International High Level Dialogue // Bridging Land- and Water Management for Enabling Agribusiness Development and Green Economic Growth

We need to transform river basin management (as a merely administrative task) towards river basin development with a strong mandated for sustainable local development. Adequate capacity and institutional building is required. The initiative for this high level dialogue is to define what it takes to get moving on Green Economic Growth. Europe 2020 and the Rio +20 demand new ways for boosting the economic development. In this context, the identification of innovative product/market combinations and new business opportunities is an essential step. Approaches for increasing food security without taking into account of critical water needs will fail. At the same time, water resources planning must consider emerging additional agricultural developments. From this point of view, a strong integration of land and water management is not only a prerequisite for enabling new economic development. It will also ensure that economic development is sustainable within the temporal and spatial scales pertaining to planning at multiple country river basins, or at regional and local levels. Therefore, agricultural development policies need to include water policy, and vice versa. Green Economic Growth can be defined as the effective initiation of sustainable economic growth in rural and urban areas to improve quality of life for all without overexploitation of the natural resources soil, water, biodiversity and energy. In order to enable Green Economic Growth we need: -to maintain the biodiversity and fertility of soils as basis to enable production (basis) -to stimulate the participation of small holders in agribusiness innovations and to boost local development (boost) and -to regulate the allocation of natural resources as well as to make a fair share of benefits (balance) These key domains need to be managed together and in a dynamic way. Economic water productivity - can be considered as an analytical tool to show trade-offs between different scenarios of water use. Combining the analyses with an environmental and social assessment of possible scenarios for agribusiness development, it provides an important input to guide the planning process for optimal allocation of water in space and in time. The organisers aim to: -discuss practical ways how land and water management can be bridged -discuss possible pathways for enabling Green Economic Growth -elaborate the use of innovation platforms as a central element to boost agribusiness development and to make it climate proofed -reflect jointly on bottlenecks and experiences gained from other multinational efforts -share views on possible frameworks for actions

Targeted outcome of the High Level Dialogue

The high level dialogue will facilitate a fruitful elaboration of this topic. Important needs and demands are going to be defined during the day program. The evening program aims at prioritizing concrete points for action, to streamline on-going developments, and to enable an effective exchange of information. Statements and results of the evening program will be processed into a joint communication, supporting the discussion beyond Rio +20 and other international events. Organised by Alterra Wageningen UR nad Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP)