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Non-PR, IFPRI1; REACH; DCA; CRP5; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Land degradation is a pressing global challenge, with three billion people residing in degraded landscapes. The global cost of land degradation is estimated to be about $300 billion per year, with Africa south of the Sahara accounting for 26 percent of the total global costs due to land-use and land-cover changes. In Ethiopia, it is estimated that more than 85 percent of land is moderately to severely degraded due to changes in land use and cover, costing the country an estimated US$4.3 billion annually. In order to halt further degradation and support essential restoration through sustainable land management (SLM) and related investments, the Water and Land Resource Center (WLRC) and its consortium of development partners established six learning watersheds in Central and North-Western Ethiopia with the ultimate goal of improving water security and crop and livestock productivity.

Non-PR, IFPRI4; PRSSP; CRP2; BPRSSP, EPTD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Bangladesh has excellent conditions for rice production, with production possible during up to three seasons in a year. Production in Bangladesh increased rapidly during the 1960s to 1990s as a result of Green Revolution technologies fueled by short-duration varieties, irrigation, and fertilizers. Given the rapidly vanishing land base due to increased population density, urbanization, land degradation and climate change, technological change remains the key factor determining the potential for productivity growth of the agriculture sector in Bangladesh. The need for accelerated technological change was further sharpened as a result of the recent food price crises, which have led to increased calls for food self-sufficiency in the country (Asaduzzaman et al. 2010).

Non-PR, IFPRI4; PRSSP; CRP2, EPTD; PHND; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Agricultural production in Bangladesh has undergone dramatic changes over the past several decades. Green Revolution technologies transformed the agriculture system in the country through the introduction of highyielding rice and wheat varieties, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the expansion of tube well-irrigated area, enabling crop production during the dry season (e.g. Hossain 1988; Sen, Mujeri, and Shahabuddin 2004; Timmer 2005). As a result, yields of key staples, namely rice but also wheat, have increased as has food availability. However, serious challenges continue to plague the agriculture sector. These include scarcity of land due to high population density, unbalanced use of fertilizers and pesticides, great variation in water supply across seasons from drought to stagnant flood conditions, resource degradation due to over-application of chemicals and intensive year-round cultivation of rice, climate change and related extreme climatic events.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; CRP5, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), With adverse impacts of climate change growing in number and intensity, there is an urgent need to reduce emissions from food systems to net zero. This can only be achieved if rural areas in low- and middle-income countries gain access to clean energy. A review of the research and capacity building contributions of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) over the last 10 years suggests important contributions in the areas of energy policy and energy investment planning, cost and feasibility frameworks, and business models for clean energy technology uptake. WLE has also conducted successful pilot projects on solar irrigation to provide an evidence base for scaling up innovative energy initiatives. Finally, the program also considered non-agricultural uses of energy where relevant to food systems, and implemented capacity building activities. Going forward, CGIAR has a key role to play in providing information, supporting access and piloting innovative, scalable clean energy interventions to support the achievement of multiple impacts for the poorest and most food-insecure women and men farmers and entrepreneurs.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; CRP5; DCA; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), This paper explores outcome indicators and process principles to evaluate landscape resilience in agro-ecosystems, drawing on outcome indicator case studies of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Four questions are addressed: (1) which outcome indicators and process principles feature most prominently in the seminal literature on resilient agro-ecological landscapes? (2) to what extent are these principles represented in CGIAR Outcome Impact Case Reports (OICRs) and selected peer-reviewed studies? (3) how does the use of process principles in the case studies compare to their occurrence in the theoretical literature? and (4) which process principles co-occur with related outcome indicators in the OICRs? The findings enable researchers and practitioners to be more specific about the outcomes and processes that drive resilience in agro-ecosystems, thereby informing adaptive program management. Seven novel research themes are proposed.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; CRP5; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Water is an essential resource for all life, but is extremely difficult to manage productively, sustainably and equitably. Good water governance has been a major theme of multiple international conferences for at least two decades (Woodhouse and Muller 2017). Without good governance, we cannot achieve poverty reduction, food security, environmental sustainability, equity and other global development goals or respond effectively to the ravages of climate change. Achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on the availability of water to users. However, while there are some local success stories, progress on improving water management has been poor. By many measures, we are moving in the wrong direction: access to water, water scarcity, water pollution and food insecurity are getting worse in many parts of the world. Further, the rapid loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services threatens humanity’s future (Bradshaw et al. 2021). There is strong evidence and broad agreement that this is fundamentally a governance failure (e.g., Pahl-Wostl 2017). If we do not succeed in governing water more effectively, we cannot achieve the SDGs. Getting the governance of natural resources right is also a pre requisite for achieving CGIAR’s ambitious 2030 goals (CGIAR n.d.).

