Strategic review of climate change and water insecurity in the Indo-Pacific, with Australian Water Partnership
The Asia-Pacific region is predicted to have a population of 5.2 billion by 2050 and hosting 22 megacities by 2030. Under climate change and population growth, up to 3.4 billion people could be living in water-stressed areas of Asia by 2050, according to the Asian Development Bank 2016. Despite some progress, 554 million people, close to the entire population of North America, do not have access to safe drinking water. As a partner of Australian Water Partnership (AWP), IFSD is assisting AWP to assess climate change’s impact on water security, and then suggest strategies for minimising climate change induced water insecurity in the region.
Building partnership for urban water resilience in South Asia
IFSD has singed a Memorandum of Understanding with Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) to work together on building urban water resilience in Nepal. IFSD is providing technical assistance through global best practices review, designing and implementing locally engaged research, and creating effective science-policy interface. The partnership with SIAS has been an important learning ground for IFSD, and several of the lessons and outcomes from SIAS projects have provided an important basis for IFSD to offer expert assistance to think tanks, policy makers, international programs, and government agencies across Asia and the Pacific.
Our Theory of Change
IFSD’s theory of change is straightforward: It is about building people’s skills (human capital) and institutional capacity (social capital) to effectively and sustainably mange environmental resources (natural capital). These results cannot be predetermined – A process of learning and innovation needs to be in place to catalyse and upscale transformational change.
Featured update: Australia's New Climate Change Action Strategy for international development
In November 2019, Australian government agency Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) launched a new Climate Change Action Strategy 2020-2015. This strategy seeks to respond to climate change concerns across DFAT international assistance programs. It aims to support support partner countries to adapt to climate change, promote low-emission development, and support innovative solutions.
Informed by this theory of change, we offer a range of services encompassing applied and strategic research, education and learning, organisational change, policy development, social entrepreneurship, and strategic planning.
UPDATES
Online Expert Panel discussed how urban water poverty is escalating the risks of COVID-19 in South Asia
Since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s medical community, led by the World Health Organisation, has recommended everyone to wash hands with soap for 20 seconds multiple times a day. This is perhaps the most tenable instrument to fight the risk. But how can South Asia’s urban poor do this if they have only […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
Presentation to Development Studies Association of Australia Conference
Dr Prativa Sapkota delivered a presentation on “Non-state research and the co-production of environmental policy knowledge: Lessons from the three decades of experience in Nepal’s forest, climate change, and land sectors”. The conference took place at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia on 5-7 February 2019. The paper was co-authored with Dr Hemant Ojha.
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
Dr Jagadish Timsina visited Bangladesh to strengthen collaboration with research organisations and Sylhet Agricultural University
Bangladesh is facing a climate crisis, and this is directly impacting its agricultural areas, food production and livelihood security. Research and academic institutes in the country are focussing their work to develop flood-tolerant and climate adaptive technologies for deep water and flood-prone areas across the country. Australian scientists have been collaborating with Bangladeshi counterparts for […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
IFSD and SIAS win a grant to advance climate adaptive water management in Nepal
Drawing on the lessons from over five years of research and local engagement on the interrelation of water, urbanization and climate change in three rapidly urbanizing cities experiencing water stress, this project seeks to contribute towards climate adaptive and inclusive water governance through catalysing evidence informed decision making processes at local level and informing provincial and […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
IFSD Director Dr Ojha Contributes to Himalayan Assessment
In a study coordinated by International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), IFSD Director of Research for International Development acted as the coordinating lead author of chapter on Governance. The chapter concludes that the governance of environmental resources holds the key to the future of sustainable development in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH). Four specific […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
IFSD Gender Expert delivering seminar on how disaster management can be made more gender responsive
IFSD Gender specialist delivered a series of seminars and lectures to international participants who attended a training on disaster management, organised by University of Queensland and Scope Global with funding from Australian government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
Can Bangladesh produce enough cereals to meet future demand?
Dr Jagadish Timsina and his colleagues have recently published a paper in a journal called Agricultural Systems. The paper provides an important scientific assessment of food security situation in Bangladesh. It shows that Bangladesh is likely to face food insecurity in time to come.
Does labor migration help reduce poverty?
Dr Ramesh Sunam’s research published recently by Journal of Agrarian Change reveals that that many poor people have improved livelihoods through diverse portfolio of agricultural activities and migration. However, the poorer families have not benefitted as expected.
How is community engagement changing in natural resources governance?
In paper recently published in World Development, Dr Hemant Ojha and colleagues draw on real world cases from Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea to make an important conclusion that local communities are no longer local: they are getting ‘delocalised’, with important implications in natural resource governance.
EVENTS
IFSD Team Participated in Australian Water Partnership Workshop
IFSD team participated in Australian Water Partnership (AWO) Workshop between 3-5 February 2020 in Sydney, Australia. The AWP annual workshop was attended by 71 partner organisations from Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, India, Nepal, Italy. Staff of AWP, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), DFAT Canberra and DFAT Posts from Bangkok […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
Gender justice in COVID-19 response
The news of a partner throwing out his wife out of main window when she had fever in the mid-night is perhaps a pick of gender based violence we can see happening inside families in times of COVID-19 crisis. In this Webinar, Dr Basundhara Bhattarai surveys the contours of escalated forms of violence and injustice […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
From Research to Policy Impact: Actionable Areas for Transformation
For researchers committed to creating positive impact on the society, sharing research insights with a global ‘research-for-development’ organisation is a special moment. IFSD Director Dr Ojha was invited by Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to share experience of linking research with policy in natural resources management. As well as practical insights, he used […]
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
Designing Community Participation Strategies for Sustainability
Dr Hemant Ojha will discuss current challenges in ensuring community participation in sustainability innovation, drawing on 20 years work.
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
Beyond Participatory Research: How Can We Do Locally Engaged Research?
For more than 50 years now, we have been doing Participatory Research to solve community problems and sustainability challenges. We have also improved this strategy of engagement and learning continually over time.
Read more Welcome to Responsive Retina Theme
Chennai takes new strides towards water security https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/chennai-takes-new-strides-towards-water-security/article30402534.ece
@stukhan Interesting case study from Braidwood about removing fire related pollutants from water via reeds & leaky weirs https://www.theland.com.au/story/6554043/weirs-flow-helps-firefighters/
An excellent story by New Work Times's science and health reporter Donald McNeil and Poras Chaudhary, on the deteriorating health of the river Ganges in India. https://nyti.ms/2PQAtdO
Seminar on writing policy briefs to maximise research impact. https://twitter.com/Neupanekaustuv/status/1158928701179879425
LATEST RESOURCES
Writing A Policy Brief to Maximise Impact
A powerpoint presentation offering important tips and lessons on how research results can be packaged into a high impact policy brief.
From Research to Policy Impact: Exploring Actionable Areas for Transformation
International agriculture and development research has played a significant role in reducing poverty and promoting sustainable practices of natural resources management in the developing world. However, as independent research evidence highlights, the policy uptake of research in developing countries, regardless of whether the research is nationally driven or internationally supported, is dismally low. This is partly because policy actors and researchers often come from very different political, institutional and epistemological positions, which makes it difficult for the two groups of actors to interact meaningfully and make full use of the research outputs in policy improvement. There is also a limit of what a research work can do in the highly politicised process of policy making. More recently, the context of policy making, and the way policies shape practices, are also rapidly changing, with profound implications on ‘research to policy’ strategies. This presentation identifies five areas that are crucial to catalyze successful research-policy interface in international development. It also shows how research into ‘research-policy interface’ could enhance research systems which have a policy impact goal.