For the past few years, IWMI has participated in the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture aimed at both data innovations and making CGIAR research data more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), in order to solve resource management problems faster, better and at greater scale.

As part of the Big Data Platform’s ‘Organize’ component, IWMI has developed new internal policies for managing and organizing project data, devising standards for project data management planning, data documentation, naming conventions, backups, and privacy and ethics. IWMI’s research data, as well as library listings, have also been linked to a new CGIAR-wide metadata search engine called GARDIAN - the Global Agricultural Research Data Innovation and Acceleration Network.

Also, out of more than 100 submissions, IWMI and its private sector partner FuturePump Ltd. wrote one of four proposals to win the Big Data in Agriculture’s Inspire Challenge in 2019, for its proposed development of the Real-time East Africa Live Groundwater Use Database (REAL-GUD). Inexpensive and autonomous solar pumps offer the potential for East Africa’s farmers to increase productivity, but groundwater data needed to best locate the pumps, judge the sustainability of these solutions and plan appropriate policies have not been available. This project aims to reduce information gaps by turning the network of solar pumps developed by Futurepump into Internet of things (IoT) devices linked to an open online water information platform at IWMI. The system will provide near real-time information on water withdrawals, area irrigated and energy use. A link to WLE's Land and Water Solutions (LWS) Flagship has been formed to merge the analysis with solar suitability mapping and also merge the interfaces into IWMI’s integrated spatial data interface (code-named Online Water Security Information System [OWaSIS], currently in development).

IWMI’s collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) progressed along several fronts with key strategic events and achievements, including the following:

• A successful pilot on bundling solutions with seed systems, index insurance and climate information services covering 1,000 smallholder farmers in flood- and drought-prone districts in Bihar, India.
• Scaling up index insurance in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through partnerships with Oxfam and the World Food Programme (WFP), Sri Lanka.
• Adoption of IWMI’s knowledge solutions on Bundled Solutions of Index Insurance with Climate Information and Seed Systems to manage Agricultural Risks (BICSA) in the smallholder agribusiness and resilience project (SARP) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
• A joint regional workshop and training on the Utilization of Space-based and Geospatial Information for Achieving the Targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was held in Beijing, China, in September 2019.
• Participation in the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD (COP 14) held in New Delhi, India, in September 2019. The meeting provided the opportunity to present the drought risk management framework and engage in consultations with stakeholders from Asia and Africa.
• United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) recognition of IWMI’s best practices on disaster risk management at the UN-SPIDER United Nations International Conference on Space-based Technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction – ‘A Policy Perspective’ held in Beijing, China, in September 2019.
• Second agricultural insurance forum convened jointly with Oxfam and held at IWMI headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in September 2019. The forum provided the opportunity for wider consultation with stakeholders in Sri Lanka on agricultural risk management, and to develop a strategy for the climate insurance program.
• Inception workshop Scaling Up Climate-smart Technologies, Practices and Services in Indian Agriculture was held in Delhi, India, on May 8, 2019. 
• International Solar Alliance (ISA)-IWMI-ICAR Policy Consultation on Solar Irrigation – Solarization of Agriculture - Risks and Opportunities held in New Delhi, India, on June 26, 2019. 

IWMI leads the research cluster on fish in multifunctional landscapes under the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH).

In 2019, working in collaboration with WLE and FISH, IWMI forged a close partnership with FAO to investigate how fisheries productivity can be improved in man-made water bodies, in relation to both water storage (reservoirs) and conveyance (irrigation). During 2019, FAO, IWMI and WorldFish developed guidelines for water planners, managers and engineers on how to increase the benefits of integrating fisheries into irrigation systems. These guidelines will be published in 2020. 

IWMI was co-convener of a session titled Inland Fisheries, Freshwater Governance, and the 2030 Agenda at the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 2019, and presented on Inland Fisheries in Multifunctional Landscapes. IWMI also co-organized a session titled Modernizing Irrigated Agriculture to Protect and Restore Aquatic Biodiversity and Inland Fisheries in Asia at the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) Third World Irrigation Forum (WIF3) held in Bali, Indonesia, in September 2019, and presented on Global Trends in Irrigation Modernization and Expansion – From an Inclusive Growth Perspective. This resulted in a key publication on Rethinking irrigation modernization: Realizing multiple objectives through the integration of fisheries in the journal Marine and Freshwater Research.

Furthermore, to enable closer cross-center and cross-CRP collaboration, in April 2019, a five-year tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), WorldFish and IWMI. The agreement provides a framework for cooperation on research-for-development initiatives focused on the sustainable intensification and management of rice-fish production systems in irrigated landscapes and wetlands in Southeast Asia. The agreement aligns with the CGIAR 2030 Plan, which calls for transformations of its research programs to usher in a ‘food systems revolution’.

Under FISH, IWMI also leads the crosscutting theme on ‘youth’, and published a report titled Youth participation in small-scale fisheries, aquaculture and value chains in Africa and the Asia-Pacific, which provides an important foundational piece towards understanding the equitable engagement of youth in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. The report, thus, suggests four interlinked research areas in the context of youth, i.e., understanding the impact of economic, political and social shifts at global to local levels; analysis of policy architecture that impacts youth involvement; understanding the diversity of youth engagement; and building a youth-oriented approach.

IWMI’s collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) progressed along several fronts with key strategic events and achievements, including the following:

• Participation in the PIM Political Economy workshop held in Washington, DC, USA, in September 2019. IWMI presented key research findings at the session on Natural Resource Governance and Conflict.
• Participation in the XVII Biennial International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) Conference in Lima, Peru, in July 2019. IWMI presented research findings at two sessions – Politics, Law and the Commons, and Multi-stakeholder Platforms to Strengthen Natural Resource Governance.
• IWMI co-hosted a workshop on Special Economic Zone and Infrastructure Investment. Land Information Working Group, in Vientiane, Laos, in June 2019.
• IWMI was part of an expert panel on land, migration and gender at a seminar held on Migration, Women’s Land Tenure Rights and Security in the Mekong Sub-region in Bangkok, Thailand, on January 31, 2019.

IWMI participated in the first meeting of the Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER Platform), which was held in Rome, Italy. The Institute is now part of the core group that coordinates the process of setting the Research Agenda for GENDER. Through this engagement, IWMI facilitates a number of WLE-funded projects and partnerships with several CGIAR centers. Some key developments in 2019 included the following:

• A special session on Restoration for Whom, by Whom? was co-organized by the CGIAR Research Programs on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) (Bioversity), PIM (IFPRI) and WLE (IWMI) at the 8^th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Cape Town, South Africa, in September 2019. The conference presentations and other invited articles are being included in a special issue of the journal Ecological Restoration to coincide with the launch of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030.
• IWMI/WLE co-authored two chapters for the IFPRI upcoming publication Advancing gender equality through agricultural and environmental research: past, present and future.