Holistic Bench Marking

The World Bank has launched the International Holistic Benchmarking initiative under the Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership Program. Benchmarking is a systematic and continuing process for achieving improvements in a given irrigation and drainage project through comparison of its performance against its peers and its own objectives and targets. The objective of the International Holistic Benchmarking Initiative is to promote worldwide adoption of benchmarking as means to improve the level of irrigation service, increase transparency and accountability of irrigation institutions, and promote increased role of water users in irrigation management.

A Workshop on Holistic Benchmarking in the Irrigation and Drainage Sector: The Way Forward was held on May 9, 2002 at the World Bank Head Quarters. It was attended by about sixty participants representing 5 international institutions and 12 countries. Presentations and discussions were held under four technical sessions, which included Technical Session I - Holistic Benchmarking; Technical Session II - Case Studies; Technical Session III - Progress Reports and Technical Session IV - The Way Forward.

There was a partnership spirit between all who participated in the workshop and a consensus was reached to move forward with broader and more comprehensive (holistic) benchmarking of irrigation and drainage schemes. The International Program for Technology and Research in Irrigation and Drainage (IPTRID) and the participants of the Workshop requested the World Bank coordinate the benchmarking initiative. It was decided that a benchmarking partners workshop will be held once a year. The proceedings of the workshop will be published shortly by the World Bank.

For more information on the workshop contact pkhumbah@worldbank.org or fgonzalez@worldbank.org.

Integrated Water Resources Management

A one week training program was organized by the World Bank Institute in July, 2002 on Integrated Water Resources Management. IWRM is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. IWRM becomes a vital process in water resources management in the context of increasing populations and competition for water. IWRM gives a mechanism to manage the water resources prudently. The Dublin Principles which emphasizes that water is a finite resource, water management should be participative, women play a central role, and water is an economic good provide the basis for good water resource management. The training course was well received by 45 participants who represented 14 countries and 6 institutions. The training course covered topics such as designing policies for integrated water resources management, economic dimensions of water, transboundary waters, irrigated agriculture, ground water and aquifer management along with a field visit to the Potomac River. The World Bank Institute intends to develop further detailed modules for line agencies in addition to this broad appreciation course on integrated water resources management.

International E-Conference on Agricultural Water Use in the 21st Century The coming World Food Day (16 October 2002) will be celebrating the important role of water for a healthy and sufficient food production for the world's growing population, under the devise "Water: Source of Food Security". For the Land and Water Development Division of FAO, this will be the start of a series of events to bring the issues related to the sustainable use, development, and management of water resources to the forefront of the political debate during the year 2003.

As a first step from September to November 2002, FAO will organize an e-mail conference on the theme. This conference is open to all interested parties, stakeholders, and experts dealing with water resource development and management for agriculture. Consortium members are particularly encouraged to participate, as the topics which will be discussed are closely related to those concerning the Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment.

If you wish to participate, send an e-mail message to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org leaving the subject blank and entering in the first line of the message the command: subscribe WSFS-L