1^st Regional Coordination Meeting 

18-19 October 2004

International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA),

Aleppo, Syria

Executive summary of the outcomes of the meeting:

1. Progress during the 1^st year of the project was presented and discussed. Excellent progress was made in the Badia benchmark but slower progress achieved in the satellite sites in Saudi Arabia and Libya. Problems were discussed and action to overcome the limitations was also agreed. Excellent progress was made in the rainfed benchmark in Morocco. Satisfactory progress was made in the satellite sites in Tunisia and Syria. Work plans were revised in Algeria. Slower progress was achieved in Egypt due to major administrative changes in the ministry of agriculture and ARC. New team was formed, revised work plans developed and sites for research was selected.

2. Work plans for the 2^nd year was discussed (document attached) for all benchmarks and satellites. Modifications agreed and plans approved by the partners.

3. Budgets for 2^nd year was discussed and approved by the partners. Since that the activities of the 1^st year the project used only fund from AFESD, it was agreed to propose to stretch the project duration and the financial plan one year to reflect the actual financial schedule of the two donors (Annex 3). This implies that in the first year is financed by AFESD only, the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th years will be financed by the two donors and 5^th year will be will only be funded by IFAD. It was suggested that efforts to secure additional fund from other donors. Proposal submitted to IDRC to be followed up.

4. The Project structure was presented (attached work plans Fig 1), discussed and approved.

5. Regional activities were discussed.  Three major regional activities will be conducted on i. Resource valuation in Morocco, ii. Participatory approach in Egypt and iii. Database and website development at ICARDA HQ.

6. Linkages with other projects and organizations were discussed. Linkages with IDRC project on demand management (WaDimena) were established. 

7. Next regional coordination meeting will be held in the 3^rd week of September 2005 in Morocco. The 2006 and 2007 regional meetings will be held in Jordan and Egypt respectively. It was suggested that the project Steering Committee meeting be held following the regional meeting next year.

8. The project coordinators and ICARDA representative request the approval of AFESD and IFAD of the work plans budgets and financial plan attached. Also suggested that the Steering Committee meeting be held immediately after the next regional meeting in 2005. 

Following is a summary of the minutes of the meeting

Session 1:

There were 3 presentations, Badia Benchmark-Jordan and Satellite Sites Libya, Saudi Arabia, scheduled for this session, which went through the process as per program. There was a discussion on these presentations at the end, which lasted for nearly 20 minutes. The salient points of this discussion are;

1. Proposed workplans of Satellite sites are intensive, and there is a budget limitation to realize the proposed activities. Satellite sites should review their workplans through the budget.

2. More cooperation between Satellite Sites and Benchmark Sites has found necessary and will be organised by Coordinators of the Technical Committees of each Benchmark Sites.

3. Communication problem between the Satellite Sites and ICARDA has mentioned.

4. Badia Benchmark workplan for 2005 is coming soon. Major activities in the workplan will focus on intervention.

Session 2

There were 3 presentations, Rainfed Benchmark - Morocco and Satellite Sites Algeria, Syria and Tunisia, scheduled for this session, which went through the process as per program. There was a discussion on these presentations at the end of 3^rd presentation, which lasted for nearly 20 minutes. The salient points of this discussion are;

1. The complementarities and linkage between the benchmark site and the satellite site are not clear. A well defined approach is needed to define these complementarities and linkage. Though some see that this is an organizational problem, others see that it is also technical as well. There was a suggestion to devote a 2 hours session to discuss this issue and reach to an agreement on it.

2. Since the biophysical activities in the satellite sites are limited, there was a suggestion that the satellite site focuses only on Policy and institutional issues. Others disagree with this because some local trials and research may be needed in the satellite site in order to come up with sound recommendations for the decision makers. An example for this is the important research work in Tunisia satellite site on crop water requirement pre-anthesis and pos-anthesis. They believe this is important information for optimal SI irrigation scheduling and management under scarce water conditions. Nevertheless, this complementary research should not be major because there is no budget for it and we do not want the satellite to operate as such.

3. Others see that Satellite site can focus on desk work and studies such as using available data from locally published works (governmental reports, Universities thesis, etc ...) to evaluate the WUE under different agro-climatic, technical, and socioeconomic conditions. There is a wealth of data on water and agricultural production in each country. Why not compiling these data and develop a report on water use and management in the satellite sites.

4. We should not overlook the differences between sites because of social setting, policy, land tenure, and economics. Something that works and highly demanded in one site may not work in another site due to these differences. Furthermore, we need to work more closely with farmers to evaluate their efficiency in using water and to come up with options and alternatives for improvement.

5. The attendants agree that most of the results they are citing and documenting in the literature are from basic (controlled) research and that they need to work with farmers and apply these results to their fields. However, we do not want to duplicate the biophysical research activities of the benchmark site at the satellite site. We need to know sources of inefficiencies in water use and why farmers over-irrigate? Probably because of policy problems or using improper method of irrigation, or may be because of marketing problems.

