Report on Ganges BDC Reflection Workshop

Douthwaite, B. and Bayot, R. 2012. Ganges Reflection Workshop.1-2 April 2012. CPWF. Colombo, Sri Lanka

Phase II of the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food (CPWF) is a multi-institutional and inter-disciplinary research for development initiative focused on increasing the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production.Phase II in the Ganges Basin began in 2011 and is scheduled to end in 2014.

With the aim of improving the livelihoods of Ganges coastal zone farmers in Bangladesh and West Bengal India, the five projects comprising the Challenge are focusing on areas where there is already some level of water control, especially within the polders of Bangladesh but also extending to areas outside polders in India.The goal of the Challenge is to reduce poverty and improve livelihood resilience.

The first most important function of the Reflection Workshop is that it allows Ganges BDC project teams to share their individual project activities, findings, issues, opportunities and visions.This enables the BDC team as a whole to discuss, collectively, any adjustments that need to be made to better address the goal of the BDC, and to identify early results that should be built on, particularly for out and upscaling.