Water is a fundamental resource for agricultural production, with it accounting for 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Additionally, 80% of farmland is rainfed. This high dependency on rain, and water in general, increases the vulnerability of smallholder farmers. Currently, 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high water shortages or scarcity, of whom 1.2 billion people – roughly one-sixth of the world’s population – live in severely water-constrained agricultural areas.

In order to help those affected by water scarcity, we need to inform, sensitize, and form new partnerships and methods of scaling innovations in the agricultural sector. Thus, WE4F will be present at the World Water Week 2022 as:

• Co-Convenor of the SIWI Seminar Sessions on “Achieving 2030 food/nutrition targets through water security”
  1. SIWI Seminar 1/3: The status and trends of global food and water systems: SDG 2,3 and 6 | Online Seminar (worldwaterweek.org)
  2. SIWI Seminar 2/3: Achieving water-food security through cross-sectoral and private sector partnerships | On-site Seminar (worldwaterweek.org)
  3. SIWI Seminar 3/3: Water-food-nutrition security messages for the UN Water Summit 2023 | On-site Seminar (worldwaterweek.org)
• Host of an online session on Scaling water-energy-food innovations through end-user financing for climate adaptation

Scaling water-energy-food innovations through end-user financing for climate adaptation

This session will introduce end-user financing and define the connection between efficient water usage, climate change adaptation, and agricultural resilience. Panelists and session attendees will discuss end-user financing models like pay-as-you-go, crowdfunding, pay-by-produce, rent-to-own, and value chain financing, and how they increase smallholder farmers’ access to environmentally-friendly, water-energy-food solutions.

Panelists include:

SIWI Seminar: Achieving 2030 food/nutrition targets through water security

The seminar will discuss innovations and solutions to achieve multiple SDG targets on hunger and nutrition (SDG2) and good health (SDG3), whilst improving water security (SDG6). Especially, Session 2 will explore the critical role of the private sector as well as cross-sectoral public-private partnerships in designing, developing, and democratizing access to innovations for water-secure food systems for various actors including smallholder farmers. The session will focus on the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as multinationals, to develop water-secure food systems, with specific reference to small and medium-size farming. Speakers will share experiences of innovations in technologies and non-tech systems for farmers and other actors and discuss the policy perspective to achieve synergies for national/regional development agendas. Session participants will be actively involved in the discussion with panelists. More information on all three sessions of this Seminar below: