The document proposes a regional workshop to discuss mainstreaming land governance into integrated water resource management (IWRM) in order to address the global food security challenge. It notes that past increases in food production relied on intensification and increased water usage, but that land and water resources are now degrading. Taking a one-sided approach to either land or water governance will exacerbate these issues and food insecurity. The workshop would provide a space for organizations to share experiences of coordinated vs uncoordinated land and water governance and their impacts on food security and livelihoods, in order to inform a background paper on this issue. It would be hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa later in the year.

1. Mainstreaming Land Governance in IWRM
in Response to the Food Security Challenge
perspective paper – workshop proposal
Dr Jan Cherlet, ILC Secretariat

2. …working together to promote
secure and equitable access to
and control over land for poor
women and men through
advocacy, dialogue, knowledge
sharing and capacity building

3. Perspective paper
“Mainstreaming Land Governance in IWRM
in Response to the Food Security Challenge”
Regional workshop
to get views from GWP partners and ILC members

4. Perspective paper
“Mainstreaming Land Governance in IWRM
in Response to the Food Security Challenge”
Regional workshop
to get views from GWP partners and ILC members

5. Perspective paper – Context
• Past: food production 1960-2014 increased 250%
• mostly intensification, incl. doubling of agricultural water use
• minor expansion of agricultural land
• Today: degrading state of land and water resources
• freshwater withdrawal unsustainable in many regions
• agricultural land degrading and being converted
• Future: food security challenge, complicated by
• the use of arable land for non-food
• climate change, possible mass losses of harvest

6. Perspective paper – Context
• Past: food production 1960-2014 increased 250%
• mostly intensification, incl. doubling of agricultural water use
• minor expansion of agricultural land
• Today: degrading state of land and water resources
• freshwater withdrawal unsustainable in many regions
• agricultural land degrading and being converted
• Future: food security challenge, complicated by
• the use of arable land for non-food
• climate change, possible mass losses of harvest
0 one-sided approach to either water or land is a recipe for
increasing degradation, higher food insecurity

7. Perspective paper – Changing course
Coordination of water & land governance for food security
Coordination = “some form of interrelation in the management
or governance of land and water”
Could be
• Limited concerted governance, with information flows
• Interrelated governance, concerted planning
• L&W governed as part of 1 system

8. Perspective paper – Some examples
• Secure land rights to secure access to water
• Women’s land rights to ensure equitable access to water for
productive use
• Secure land rights to increase investment & water-use efficiency
• Accounting for water in land allocation decisions
• Coordinated investment in L&W to reduce land degradation
• Coherence between land use plans and IWRM plans
• Mainstreaming land in IRBM

9. Perspective paper – Conclusion
• Not a new paradigm
• True spirit of IWRM contributes to finding a way out of the
looming food security crisis
• Due consideration to land issues (land governance) in IWRM
would help strengthen the relevance of IWRM
in a world in search for alternative paradigms

10. Regional workshop
Perspective paper
Regional workshop
Background paper

11. Regional workshop – Objectives
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
Share positive/negative experiences of coordinated land and
water governance, and the impacts of this (un)coordinated land
and water governance on people’s food security and livelihoods
0 input to background paper
OVERALL OBJECTIVE
Create a space for ILC members, GWP partners, and other
interested organisations to share perspectives on land and water
dimensions of the current global food security challenge

12. Regional workshop – Practicalities
Participants
GWP partners, CWPs, RWPs, ILC members, etc.
Where
Interest from IWMI-Africa to host in Johannesburg (TBC)
When
Before the end of this year, probably November (TBC)
Sessions (tentatively)
Examples of uncoordinated LW governance, impacts
Barriers to coordinated LW governance
Examples of coordinated LW governance, land in IWRM
Lessons
j.cherlet@landcoalition.org