Session 3

There were 3 presentations, Irrigation Benchmark-Egypt and Satellite Sites-Iraq and Sudan, scheduled for this session, which went through the process as per program. There was a discussion on these presentations at the end of 3^rd presentation, which lasted for nearly 20 minutes. The salient points of this discussion are;

1. Egypt BM site work team has recently been reformulated. The team is ready to initiate work but they need to look through the budget situation. They have made further progress on the work plan which provides greater details of work related activities. Once workplan is approved and budget is allocated, teams will initiate work immediately starting with selection of canals.

2.  Iraqi colleague declared that they will need some time to organize activities of the project. The present situation is not available in Iraq.

3. Colleague from Sudan declared that, sites will be selected based on farmers participations. They also expect Egypt site provide more information about the characteristics of their selected sites, so that they can select a similar site in Sudan for facilitating technology transfer.

4. A greater coordination and linkages between the Benchmark Sites and Satellite Sites found necessary by participants.

Session 4

There were 1 presentation (WaDImena), and proposal, discussion and approval of the regional activities in this session.

The salient points of this session are;

1. Integration within each agro-ecosystem (i.e., irrigated, rainfed, badia systems) is important, and should take place through activities. The countries should learn from each others experiences. Benchmark coordinators should take the responsibility of organizing activities together with the Satellite countries at the agro-ecosystem level. The organizational chart shows the structure of the project not the activities, thus, it does not show integration at the agro-ecosystem level.

2. Regional activities are funded by the regional budget. Activities at the agro-ecosystem level should be funded by the countries budgets.

3. A Regional Technical Committee meeting should be constitutionalized, it should be held every year. Regional activities and linkages are an important part of the structure of the project.

4. The Regional Meeting could also be used to hold additional meetings at the agro-ecosystem level.

5. Communication within the project is important, but we should also formulate mechanisms for communication with organizations, institutions, and other stakeholders outside the project.

6. Researchers from the Benchmark and Satellite projects could be added to the WADIMENA Network. The Benchmark Sites could serve as example for field visits and regional exchanges. Satellite sites could be invited to participate in the competitive call for proposals. Proposal should focus on impact and practical solutions.

Regional activities for 2005

1. Date and location of the Regional Committee Meeting and Steering Committee Meeting were also identified during the meeting:

2005 Morocco, 3^rd week of September.

2006 Jordan

2007 Egypt

2. Training activities should enforce the identity of the project and help the country teams to use similar approaches, tools, and methods.

3. The following activities were identified:

1. Natural Resource Valuation and Impact Assessment Workshop (scheduled for January or February 2005, Morocco)

2. Database and website development and Reporting

1.      Well-structured, uniform reporting shows the sophisticated, integrated nature of the project and is important for the dissemination of results and for attracting more financial support.

2.      Templates are being developed for progress and technical reports. A detailed content of this workshop will be prepared and will be held at ICARDA in April or May 2005.

3.      Two persons of each Benchmark team will be invited to be trained on all aspects, including up-dating, of the Project Website. The training will be organized by ICARDA (Dr Zaid Abdul-Hadi), during 1-2 days at ICARDA.

3. Participatory Research Approaches

This workshop will provide hands-on experience with Participatory Research Approaches for working with communities. Participants will practice and evaluate their newly-learned skills by conducting a participatory rural appraisal in selected Benchmark site communities in Egypt. Proposed date: January 2005.

Session 5

There were 2 presentations as database development (sharing and copyrights) and web site development, for this session, which went through the process as per program. There was a discussion on these presentations at the end of 2^nd presentation, which lasted for nearly 60 minutes. The salient points of this discussion are;

1. Scientists should communicate between themselves on how to prepare joint publications arising from the database

2. People can freely use public domain data and are encouraged to publish

3. For unpublished data the originating project members have to agree

Session 6: Conclusions

Summary of the meeting was as fallow;

1. Revised work plans of the NARS will be sent to donors for their approval.

2. Organisation structure of the project discussed and approved by participants

3. Next Regional Coordination Meeting will be held at the 3^rd week of September 2005 in Morocco

4. Project will extend a 5^th year, as IFAD support was available one year after AFESD support. In 1^st year the project used only AFESD support where the 4^th year of IFAD support will actually be the 5^th year of the project. It is suggested that additional finance be sought by ICARDA and partners.

5. Budget for 2005 was discussed and approved by the parties. Please see attached budget table

6. Potential collaboration with WaDImena project was discussed. Strengthening the collaboration, Satellite sites are encouraged to come up with proposals.

 Program of the regional coordination meeting of the Water Benchmarks of CWANA

 Regional Coordination Meeting Participants