Non-PR, IFPRI1; DCA; CRP5; G Cross-cutting gender theme; ROAD Wif2, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Millions of female migrants experience various forms of exploitative and unsafe conditions when migrating for employment and income generation, both in countries of origin and in destination countries. Vulnerabilities increased further due to the Covid-19 pandemic, causing income and job losses, entrapment in countries of destination without financial or social support and stigmatization upon return. One of the key migration routes travelled by millions of migrants is from South Asia to the Middle East. We examine this migration route for low-skilled female migrant workers highlighting the impacts of interventions along the migration pathway to determine the effectiveness of alternative mechanisms for reducing forced labour and trafficking. We draw lessons from the literature as well as from interviews with key informants in the field, including academics, development partners, NGO workers, and policymakers, to identify promising interventions that successfully reduce the vulnerability of women migrants. We find that, while Covid-19 has increased migrant vulnerability, it has also exposed the current system’s violations in facilitating trafficking and exacerbating poor working conditions.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; G Cross-cutting gender theme; DCA; ROAD Wif2, EPTD, Women migrant workers make significant contributions to the global economy, but face risks of being subject to forced labour and trafficking, heightened by COVID-19. As women migrate from low-income to G20 countries to undertake key service functions, the G20 should uphold women’s human rights and fair work conditions. G20 countries can support migrant women workers through technical and information exchange, giving voice, and partnership with source countries to certify migration agents, provide social assistance and establish reintegration programmes. G20 can also support migrants in their own countries by providing standard employment contracts, securing access to health services and ensuring accessible redress mechanisms.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; CRP2; G Cross-cutting gender theme, EPTD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), I am honored to write the preface for the Southasiadisaster.net issue on “Agriculture, Gender and COVID-19: Impact and Recovery”. I started to engage with Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in 2019 on a research-for-development project that was squarely focused on reaching women farmers with climate resilience strategies. We felt at that time that this was one of the most under-studied topics that was essential to rural women’s future in South Asia and elsewhere. I had no idea that the journey would lead to eventually trying to address key questions on the twin crises of climate change and COVID-19.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; DCA; CRP2; G Cross-cutting gender theme, EPTD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), A recent IFPRI blog pointed to the perils of COVID-19 ravaging rural areas in second and third waves. That blog focused on the key rural risk factors of lack of access to water and health services as well as to the larger and elder populations in many rural areas.

Non-PR, IFPRI2; ILSSI; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; CRP5; Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small-Scale Irrigation, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), The evidence on the potential for agricultural interventions to contribute to improved nutrition has grown considerably over the past decade (Ruel et al., 2018). Numerous studies have explored both positive and negative effects of agriculture on nutrition and health (Ruel and Alderman, 2013; Herforth and Harris, 2014; Masset et al., 2012; Hoddinott, 2012). However, as an important and growing component of agriculture, smallscale irrigation has not yet been given the attention it deserves. The Innovation Laboratory for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) set out, among others, to fill the evidence gap on irrigation-nutrition linkages. Domènech (2015) describes several potential pathways through which irrigation can influence food security, nutrition, and health outcomes, including 1) a production pathway, 2) an income pathway, 3) a water supply pathway, and 4) a women’s empowerment pathway. To illustrate these pathways, we adapted the agriculturenutrition framework of Herforth and Harris (2014) to include irrigation (Figure 1), while also noting a fifth, negative pathway that links irrigation to water pollution and disease via the application of fertilizers and pesticides and via supporting vector-borne diseases, such as malaria or schistosomiasis, respectively (Passarelli et al., 2018).

PR, IFPRI1; CRP5; CRP2; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity (EIBC); EgyptSSP, EPTD; DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE); CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), The importance of a resilient agriculture sector in providing food security, livelihoods, and household income was highlighted in many countries by the recent pandemic, as was the capacity of the sector to cushion the negative impacts of the subsequent economic slowdown. This has been the case in Egypt, where agriculture has been resilient to the health crisis in comparison with the service and industry sectors (Breisinger et al. 2020). However, the sector’s resiliency is gradually being corroded by climate change, with lasting, harmful effects for agriculture and food systems.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP5; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; G Cross-cutting gender theme; REACH, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Les promoteurs des technologies d’irrigation dans les pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire ont souvent comme souci d’assurer aux hommes, aux femmes et aux différents groupes sociaux des chances égales dans le développement de l’irrigation et dans les avantages qu’elle procure, mais ne savent pas comment s’y prendre. Cet outil se veut être un guide pratique, articulé autour d’un ensemble structuré de questions permettant d’évaluer la dynamique de genre dans l’irrigation pratiquée dans des contextes spécifiques. Ces questions peuvent être utilisées pour collecter des informations avant, pendant ou après la mise en œuvre d’un projet, afin d’éclaircir différentes approches stratégiques du projet, et de prendre en compte la dimension de genre dans les stratégies de marketing et de diffusion, la conception des technologies, la façon d’atténuer les risques, la gestion adaptative, et/ou les activités de suivi et d’évaluation (S&E).

