Completed Events

Completed Events

Capacity Building Workshop, 9th to 11th February, Paro, Bhutan

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.

Regional Consultation Meeting held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 5-6 March

Dhaka: Countries in the Asia-Pacific region in general and the Gangetic Basin in particular are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts owing to their socio-economic and geo-climatic dispositions. This necessitates a significant amount of investments, in terms of financial, technological and human resources, in climate change adaptation in most vulnerable sectors such as agriculture and water. As highlighted by the Bali Action Plan and subsequent roadmaps under Conference of Parties (COP), enhanced action on adaptation also require proper tools for prioritization of adaptation actions with supportive policy and institutional mechanisms. However, at present, the adaptation decision making in most of the Asia-Pacific countries and elsewhere is at nascent stages, due to either lack of tools or limitation in application of available tools to prioritize adaptation actions through adaptation metrics and to formulate policy and institutional frameworks that aids in making sound adaptation decisions at various levels.

Various consultations organized by IGES and its partners with policy makers and adaptation experts have revealed that sound adaptation decision making is possible by instituting a mechanism to measure the progress in adaptation (called adaptation metrics) and policy and institutional framework that utilizes such a measurement system in making adaptation decisions from time to time.

There are already several proposals on what constitutes adaptation metrics and optimal policy and institutional frameworks. However, these remained as proposals and frameworks at best, often limited to application at the project level, and have failed to reach the level of implementation at the institutional levels. Keeping this in view, IGES has initiated a research project in collaboration with BCAS, ICIMOD and TERI to look at various existing examples for measuring adaptation and for policy and institutional frameworks in the Gangetic Basin and to evaluate the application of the same for promoting adaptation.

Keeping the above in view, the current regional workshop was organized with the following objectives: To review the existing adaptation measurement frameworks; to review the currently followed policy and institutional frameworks; and to identify bottlenecks and way forward for scaling up the most practical frameworks for adaptation decision making in agriculture and water sectors

Writing Workshop, 17th to 21st January, Colombo, Sri Lanka

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.

Research Impact Workshop, 8th to 11st January, Kathmandu, Nepal

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.

Women Water Professionals Awareness Meeting, 2nd January , Colombo, Sri Lanka

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.

The training workshop on Gender, Water and Equity was fifth in a series for researchers, policy makers, development practitioners, academics and activists from the South Asian region. This programme was jointly organized by SaciWATERs, Cap-Net, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) and Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) during June 14-18, 2010 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The workshop aimed to raise participants’ awareness levels on key gender, water and equity issues and challenges in South Asia. It attempted to provide participants with conceptual and contextual knowledge as well as practical skills to negotiate concerns of equity and principles of gender mainstreaming in the water sector. The content of the workshop was divided into four themes viz., Gender and Equity: concepts & analytical frameworks; Water, IWRM and Equity; Policy Reviews and Sectoral Analysis from a Gender Perspective; and Sanitation and Menstrual Hygiene. Each theme had interactive sessions and group exercises. The programme also comprised of half a day field trip to water and sanitation project sites and a panel discussion on, “Challenge of Addressing Gender Equity in Water Management in Nepal”. There were a total of thirty (30) participants belonging to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. There were 16 female and 14 male participants in the workshop. The overall assessment of evaluation by participants shows that participants found the workshop to be very relevant and unique, having met most of their expectations.

PhD SAWA Fellows Training Workshop. Mumbai, India, February 02-10, 2010.

The training workshop on Social Science Research Data Analysis and Writing was organised by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India in their campus. 21 PhD scholars – thirteen SAWA Fellows from the three Partner Institutes (PIs) and eight from different universities in India attended the programme which was designed with a focus on analysis techniques and tools for qualitative and quantitative field research data.

Staff Training Programme on Water and Rights. Kathmandu, Nepal, January 05-12, 2010.

SaciWATERs organised this training programme in partnership with Nepal Engineering College (NEC) and partnered with the Environment Law Research Society (ELRS), New Delhi, in developing the concept note and session plans. A total of eight members from the academic staff of the Partner Institutes (PIs) were nominated to attend the programme. The training comprised of five days of classroom sessions, a day for developing a course module on effective teaching style and a two-day field trip to the rural areas of Chitwan district.

Third Gender Water Equity Training. Pune, India, November 23-27, 2009.

This training workshop on Gender, Water and Equity was the third in a series for researchers, policy makers, development practitioners, academics, and activists from the South Asian region as part of the Crossing Boundaries project. The training was jointly organised by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; South Asian Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), Hyderabad; Gender and Water Alliance (GWA); and the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM). The five-day training programme had a total of 26 participants (eight males and eighteen females) from five south Asian countries – India (nine), Nepal (six), Bangladesh (five), Sri Lanka (four) and Pakistan (two).

Participation by SaciWATERs personnel in : Asian Regional Working Conference (ARWC) on Women and Water. Marawila, Sri Lanka, November 06-08, 2009.

Meeting and Greening Challenges in Water Security, Food Security and Climate Change for Asian Women is a worldwide movement of eighteen major umbrella organisations for women in South America, Africa, Asia and Western & Eastern Europe. This conference was organised by Women for Water Partnership (WfWP) in association with NetWwater, a network of women water professionals in Sri Lanka. The conference had a two-fold agenda: to have thematic paper presentations and to work on case studies which would be developed as project proposals for funding by WfWP. It also had a fieldwork consisting of visits to two illegal river sand mining areas. SaciWATERs staff presented a thematic paper: Gender inclusive IWRM in Education and Research – A case of crossing boundaries project in South Asia in the conference. There were about a hundred participants from various Asian countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, India, Korea and Philippines.

