Executive Summary
This study was carried out using funds received from the Investment Center of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Office of Disaster Assistance of the United States Agency for International Development. In the former case it is intended to support the preparation of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Agricultural Water Management Project to be supported by the African Development Bank, and in the latter case it is intended to provide guidance for improving the effectiveness of current programs on micro-agricultural water management (micro-AWM) technologies implemented largely through NGOs.
The methodology involved several activities: we designed a terms of reference and inventory format for obtaining country-level data through partners in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The partners interviewed key informants, reviewed local literature, and drew on their own experiences. We commissioned an in-depth impact assessment of treadle pumps in Malawi. We commissioned a study to carry out a more global literature review through the internet and relate experiences elsewhere to SADC; and we carried out literature reviews and some field visits. Therefore, except for the Malawi treadle pump study, this is an extensive review, not an in-depth field work based assessment.
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Background and Justification
The Southern African region has in recent years suffered from persistent food shortages and general decline in standard of living. This has been attributed to recurrences of drought, floods, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and general decline in performance of national economies. In 2002 alone, an estimated 13 million people in Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Malawi and Mozambique received food aid to avert starvation.
Most governments and developmental partners have come to an agreement that this situation will remain for longer than anticipated and the solution is not in food aid but long term measures to address the root causes.
Several studies have recently been undertaken to understand experiences and effectiveness of Micro Agricultural Water Management Technologies (AWMT) in contributing to the reduction of vulnerability to food insecurity. The Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Southern Africa Regional Office of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID/OFDA/SARO), commissioned the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to undertake the study: Agricultural Water Management Technologies for Small Scale Farmers in Southern Africa: An Inventory and Assessment of Experiences, Good Practices and Costs.
FAO TCEO Emergency and Rehabilitation programme in southern Africa have undertaken a separate assessment of the effectiveness of emergency small-scale irrigation interventions, with case studies from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The proposed meeting will present the preliminary results from these two studies with the objective of stimulating debate and learning with key stakeholders at the regional level.
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