Farmer-led Irrigation Development (FLI) – Webinar Series

Pieter Waalewijn, Global Lead Water in Agriculture, World Bank.

Pieter Waalewijn is a senior water management and irrigation specialist at the World Bank and as Global Lead leads the Global Solutions Group for Water in Agriculture, in charge of global the Bank’s WIA Quality Assurance, Learning, Partnerships and the Community of Practice. He has over 15 years of experience in the broad field of water in agriculture, including in irrigation engineering, service delivery, integrated and holistic watershed management interventions, hydromet, community driven development, and within the Bank has contributed to program development, implementation, evaluation, analytical work in broad Sustainable Development Investment programs in Africa, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

His focus has been developing integrated solutions for smallholder farmers in terms of improving their reliable access to water as an essential service and an input to farming, and finding new partnerships and approaches to arrive at practical solutions that have both local and global impact.

As the global lead for water in agriculture he provides strategic guidance and oversight over the Bank’s engagement in the broader water and agriculture sectors, supporting core themes of governance, service provision, innovation, water accounting, resilience and farmer led irrigation.

He holds an MSc. In Irrigation and Water Engineering from Wageningen University (2003), and prior to joining the World Bank, has worked with Wageningen University, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, and worked in humanitarian and development aid in different countries in Africa.

Richard Colback, Agribusiness Water Specialist at International Finance Corporation.

Richard Colback is the IFC Soil and Water Platform Lead based in Washington DC. He provides technical advisory support to private sector projects that have agricultural water efficiency requirements, including improving market penetration of efficient irrigation solutions, scaling up of new technologies (soil water management, solar powered irrigation pumps, drip, smart networks), innovative business models for engaging small-holders in supply chains, and supporting the development of new financial products to improve access to finance. Richard leads the advisory team at IFC which is supporting the assessment of business opportunities for the introduction of soil and water solutions, with a specific focus on Africa and South Asia.

Onyaole Patience Koku, Managing Director at Replenish Farms.

A graduate in Political Science, Onyale Patience Koku is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience across various industries, including fashion and agriculture. She has hands on experience in starting and running a large poultry farm trading both locally and internationally, and crop farming on a commercial scale, growing maize seed and grain. Patience is a member of the Global Farmer Network and she was named “Farmer of the year” in 2018 by the Cornell Alliance for Science, in which she serves, currently, on the advisory board to advocate for access to scientific and innovative tools that help farmers become more efficient. She is also on the board of several companies, including Bellisima boutique Ltd, Replenish farms Ltd, Yieldwise seeds and 1 hectare 1 family Nigeria Ltd., a company that improves the livelihood of smallholder farmers by help them access mechanization, innovation and technology.

Julienne Roux, Senior network specialist, Global Water Partnership.

Julienne Roux works at the Global Water Partnership as a Senior network specialist, focusing on GWP global programmes on water – energy – food – ecosystems nexus and supporting the Regional water partnerships in West Africa and Central Africa. Julienne has 15 years of experience working on water resources management and on the interconnections between agriculture and water as a public policy practitioner in France as well as a contributor to World Bank projects.

Nicholas Brozovic, Director of Policy at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and as a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nicholas Brozovic is an economist with over two decades of worldwide experience in water policy and management, serving as Director of Policy at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and as a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He collaborates with agricultural startups to test and validate business models for new agricultural technologies and services. His programs aim to help water managers, decision makers, and funders improve policies to sustain agricultural water use and support rural economies. Nick is fortunate to work with and mentor a strong community of students and young professionals launching into water- and agriculture-focused careers.

Stéphane Lako, Head of Irrigation and Drainage Division, Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Water Youth Network focal point to WASAG.

A graduate in water resources management and agronomy, Stéphane Lako is Head of Irrigation and Drainage Division at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Cameroon. In this position, he supported the development of the draft national water policy and agricultural water policy. Convinced that Youths can bring up solutions to existing and future development challenges, Stéphane co-founded with young colleagues the local NGO Water For Life Cameroon in 2014 to give youth the opportunity to find/share solutions to all water related problems and specifically water scarcity in agriculture. Stéphane is also an active member of the Water Youth Network, as co-coordinator of its Disaster Risk Reduction working group and focal point of the network for the Global Framework on Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG).