Participation by SaciWATERs personnel in : Conference on Organising Water Education Regionally Three Southern continents meet. Entebbe, Uganda, october 31-November 02, 2009

The conference, organised by Concertación, WaterNet and SaciWATERs/Crossing Boundaries and coordinated by Wageningen University, The Netherlands, established a creative dialogue between three Southern-based water education networks: from Southern and Eastern Africa, South Asia and South America (the Andes). The conference focused on regionally shared water management problems to provide new windows of opportunities for regional collaborative approaches to water education in the South. A total of ten participants from Crossing Boundaries project, SaciWATERs, participated in the event and actively participated during the entire session. Overall it was a learning experience and there was a demand from the partners to have similar sharing meetings within the region. Both WaterNet and SaciWATERs expressed their commitments to invite one representative from the other two networks in the international events to be organised in future.

Participation by SaciWATERs personnel in : The World Water Week. Stockholm, Sweden, August 16 – 22, 2009.

The World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual meeting place for the planet’s most urgent water-related issues. Organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), it brings together experts, practitioners, decision makers and leaders from around the globe to exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions. The theme for 2009 was Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good.

The low percentage of women water professionals in South Asia is recognised as one of the constraints for gender sensitive water resources management. Most of the analyses around women’s lack of participation at various levels in the water sector have remained limited to socio-cultural constraints. There is very little understanding as to how the culture and history of each sector contributes towards constraining women in participating effectively. It is in this context that a study on women water professionals was undertaken in five South Asian countries by the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) and South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs). The main findings of the study ‘The Status of Women Water Professionals in South Asia’ was presented at the seminar organised at this World Water Week.

Staff Training Programme on Climate Change and Water: Vulnerability and Adaptation. Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 02 – 09, 2009.

SaciWATERs organised this staff training programme in partnership with Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, one of the Crossing Boundaries Partners in Bangladesh. A total of eight academic staff members, nominated by the four CB Partner Institutions (PIs), attended the training programme. It included four and a half days of classroom sessions as well as two and a half days of field visit in the rural areas of Gaibandha (which is susceptible to flood and inundation hazards). The final day constituted discussing and developing course modules of the training topics for the respective PIs.

Second Gender Water Equity Training. Mumbai, India, April 27 – May 01, 2009.

The Gender, Water and Equity Training was jointly organised by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, South Asian Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs), Hyderabad, Gender and Water Alliance (GWA), and the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Pune. A total of 21 participants (including eight males), mainly from India (including those from the North Eastern part and J&K) and Nepal, attended the training. The five day training programme focused on gender, water and equity with a lot of emphasis on group work and policy analysis tools from gender and equity perspectives.

4th South Asia Water Research Conference. Kathmandu, Nepal, May 04 – 06, 2009.

The Fourth South Asia Water Research Conference on Interfacing Poverty, Livelihood and Climate Change in Water Resources Development: Lessons in South Asia was organised by SaciWATERs with support from its CB partner, Nepal Engineering College. A total of 79 participants (including IWRM students) attended the programme. 26 research papers were presented in the conference, including five presentations by SAWA Fellows. At the concluding session, interdisciplinary nature of water issues was highlighted upon and ideas for future research endeavours in this sector were presented.

Participation by SaciWATERs personnel in : Fifth World Water Forum. Istanbul, Turkey, March 16 – 22, 2009.

33,058 participants from 192 countries took part in the 5th World Water Forum, making it the world’s biggest ever water-related event. The Forum primarily served four main purposes: 1. To raise the importance of water in the political agenda, 2. To support the deepening of discussions towards the solution of international water issues in the 21st century, 3. To formulate concrete proposals and highlight their importance to the world, and 4. To generate political commitment.

SaciWATERs staff participated in the event with the following objectives: 1. to organise a side event: Up-scaling IWRM Education in South Asia: Which Boundaries to Cross? that evaluated the current status of water resources education in South Asia and identified challenges, opportunities and new initiatives in the sector as well as assessed the demand for interdisciplinary water professionals, 2. to participate in other events (presenting papers, coordinating sessions, etc) in individual capacity based on the outcomes of the Crossing Boundaries (CB) project, and 3. to network with other members and popularise the CB project with people participating at the WWF5.

Reader Workshop on Water and Health in South Asia. Hyderabad, India, February 25 – 27, 2009.

The Reader Workshop, organised by the Crossing Boundaries Project, SaciWATERs, was an attempt to understand the interdisciplinary aspects of the interrelations between water and health. This reader would be the seventh volume in ‘Water in South Asia’ (WISA) series, to be published by SaciWATERs in collaboration with Sage Resources, New Delhi. A total of 21 papers were selected by the editors for presentation at the Reader Workshop. The lead authors of each paper were invited to present their papers. In total 36 participants attended the workshop which included two days of paper presentations and a day of discussion on the structuring of the Reader. This workshop provided editors and authors an opportunity for personal interactions and detailed discussions, which led to more clarity on the content and structure of the Reader.

Staff Training Programme on Water and Health. Hyderabad, India, February 16 – 23, 2009.

SaciWATERs organised this staff-training programme with an aim to enable the Partner Institutions (PIs) to develop a course module on Water and Health under the existing Post Graduation Engineering Programme in Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) in their respective institutes. The staff training included five days of classroom sessions, two days of field activities in rural areas of Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh and a day of lively discussion on developing a course module on effective teaching style. A total of eight members from the academic staff of the PIs were nominated to attend the training programme.