To strengthen its strategy, cooperation, and results management, the CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas (AMD) organized its Annual Meeting and Pause, Reflect, and Plan Workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 27 to 29 February 2024.
The workshop served as a key component of the AMD Initiative, playing a crucial role in enhancing its strategy, collaboration, and performance tracking in focus countries. The objective of this workshop is to facilitate a platform for local partners and CGIAR researchers to reflect on the current status and accomplishments of the Initiative in its priority countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
The workshop had collaborative sessions, allowing participants to collectively develop action plans for the remaining duration of the AMD Initiative’s implementation for the first cycle of implementation and design its next phase, with the focus on securing sustainable and locally-driven results. It was attended by officials and representatives of the various government ministries and agencies, CGIAR centers, academia, international organizations, private sector, local governments, and other relevant stakeholder groups. H.E. Dr. Md. Abdus Shahid MP, Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh served as the event’s Chief Guest.
Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander, lead of CGIAR’s Initiative on AMD and Senior Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), shared that the AMD Initiative aims “to create resilient, inclusive, and productive deltas, which maintain socio-ecological integrity, adapt to climatic and other stressors, and support human prosperity and wellbeing, by removing systemic barriers to the scaling of transformative technologies and practices at community, national, and regional levels.”
Dr. Sander stressed that through the AMD Initiative, we are empowering not only the research partners but most importantly the smallholders and vulnerable sectors that depend their livelihoods on the deltas, by building learning alliances, promoting nutrition-sensitive interventions, developing digital climate advisory and bundled services (DCAS+), designing socially-inclusive policies, and supporting evidence-based delta development planning.
“For 2023, we have significant achievements, the CGIAR Initiative on AMD, not only produced almost 70 new knowledge products, 19 policy changes in the AMD initiative focus countries, and 56 innovations which are under development but also conducted multiple capacity building activities and innovations which are in use in these countries,” Dr. Sander proudly shared.
During the inaugural session, H.E. Dr. Md. Abdus Shahid MP stressed that the country’s collaboration with CGIAR and its centers has been foundational in facilitating agricultural development in Bangladesh. The Minister shared that “with the implementation of AMD, together with other the Initiatives, we have a platform for continued collaboration with CGIAR and its centers in Bangladesh.”
The Minister also expressed his gratitude for the valuable work being done by AMD and acknowledged the commendable efforts of CGIAR scientists from seven centers actively working in Bangladesh.
Dr. Khondker Murshed-e-Jahan, scientist at WorldFish and Initiative Co-lead of AMD, shared AMD Initiative’s country-specific activities in Bangladesh for the past two years of implementation. Dr. Murshed-e-Jahan shared that IRRI implemented a wide range of innovative agricultural initiatives, including establishment of learning hubs and cluster farmer field schools, semi-mechanized farming, the ‘wife-husband’ model for women’s empowerment, and youth training programs, as part of the CGIAR’s Initiative on AMD, all aimed at diversifying rice crops and promoting climate-smart practices in coastal farming.
He added, “AMD Initiative researched food systems in the delta region, assessed nutritional status, collaborated with partners for cost-effective, nutrition-sensitive interventions, and built stakeholder capacity in nutrition-sensitive technologies.”
In 2023, the CGIAR’s Initiative on AMD has successfully conducted research to identify stress factors affecting crops, livestock, and aquaculture, evaluated DCAS+ impacts and opportunities, developed a specialized climate service for livestock, piloted a women-centric digital service provider model for DCAS+, and explored a sustainable IVR-based climate service business model.
The CGIAR’s Initiative on AMD conducted in-depth Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI)-focused analyses on natural resource governance, developed tools for inclusive and climate-resilient water management, co-designed a comprehensive case study proposal, and forged alliances to improve GESI governance and implement data-driven models for sustainable water management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta.
Lastly, it implemented a choice experiment to evaluate climate change effects on migration choices and researched water management challenges in Polder Zones, developed the Climate Smart Mapping and Adaptation Plans (CS-MAP) for risk identification, and fostered a knowledge network to promote data sharing and joint initiatives for enhanced Climate-Smart Risk Modeling.
The participants also joined the field trip to Khulna Province to have first-hand experience at an AMD site in Bangladesh. They visited several farms showcasing AMD innovations, such as rice-fish-vegetable integration and diversified rice-based cropping under traditional and semi-mechanized practices.