PR, IFPRI3; ISI; CRP5; DCA; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; Capacity Strengthening, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), The countries sharing the Niger River suffer from poor access to clean water and energy as well as food insecurity. The Niger River Basin Authority is tasked with advancing progress in all these areas while also reducing environmental degradation. To help the basin authority and its investors prioritize portfolio activities that support multiple securities of interest, we developed a mixed-methods approach that engaged basin countries in qualitatively ranking projects to meet energy, environmental and food security goals, complemented by quantitative modelling for the more complex ranking of water and environmental sustainability goals, necessitated by complex upstream–downstream linkages.

PR, IFPRI3; ISI; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP2; Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity (EIBC); EgyptSSP; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies, DSGD; EPTD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), Climate change negatively affects Egypt’s agriculture sector. This brief summarizes the results of a modeling exercise to examine a range of climate change adaptation approaches to counteract agricultural productivity declines. Rather than simulating a single technology, a ‘suite of technologies’ approach was used. For several food crops, none of the technology suites, individually or in combination, are shown to counteract the adverse impacts of climate change. For these crops, which include maize, oilseeds, pulses, and sugar, even stacking of technologies will not return productivity to pre-climate change levels. However, for fruits and vegetables, potatoes, rice, and wheat, crops less adversely affected by climate change, increased investments in climate changeresponsive crop traits, soil fertility improvement, water management, crop protection, or a combination of these technologies can counteract the adverse impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity. From a policy perspective, strong cooperation with the rest of the world on climate change adaptation will ultimately benefit Egyptian consumers. Doing so will reduce disruption of global food markets, which is of particular importance for countries, like Egypt, that are well integrated into those markets. In particular, Egypt’s economy and all Egyptian consumers benefit from the importation of lower-value, high water-consuming cereals under the hotter and drier conditions that can be expected in Egypt in the future due to climate change.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; CRP2; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; EgyptSSP; Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity (EIBC), DSGD; EPTD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), With climate change, Egypt’s already arid climate will face even higher temperatures and lower rainfall over key agricultural areas, requiring further urgent adaptation investments. Data from three general circulation models of climate were used to better understand the likely effects of climate changes on Egypt’s agricultural sector. The findings show largely adverse biophysical effects of climate change by 2050. Compared to a no-climate change scenario, yields for food crops are projected to decline by over 10 percent by 2050 due to higher temperatures and water stress as well as increased salinity of irrigation water. The highest biophysical yield declines are estimated for maize, sugar crops, and fruits and vegetables. Moreover, due to the country’s dependence on food imports, Egypt is not only affected by climate change impacts at home, but also by impacts in other food producing countries. Climate change-induced increases in food prices will reduce Egypt’s food import demand, while also dampening demand for Egypt’s exports. The implications for Egypt are tighter food markets with both reduced domestic production and increased difficulties to import food making it more difficult to augment domestic food supplies. This situation suggests the need for investments in climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector. Global cooperation to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is also warranted given the high cost to Egypt’s society from adverse climate change impacts worldwide.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; CRP5; UNFSS; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; DCA, EPTD, 13 pages, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Access to sufficient and clean freshwater is essential for all life. Water is also essential for food system functioning: as a key input into food production, but also in processing and preparation, and as a food itself. Water scarcity and pollution are growing, affecting poorer populations, particularly food producers. Malnutrition levels are also on the rise, and this is closely linked to water scarcity. Achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) and Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) are co-dependent. Solutions to jointly improve food systems and water security outcomes that the United Nations Food Security Summit (UNFSS) should consider include: 1) Strengthening efforts to retain water-based ecosystems and their functions; 2) Improving agricultural water management for better diets for all; 3) Reducing water and food losses beyond the farmgate; 4) Coordinating water with nutrition and health interventions; 5) Increasing the environmental sustainability of food systems; 6) Explicitly addressing social inequities in water-nutrition linkages; and 7) Improving data quality and monitoring for water-food system linkages, drawing on innovations in information and communications technology (ICT).