Mure Agbonlahor, Senior Agricultural Production and Marketing Officer at African Union Commission.

Mure Agbonlahor works with the African Union Commission as Senior Agricultural Production and Marketing Officer. He is based in AU-SAFGRAD, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, a specialized technical office under the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture. Among other functions, AU-SAFGRAD supports African Union Members States in building resilient livelihoods in agriculture through promoting dissemination and adoption Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies to mitigate the challenges associated with dryland agriculture.

Toby Hammond, Managing Director at Futurepump.

Toby Hammond is the Managing Director of Futurepump which he co-founded in 2013. Futurepump is one of the leading manufacturers of solar irrigation pumps, having sold over 7,000 pumps to small scale farmers in the last few years, via a distribution network across 15 countries. He is particularly interested in speaking with potential partners who could help bring this life-changing technology to smallholder farmers in new territories.

Petra Schmitter, Senior Researcher at the International Water Management Institute.

Petra Schmitter is a Senior Researcher at the International Water Management Institute and leads the Research Group on Sustainable and Resilient Food Production Systems. She has over 15 years of experience in developing suitable water solutions for smallholder farmers to improve their agricultural resilience and to assess the impact of scaling those solutions on water resource availability and quality at different scales. She leads research for development projects in SE Asia, West and East Africa in the field of farmer-led irrigation, water productivity, irrigation scheme modernization, land degradation and hydrological modelling. She enjoys evaluating suitable technologies with smallholder farmers, PhD and MSc. students and uses the field evidence to drive changes in policy and development programs. She holds an MSc. in Bioengineering in Environmental Technology from the K.U. Leuven (2004), an MSc. in Water Resources Engineering from the K.U. Leuven – V.U.B. (2005) and a PhD in Agricultural Science from the University of Hohenheim (2011) for which she received an Award for outstanding research. She has more than 25 peer reviewed publications and contributed to book chapters around climate smart solutions to improve agricultural production.

Peter G. McCornick is the executive director of the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute (DWFI) at the University of Nebraska, where he leads the institute in delivering on its vision of a water and food secure world, building its partnerships and collaborations in Nebraska, throughout the US, and other key food producing regions in the world. He is a tenured professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Robert B. Daugherty Chair of Water for Food.

Prior to joining DWFI, Peter was the deputy director general of research at the International Water Management Institute. With an international career focused on improving the sustainable management of water resources, he has led inter-disciplinary research and development programs on water, agriculture and the environment in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Canada and the U.S.

He earned his bachelor degree from the University of Newcastle, and his master’s and doctorate from Colorado State University. He is a licensed professional civil engineer in the State of Colorado, and a member of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. Peter was recently elected to the Board of Governors of the World Water Council; and is a member of the steering committee of the Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) initiative, a global partnership organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO).

Regassa Namara is senior water economist with over 32 years of research, development, management, and teaching experiences. He has a wide range of expertise including project planning, implementation, and evaluation. He holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of London (England) and University of Goettingen (Germany), respectively. At the World Bank, he contributed to several investment operations, mainly in irrigation and drainage, but also in other areas such as dam rehabilitation and safety, international water cooperation, and sustainable land and water management in different regions. He is currently a focal point for world bank’s farmer-led irrigation development initiative and leads several irrigation and drainage investment operations in Europe and Central Asia Region.  Prior to joining the World Bank, he served the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in different capacities including heading IWMI’s West Africa Regional Office in Accra, Ghana. He started his research and development career with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) in 1987. At EIAR, he developed and implemented Farming Systems Diagnostic Study projects with the objective of unmasking the reasons why smallholder agriculture is trapped in the state of low-input low-output production systems incapable of supporting farm families year-round. He consulted many national and international organizations including the African Development Bank and International Atomic Energy Agency on various topics of relevance to development. He has more than 100 scientific publications, about half of which are in peer reviewed journals, books, and proceedings.

