, and identifying the target audience was taught. Writing for a “Non-specialist” audience and media as a tool for advocacy was discussed as well.
Kathmandu: The time was ripe to reflect and ponder about the Crossing Boundaries experience, thus far. Therefore, an Impact Workshop was organised for the Research Coordinators (RCs) here from January 8th to 11th at Nepal Engineering College (NEC). Dr. Deepa Joshi, Assistant Professor, IWE, was the lead facilitator.
The workshop was a platform for the RCs to meet and analyse the impact of research conducted through the project, to discuss and learn affective means to link policy, research and practice and above all, to share ideas on documenting practices. Primarily, the workshop was meant to facilitate the process of writing reports, with impacts created, being a focus area.
Discussions on research impacts from the CB project kick started the workshop where the RCs got an opportunity to speak on how “Research Impacts” are perceived in their respective institutions. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Joshi on the theoretical dimensions of “Research Impacts”. Then, the RCs had the opportunity to present some promising evidences and knowledge from the CB project.
Day 2 had interactive sessions on tools and techniques for collating and translating research material into communicable outputs. Day 3 aimed to learn from communities of practice and had a Panel Discussion by a team of experts on ‘Research, Policy and Practice in Water’. The panel consisted of water experts drawn from agencies, who have made significant impact through their research on policy and practice and individuals who work at the interface of research, policy and practice.
A session on Collating Qualitative Data as well as Critical Reading and Writing was taken on Day 4. During the workshop, the research coordinators also worked on developing a uniform format for their research synthesis report.
Colombo: One of the objectives of the Crossing Boundaries project was to strengthen Women Water Professionals’ (WWP) Networks in the South Asia region. The organisation for the WWP awareness meeting here was spearheaded by Ms. Kusum Athukorola who is Leader- Advocacy, SaciWATERs. The meet, organised in collaboration with IWMI, NetWater and Women for Water Partnership, Sri Lanka was held on February 2nd.
The meeting was inaugurated by the First Lady of Sri Lanka, by the lighting of the traditional lamp. Several people, including Dr. Deepthi Wickremasinghe of Women for Water Partnership, Dr. Mark Giordano from IWMI, Ms. Mangala Wickremanayake of NetWater. Ms. Kusum Athuroala and Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich from SaciWATERs spoke about their organisations’ work in the field of Women Water Professionals.
This session was succeeded by a technical one that saw two presentations; one by Dr. Chanda, in which she presented findings from the Situational Analysis Study done by SOPPECOM and SaciWATERs, and Ms. Swarna Sumanasekara, from NetWater, who presented findings of a study on women professionals done across different sectors.
A “Gender Parliament” facilitated by Dr. Anjal Prakash was up next, where, participants were given provocative statements that they could agree, disagree with or remain neutral about. This exercise was to reflect our attitudes about gender and the stereotypes we have with respect to gender roles.
The plenary session was a panel discussion on Perceptions and Experiences. The panellists were Ms. Badra Kamaladasa from the Irrigation Department; Dr. Deepthi Wickremasinghe from the University of Colombo and Ms. Subashini Perera from the Norwegian Church Aid. Ms. Kusum Athokorala chaired the session.
Colombo, Sri Lanka: The fourth and final dissemination workshop in the CB outreach series was held here on the 21st of December at Hotel Taj Samudra. The objectives of the workshop were manifold, including disseminating project achievements to stakeholders and the community at large, exploring partnerships with South Asian participants and pitching IWRM graduates and their research efforts to potential employers and most importantly, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinarity in education, research and practice in the water sector. The workshop was attended by over 100 water professionals from 20 institutions in Sri Lanka. SaciWATERs was represented by its President, Dr. Janakrajan and Project Director, Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich.
The inaugural session was chaired by Prof. E.R.N Gunawardena, PGIA and Task Manager, CB Project. The Chief Guest of the session was Mr. S. B. Dissanayake, Minister of Higher Education. After presentations on SaciWATERs and the CB Project from Dr. Janakrajan and Dr. Chanda respectively, Prof. A.L.T Perera, Director, PGIA and Prof. S.B.S. Abayakoon, Vice Chancellor, University of Peradeniya, gave short speeches about how the institute and the university have benefited from the CB Project.
In the second session, research findings from the CB project so far were presented. Chaired by Prof. K.G.A. Goonasekera, Vice Chancellor, University of Vocational Technology, Colombo, this session had seven presentations. An important announcement in the session was from Mr. M. A. M. S. L. Attanayake, Deputy General Manager, National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWS & DB), Kandy who said that the Chairman of the NWS & DB had agreed to officially disseminate the research findings from the CB project.
The panel discussion in the third session was on the topic, “Research needs in water sector: Reflections”. Moderated by Prof. R.P. De Silva from PGIA, the panellists were Mr. Attanayake, Deputy General Manager NWS&DB representing the Government, Ms. Kusum Athukorala, representing civil society and Dr. Herath Mantritilake, IWMI. The interesting panel discussion brought out the consensus for greater need of collaboration among government, academicians, civil society and media.
Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh: SaciWATERs in partnership with BUET held a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Interdisciplinary Field Research Methodology (IFRM) from 6th to 15th of December. The programme was meant for the staff of the PIs, and about 13 nominated members took part. Coordinated by Dr. N. C. Narayanan who also doubled up as an external resource person, SaciWATERs was represented at the ToT by Dr. Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Dr. Anjal Prakash.
The staff training included 6 and half days of class room sessions, a day and a half of field activities and one day for developing a manual on IFRM for other teachers to use in coursework. The classroom sessions were interactive. A compilation of resource materials and a CD were provided to the participants, which included session plans, reference and other training materials on each theme.
The field trip to the rubber dam area and the villages in the vicinity of the dam command area was an attempt to understand the perception of different stakeholders. Meetings were held with villagers, local parishad members, irrigators and fishermen to understand the perspective in a larger context.
The preparation of the manual was the biggest take away from the training. Working in groups, and assimilating the concepts emphasised on each day, groups of three worked on one aspect of the manual each. By the end of the programme, through presentations to the whole group at large, the manual and its contents were finalised.
Buenos Aires, Argentina: The Cap-Net Network Annual Managers’ meeting was held here from 6th to 9th of December. Hosted by LA-WETnet, representatives from 19 capacity building networks from around the globe attended the meeting. The main agenda of the meeting included peer review of the outputs made during the last year, drawing future work plans, identifying areas of collaboration, developing strategic actions for the new phase of the programme; recommending options for Cap-Net institutional arrangements in the future and formation of new Thematic Action Groups (TAG).
Senior Fellow Dr. Jayati Chourey represented SaciWATERs in the first time that it has participated in the network manager’s meeting. The forum was a great opportunity for the organisation to interact with network representatives and was also a platform to share experiences of SaciWATERs’ activities, and disseminate its research findings from its various past experiences.
Many of SaciWATERs’ tangible project material received tremendous response. Numerous requests were made for the IWRM reader and the book on Women Water Professionals. Dr. Jayati also got the opportunity to discuss about future collaborations with managers of other South Asian Networks.
Apart from the formation of four new TAGs, Dr. Jayati has also joined the Gender and Fund Raising action group, keeping in mind SaciWATERs’ interests, and has offered to join the Ecosystem Group.