Strengthening partnerships and programs for Asian Mega-Deltas

To strengthen its strategy, cooperation, and results management, the CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas (AMD) conducted its Annual Meeting and Pause, Reflect, and Plan Workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 14 to 17 March 2023.

The workshop aims to provide a space for national partners and OneCGIAR scientists to reflect on the progress and achievements of the AMD Initiative in some of its priority countries, namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The participatory activities and country-driven sessions will be done by jointly refining the impact pathway, analyzing gaps, and action planning for the following implementation years of the AMD Initiative, ensuring sustainable and country-owned outcomes.

The workshop was attended by officials and representatives of the various government ministries and agencies, CGIAR centers, academe, international organizations, the private sector, local governments, and other relevant stakeholder groups.

Dr. Jean Balie, Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific for CGIAR, shared that the AMD Initiative aims “to create resilient, inclusive, and productive deltas by removing systemic barriers to the scaling of transformative technologies and practices at community, national, and regional levels.”

Dr. Balie stressed that through the AMD Initiative, “all the sectors working for the deltas will have a platform for collaborative research for development and knowledge sharing that will empower not only the research partners but most especially the smallholders and vulnerable sectors that depend their livelihoods on the deltas.”

Dr. Bjoern Ole Sander, lead of AMD and senior scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), proudly shared the accomplishments of the Initiative in its first year of implementation. For 2022, AMD not only produced almost 100 new knowledge products, provided input to 9 policy changes in the AMD focus countries, and curated 8 innovations under development but also reached 160,000 farmers and other…