Petra Schmitter, is a Senior Researcher at the International Water Management Institute and leads the Research Group on Sustainable and Resilient Food Production Systems. She has over 15 years of experience in developing suitable water solutions for smallholder farmers to improve their agricultural resilience and to assess the impact of scaling those solutions on water resource availability and quality at different scales. She leads research for development projects in SE Asia, West and East Africa in the field of farmer-led irrigation, water productivity, irrigation scheme modernization, land degradation and hydrological modelling. She enjoys evaluating suitable technologies with smallholder farmers, PhD and Msc. students and uses the field evidence to drive changes in policy and development programs. She holds an MSc. in Bio-Engineering in Environmental Technology from the K.U. Leuven (2004), an Msc. in Water Resources Engineering from the K.U.Leuven – V.U.B.(2005) and a PhD in Agricultural Science from the University of Hohenheim (2011) for which she received an Award for outstanding research. She has more than 25 peer reviewed publications and contributed to book chapters around climate smart solutions to improve agricultural production.

Shilp Verma is Researcher (Water-Energy-Food Policies) with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) at their Anand office in Gujarat, India. At IWMI, Shilp leads the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program – a co-equal partnership between IWMI and Tata Trusts – and the GIZ-supported project on ‘Solar Irrigation Expansion in India’. Shilp enjoys field-based research and action research aimed at improving resource management and governance through a problem-solving approach. Before IWMI, Shilp worked for nearly 10 years as an independent ‘Consulting Researcher’ with various national and international organizations including IWMI, Tata Trusts, FAO, World Bank, GIZ, BORDA and GGGI. His educational background includes M.Sc. in Water Resources Management from UNESCO-IHE, Delft; Post-Graduate Program in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand and B.A. with honors in Economics from the University of Delhi.

Barbara van Koppen (PhD) is Emeritus Scientist, International Water Management Institute, based in the IWMI Southern Africa office in Pretoria. She has led multi-country (action-) research in Anglophone and Francophone Africa and Asia on community-driven water service delivery and on plural water laws and policies reform from a gender and human rights perspective. She is lead-author and -editor of five books and (co-) author of over 150 international peer-reviewed publications. She is the Coordinator of the Multiple Use water Services (MUS) Theme in the Rural Water Supply Network. She was member of Board of the Water Research Commission South Africa, and in the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership. Before joining IWMI she was assistant professor Gender and Irrigation at Wageningen University and Research Centre. She also worked five years in Burkina Faso as Technical Assistant for the Dutch Development Organization SNV. Barbara obtained her Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees as rural sociologist and nutritionist, specializing in poverty, gender and water, from Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlands.

Joy Busolo is a Senior Water Resources Management Specialist coordinating 2030 WRG country programs in the Africa Region. She joined the World Bank Group in 2016 as a consultant, working with the 2030 Water Resources Group Program in Nairobi, Kenya as the 2030 WRG Kenya Country Lead and supported the regional program as well.

Prior to this, she worked with Davis and Shirtliff, East Africa as a regional manager and was instrumental in designing innovative products that make us of renewable energy for water and wastewater distribution and treatment such as solar powered irrigation pumps and reverse osmosis units.

Her recent focus is expansion of the 2030WRG into new geographies, supporting the establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms used as mechanisms to collectively design and development of projects and programs that catalyze private sector investment, enhance resilience and promote water-efficient practices in industry, agriculture and municipal water use through public private and civil society partnerships in Africa.

Joy is a Chemical and Process Engineer (Moi University) by training with a Masters in Business Administration (University of Nairobi), a diploma in Public Policy (Strathmore University) and a Master of Commerce in Development Finance (University of Cape Town).

Peter Repinski is the Interim CEO/Executive Secretary and Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Global Water Partnership, a global action network of more than 3 000 organizations dedicated to advance governance and management of water resources for sustainable and equitable development. With over 20 years of international experience in environmental-, social- and ethical risks and opportunities in corporate and public sector including co-creating new innovative business models to address sustainability challenges together with businesses in high impact sectors, Peter Repinski has extensive background in complex negotiations, programme coordination, project finance evaluations and hands-on implementation of sustainability policies/projects in 50 countries in Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America and South America. He is a former UN Official (UNEP) based in Bangkok and Washington D.C, responsible for UNEPs industry relations in North America, has worked at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in various leadership roles and also co-directed the global UN programme on Sustainable Lifestyles/Sustainable Consumption on behalf of the Swedish government in collaboration with Japan.

