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Winrock International

Water and Food Security

COMPLEX PROBLEM: Winrock International addresses this complex problem at multiple levels with an integrated set of services and tools that improve the management of water, natural resources, and agricultural production and delivery.

INTEGRATED SOLUTION: Winrock International addresses this complex problem at multiple levels with an integrated set of services and tools that improve the management of water, natural resources, and agricultural production and delivery.

Improving governance, planning and priority setting
Food and water security depend on factors ranging from adequate production and affordability to reliable storage and processing facilities. Targeted investments and interventions are necessary to ensure robust food production, equitable management of shared resources and reduced weather-related risks. Winrock International designs tools that collect, analyze and disseminate data, informing smart decisions about everything from land and water use to the financing of storage and distribution infrastructure.

Equitable and sustainable resource allocation and land use require a strong legal and policyframework. Winrock works with policymakers to identify what data is needed to develop policies and rules to manage competing demands for water and land use. We then partner with local research institutions to gather, analyze and share information that informs smart policymaking.

Making agricultural production more resilient
Winrock’s work is concentrated at the farm and community levels.
Our programs:

Build local capacity to transparently and equitably manage community assets and resources to support diversified agricultural production systems, pinpoint and develop new sources of income, and promote women’s empowerment.

Strengthening households
At the household level, the burden for collecting fuel and water falls disproportionately on women. Winrock provides energy-efficient, low-cost technology solutions – including clean cook stoves and solar water pumps – that help women provide for their households. With better information and more time, women can better address food insecurity by growing household gardens and running small livestock husbandry operations. Diversified sources of nutrition and income are key to improving food security.

 

 

In Cambodia, Winrock developed the Watershed Ecosystem Services Tool (WESTool). By working with satellite data to analyze changes in water availability, soil sediment and nutrient loss, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, the tool provides insights to help determine the best policies and practices for agriculture and land management. The WESTool can help guide policies and management practices to improve land and water use for 80 percent of Cambodia, an area with a total population of 8.7 million people.

In Tanzania, our integrated approach has increased water access for nearly 200,000 people, allowing households sufficient water not only to meet domestic needs, but also to plant home gardens and raise chickens and goats. The program has trained 95 private sector firms in the provision of water-related equipment and services, including well drilling, pump technologies and construction, and water filtering.

In Nepal, Winrock provided training to 54,000 small producers (81 percent women) to produce off-season vegetables and fruit, as well as to raise goats, fish and poultry. Beneficiaries more than doubled their annual income, with an average increase of $412 USD per year. Perhaps more importantly, they improved their nutrition; 96 percent of participants increased their protein consumption, and 99 percent increased their vegetable consumption.

Winrock’s integrated solutions are rooted in the following principles:

Winrock’s integrated solutions incorporate the following tools and processes: