News
The Future of Forests: An Optimist’s View
September 17, 2018
“I believe that there’s hope, there’s great hope for us to change the course of the future of the planet,” said Winrock President and CEO Rodney Ferguson at the Redlands Forum in Redlands, California. “And the way we can do that is through the application of technology.” The Redlands Forum, sponsored by the mapping technology […]
Sustainable Development and Science: Bridging the Gap with Tools
September 12, 2018
While sipping your tea this morning, chances are you weren’t thinking about the journey it made to reach your cup. A world away, on a plantation in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, those tea leaves grew, were handpicked by farm workers and hauled off in diesel trucks to processors who fermented and dried them. The […]
Towards More Resilient Solutions
August 27, 2018
On August 26, water professionals turned their attention to Stockholm, Sweden. At World Water Week, the world’s premier conference on water issues, attendees chose from hundreds of panels, presentations and plenaries, and enjoy the opportunity to network with other experts, decision-makers and innovators. Sharing experience and information with fellow practitioners, working toward solutions to the most critical water-related challenges — what more could a water wonk ask for? […]
‘The River Belongs to the People’
August 21, 2018
Photos by Bobby Neptune Gordon Mumbo grew up in the small village of Kamuga, in Kenya’s Kisumu County. Year after year, he watched as frequent floods from one of Kenya’s major rivers, the Nyando, disturbed the peaceful flow of village life. “In school we were reading about how the Dutch were able to control floods […]
Seeing the Forests for the Water
August 14, 2018
The world is experiencing both unprecedented forest loss and increasingly severe floods and drought events. These issues are often approached independently, despite the critical influence forest and water have on each other and in providing ecosystem services. This seminar will discuss innovative research demonstrating these interrelationships and how these findings can be used for policy […]
Local Investment, Lasting Impact
August 14, 2018
In Cambodia’s Stung Chinit watershed, 40 leaders from civil society and the private sector have pledged to actively participate in the Sustainable Water Partnership’s Water Security Improvement (WSI) process. As part of the WSI process’s initial assessment phase, SWP identified local water user groups and organizations in the Stung Chinit watershed. The project engaged representatives from local farmer […]
Examining Climate Information Services from Production to Uptake
July 31, 2018
By Abby Love, Fatema Rajabali and Robert O’Sullivan In June, the fifth international climate change adaptation conference, Adaptation Futures, was held in Africa, a first for the conference series. Around 1,200 people attended Adaptation Futures in Cape Town with a program that reflected the growing emphasis on climate information services (CIS) in the adaptation community. […]
SWP at World Water Week
July 27, 2018
The USAID-funded Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP) will participate in a sofa session at World Water Week (August 26-31) in Stockholm, Sweden. This global annual conference, organized by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), acts as a focal point for water experts, decision-makers, businesses and thought leaders concerned with water issues. This year’s theme is “Water, Ecosystems and […]
Providing Low-Income Customers with Life-Improving Products
July 26, 2018
By Katie Gross and Evgenia Sokolova When Lilian first saw the modern charcoal stove for sale through a local retailer in her town of Kiserian, Kenya, she admired the product. But with only 1,000 shillings (USD $10) in her pocket, she couldn’t afford to pay for the $40 stove outright. School fees were a struggle […]
Winrock Forward
July 17, 2018
Winrock President and CEO Rodney Ferguson outlines his vision for creating maximum impact. Interview by Chris Warren As the President and CEO of a development organization with projects in the U.S. and around the world, Rodney Ferguson often carves out reading time while on airplanes. On a recent trip from his home base in Washington, […]