Armand Houanye has over 20 years experience in agricultural water management, integrated water resources management (IWRM), climate resilience, water governance. He holds a master’s degree in Climate Risks Management with a Diploma of Agricultural Engineering. From 2005 to 2017, Armand Houanye coordinated or was involved in IWRM, water security and climate resilience development projects at national and regional levels in Africa.
Since October 2017, Armand Houanye is the Regional Executive Secretary of GWP in West Africa (GWP-WA). He is in charge of development, planning and coordination of GWP-WA operations targeting the regional level and the 15 West African countries through thematic programmes and projects including: (i) Integrated Drought Management Programme in West Africa, Water Climate and Development Programme and Gender (WACDEP-G 2020-2025), Project Water for Growth and Poverty Reduction in the Mékrou transboundary River Basin Phase 2: Mekrou Project Niger 2020-2022.

Dr. Dave D’haeze first came to Vietnam in 1998 when coffee expansion was in full swing. In 1999 he cooperated with the Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (the former Coffee Research Institute) to develop a research program on improving the irrigation efficiency for Robusta coffee production in the Central Highlands.
In 2004 Dr. D’haeze got a PhD at the Catholic University Leuven and joined the Foundation Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS). A few years later he published a National Coffee Sector Program to improve the competitive position of the Vietnamese coffee industry, and a manual on Good Agricultural Practices for Robusta, which has been sold at 60,000 copies and is currently available as a multilingual application for smartphones.
Since 2006 Dr. D’haeze has been working as Regional Manager for HRNS Asia Pacific in charge of designing and implementing various Public-Private Partnership programs to promote sustainable coffee production.
Dr. D’haeze is a member of ASEAN Coffee Federation since 2013.

Claudia Ringler is Deputy Division Director at the International Food Policy Research Institute and a flagship co-lead in the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. A thought leader on water for food, Claudia published more than 100 journal articles in the areas of global water and food security, with a more recent focus on gender, nutrition, climate change and energy.

Sarah Keener, leads the Social Inclusion team within the World Bank Water Global Practice, providing strategic leadership for the Water GP on social inclusion, gender and citizen engagement. She has worked for over 20 years with the World Bank Group in the Middle East and North African Region, the Latin American and Caribbean Region, and the Africa Region, coordinating the citizen engagement agenda at the regional level and focusing on integrating social inclusion into World Bank operations. Her background in the water sector includes management of a stakeholder engagement project on the Nile Basin, collaboration on the Africa Region Infrastructure Flagship with a chapter on water provision to the urban poor, management of technical assistance focused on infrastructure regulation, and development of innovative approaches to peri-urban water provision in Peru, Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho, Zambia and elsewhere. While in the Middle East and North African Social and Urban unit, she focused on municipal operations across the region to mainstream citizen engagement and voice in municipal performance incentives, worked with clients to develop innovative ICT enabled citizen engagement platforms in the infrastructure sector (energy, transport, water), and managed a regional facility on energy and gender. Ms. Keener, an American national, holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Claudia Sadoff is the Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) headquartered in Sri Lanka. IWMI is a non-profit, scientific “research for development” organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries. Prior to joining IWMI, she spent over 20 years at the World Bank where she held multiple positions including Global Lead for Water Security and Integrated Resource Management, Leader of the South Asia Water Initiative and the global Water Resources Team, and coordinator of the World Bank Nile Team. She has received appointments from a wide variety of other organizations as well, serving as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Chair of the GWP/OECD Task Force on Water Security and Sustainable Growth, Economic Advisor to IUCN, Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security, Member of the Global Water Partnership Technical Committee and Fulbright scholar at the Thailand Development Research Institute. She holds a PhD in Economics.

Thai Thi Minh is senior researcher – Upscaling Innovation at International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Ghana; Project Leader – Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI). She leads innovation scaling research to develops systemic approach to scale agricultural water management and farmer-led irrigation to enhance sustainable and resilient food system. With over 20 years working in development and academia in Asia, Africa, and Europe, her research interests focus on institutional innovation, innovation system, and innovation scaling in agriculture, agri-business and food system, and action research approaches to enhance impacts to development.