PR, IFPRI3; CRP5; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; ISI; Feed the Future Initiative, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Water security is a powerful concept that is still in its early days in the field of nutrition. Given the prevalence and severity of water issues and the many interconnections between water and nutrition, we argue that water security deserves attention commensurate with its importance to human nutrition and health. To this end, we first give a brief introduction to water insecurity and discuss its conceptualization in terms of availability, access, use, and stability. We then lay out the empirical grounding for its assessment. Parallels to the food-security literature are drawn throughout, both because the concepts are analogous and food security is familiar to the nutrition community. Specifically, we review the evolution of scales to measure water and food security and compare select characteristics. We then review the burgeoning evidence for the causes and consequences of water insecurity and conclude with 4 recommendations: 1) collect more water-insecurity data (i.e., on prevalence, causes, consequences, and intervention impacts); 2) collect better data on water insecurity (i.e., measure it concurrently with food security and other nutritional indicators, measure intrahousehold variation, and establish baseline indicators of both water and nutrition before interventions are implemented); 3) consider food and water issues jointly in policy and practice (e.g., establish linkages and possibilities for joint interventions, recognize the environmental footprint of nutritional guidelines, strengthen the nutrition sensitivity of water-management practices, and use experience-based scales for improving governance and regulation across food and water systems); and 4) make findings easily available so that they can be used by the media, community organizations, and other scientists for advocacy and in governance (e.g., tracking progress towards development goals and holding implementers accountable). As recognition of the importance of water security grows, we hope that s

PR, IFPRI4; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance, EPTD, Rethinking food system policies in terms of “eco-agro-food systems” can help to foster an integrated approach that will maintain and restore vital ecosystem services and reduce the likelihood of future shocks to our food and health systems. KEY MESSAGES - COVID-19 has brought home the necessity of better integration of natural resources and ecosystems with human food systems to increase the resilience, health, and sustainability of food systems. - Environmental degradation and climate change, in which food systems play a prominent role, are likely to increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters and may increase future pandemics, both causing shocks to food and health systems. - Common agricultural practices often degrade ecosystem services such as soil fertility and natural pest control, and can contribute to greater reliance on external inputs with potential for further damage. - Poor people are heavily dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods and are often most severely affected by environmental shocks and resource depletion. - The vicious cycle of unsustainable resource use and environmental degradation must be replaced with a virtuous cycle of healthier food and ecosystems using approaches that improve outcomes for humans and nature. - National laws and institutions, plus local formal and informal institutions and norms about respecting (or exploiting) nature, shape how people interact with the natural resource base and thus the outcomes for food and natural systems.

PR, IFPRI3; ISI; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; CRP5; IFPRIOA, EPTD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Sub‐Saharan Africa has long been beset with food insecurity and energy poverty. Expanding irrigated agriculture can help boost food production in the region, but this requires energy for accessing water, especially in groundwater‐fed irrigation. This paper compared economic performance of groundwater pumping for irrigation under two energy solutions: solar photovoltaic (PV) and diesel fuel. We estimated the life‐cycle costs of the power units of two pumping systems in a range of crop and irrigation method scenarios and mapped their relative cost‐effectiveness over cropland in Sub‐Saharan Africa. As a renewable and clean energy source, solar energy has attracted much attention and there is keen interest in investing in solar PV to support the development of irrigated agriculture. Results of this study provide insights into the prospects of promoting solar irrigation in Sub‐Saharan Africa.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Small-Scale Irrigation; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; Capacity Strengthening; CRP5, EPTD; DSGD, CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), Many smallholder farmers, especially women and other marginalized groups, face difficulty in accessing loans and other forms of credit. Such credit constraints are often considered a key barrier to adoption of mechanized agricultural technologies, such as small scale irrigation equipment. So how can this challenge be overcome? A new study indicates that the solution might be more complex than previously assumed.

PR, IFPRI4, EPTD, Although global annual water availability is largely stable, with small increases as a result of accelerated water cycles under climate change (Oki and Kanae 2006), the demand on water resources has grown substantially over the past 50 years, due to population growth, agricultural and economic growth, and urbanization (WWAP 2016; Bates et al. 2008). This has led to increasing competition across water-using sectors and contributed to severe degradation of water and related ecosystems and biodiversity loss in parts of the globe and, in some cases, outmigration of humans. Higher temperatures, less certain precipitation patterns, as well as shorter, more concentrated rains together with prolonged dry seasons are putting further pressure on available water supplies (Bates et al. 2008; Fishman, Jain, and Kishore 2013; WWAP 2016). All of these developments have put access by farmers to water for food production at risk.