Nicole Lefore is the Director for the Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation, at the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture Development at Texas A & M University. She leads a global interdisciplinary research team to identify ways to scale to agricultural water management and small scale irrigation to strengthen nutrition and improve livelihoods. With over 25 years working in Africa, her research interests focus on gender and social inclusion, policy and institutions, finance for smallholder irrigators, and community-based approaches to improve natural resource governance.

Phil Woodhouse trained in the UK as an agricultural scientist at the universities of Oxford (BA) and Reading (PhD). He worked in Mozambique for eight years for the National Agronomy Research Institute and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. After returning to the UK he was based first at the Open University and subsequently at Manchester University, where he is currently Professor of Environment and Development in the Global Development Institute. His research has sought to understand political, economic and technological drivers and consequences of change in the management of soil and water resources, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. He has undertaken field studies in a number of countries in Francophone West Africa, southern Africa, and East Africa. He co-authored African Enclosures: the social dynamics of wetlands in drylands (James Currey, 2000), Water and Development (Routledge, 2011) and Valuing Development, Environment and Conservation: Creating Values that Matter (Routledge, 2018). He was principal investigator on the international collaborative project Studying African Farmer-led Irrigation (SAFI) funded by DFID-ESRC (DEGRP).

Jennifer Sara is the Global Director for the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice.  Ms Sara has 30 years of experience working on global water issues in the World Bank, with previous assignments including as Sector Manager for Sustainable Development based in Hanoi, Vietnam (2010 – 2014); Sector Leader in Brasilia (2006 – 2010), assignments based in Washington as Lead Specialist covering Latin America & the Caribbean, and Senior Specialist in Africa (1995 – 2005) as well as working for the Water and Sanitation Program in Bolivia (1990 – 1995).  In her current assignment, Ms Sara is a core member of the GP’s senior management team, which drives the policy direction of the GP, oversees a portfolio of $25 billion in water-related investments, analytical work, multi-donor trust funds and global partnerships. Ms Sara supports an integrated approach to water security and service delivery, customizing the Bank’s global water strategy to the country dialogue, and providing policy advice and operational support in response to specific client needs. She holds an MSc in Environmental Management from the University of London, Wye College, and a BSc in Environmental Engineering from Brown University.

Regassa Namara is senior water economist with over 32 years of research, development, management, and teaching experiences. He has a wide range of expertise including project planning, implementation, and evaluation. He holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of London (England) and University of Goettingen (Germany), respectively. At the World Bank, he contributed to several investment operations, mainly in irrigation and drainage, but also in other areas such as dam rehabilitation and safety, international water cooperation, and sustainable land and water management in different regions. He is currently a focal point for world bank’s farmer-led irrigation development initiative and leads several irrigation and drainage investment operations in Europe and Central Asia Region.  Prior to joining the World Bank, he served the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in different capacities including heading IWMI’s West Africa Regional Office in Accra, Ghana. He started his research and development career with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) in 1987. At EIAR, he developed and implemented Farming Systems Diagnostic Study projects with the objective of unmasking the reasons why smallholder agriculture is trapped in the state of low-input low-output production systems incapable of supporting farm families year-round. He consulted many national and international organizations including the African Development Bank and International Atomic Energy Agency on various topics of relevance to development. He has more than 100 scientific publications, about half of which are in peer reviewed journals, books, and proceedings.

Nicholas Brozovic is an economist with over two decades of worldwide experience in water policy and management, serving as Director of Policy at the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and as a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He collaborates with agricultural startups to test and validate business models for new agricultural technologies and services. His programs aim to help water managers, decision makers, and funders improve policies to sustain agricultural water use and support rural economies. Nick is fortunate to work with and mentor a strong community of students and young professionals launching into water- and agriculture-focused careers.

Samir Ibrahim is the CEO and co-founder of SunCulture. SunCulture develops and commercializes life-changing technology that solves the biggest daily challenges for the world’s 570 million smallholder farming households. Prior to SunCulture, Samir studied finance and international business at NYU’s Undergraduate Stern School of Business and joined PwC’s Financial Services, Structured Products, and Real Estate Group. Samir is recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30, Top Conscious Business Leader by Conscious Company Media, and  a World Energy Council Future Energy Leader alumni