Basin Focal Project, Limpopo

CP Project No. 62

Basin Focal Project, Limpopo

6-Monthly Progress Report

(Date: 10 July 2008)

Overall plan

The project is being implemented according to the plan provided at the end of Phase 1. This plan made small changes but no major changes compared to our proposal, and we have made no further changes since submitting the revised workplan and budget in late April 2008. The project is being implemented by a consortium of partners, with different institutions leading specific work packages, supported by other institutions. Please refer to the Gantt Chart and Milestone Chart submitted in late April.

Progress and Problems

We submitted the planned milestones for the period through June 30 2008 on time, with no deviation. We further refined our Impact Pathway and submitted that, and on receipt of some suggestions in a new format, further adapted that.

In general, the project is on track compared to the plans. Some partners are working to the agreed schedule, some are somewhat delayed but not seriously so. Maintaining commitment and momentum with such a large and diverse team is not easy.

One serious problem is that it is not possible to work effectively in Zimbabwe at this time because of the political situation there: neither field work nor a planned stakeholder consultation seem feasible. We can do little until the situation stabilizes. Another is that the partner expected to coordinate the work in South Africa (IWMI) seems not to have sufficient time or capacity for this.

Finally, it is clear that the weakness of the basin-level emerging Commission (it is not officially promulgated) along with our inability to gain direct access to key basin-level stakeholders is slowing down our capacity to engage at this level. We will overcome this, hopefully before the end of 2008.

Implications for remaining work

There are no serious deviations from plan

Outputs:

We have already shared these; they include:

1. Project brochure in English and in Portuguese
2. Literature review on water availability
3. Framework and guide to institutions literature review
4. Report on potential significant intervention packages in the form of an interventions matrix and short description
5. Report on first regional stakeholder consultation
6. LBFP section of AGIS web site and guidelines for its use
7. Two papers accepted at the Addis conference that are project outputs.

Financial Statement

See separate form; we also submitted a more detailed statement.

Appendix Monthly Progress Reports

Attached

Overall

1 Water poverty

2 Water availability

3 Water productivity

4 Institutional analysis

5 Intervention analysis

6 Knowledge base development

Workshops / Conference

Impact Assessment

Other

Overall

• Draft MoUs prepared and negotiated; several signed (Polytechnic-Malawi, IIAM), others under review by institution (e.g., U of P, UEM, U of Botswana, CRD-Zimbabwe, GWP-SA)
• Project Leader (PL) visited Botswana and met SADC Water Division head, coordinator of SADC water donors (GTZ), and facilitated meeting of GWP and FANRPAN national coordinators.
• Tried with minimal success to obtain reports from existing CPWF projects in the basin.

• Complete MoU process with partners
• Workshop to finalize work plan 23-25 April
• Regional stakeholders workshop 22 April planned
• Finalize and submit work plan

1 Water poverty

• MoU signed with Polytechnic, University of Malawi
• Draft report on water and poverty by Mozambique partners shared
• Leaders are drafting a first phase report on poverty analysis (human and water) and seeking inputs

• Finalize initial report on water poverty analysis
• Finalize work plan

2 Water availability

• Worked on updating of data and adjusting algorithms in CSIRO Excel Spread sheet on Limpopo Hydrology
• Literature review

• Complete updating of CSIRO Excel model for Limpopo and engage in discussion with Mac Kirby
• Finalize literature review
• Finalize work plan

3 Water productivity

• Work plan revisions
• Literature review initiated—typologies of systems to be considered defined—report as well as maps
• Discussions with ARC and PL for ARC assistance in GIS
• Discussions of MoU with IWMI
• Discussions with Univ. Pretoria on possible student research topics

• H Sally to share report on Olifants crop production systems with team
• Revised work plan to be submitted to PL and finalized
• Discussion with PL on how to synchronize work plans with Mozambique partners
• HS to discuss mapping with ARC
• Possibility of engaging 3 or 4 UP students on a consultancy basis (work can possibly contribute to their research)
• Visit to UP field trials (for Soil Water Balance model calibration) by HS, Mutsa, Magombeyi (Wits PhD student) to identify possibility of linking with UP ongoing research
• Finalize work plan.

4 Institutional analysis

• Obtained various SADC documents and other published material
• Received some student proposals, e.g., from PLAAS in Capetown
• Discussions with Univ of Pretoria about student research

• Prepare a draft report, a kind of guideline to issues
• Finalize work plan

5 Intervention analysis

• Introduction to LBFP by FANRPAN to all 12 country nodes.
• LBFP presented at FANRPAN Botswana National dialogue.
• LBRP introduced to GWP country networks via email presenting the project and technical team members.
• GWP followed up with GWP Botswana country team.
• GWP steering committee advised of LBFP as on-going strategic partnership in the region.
• SADC Water group advised of LBFP, followed up by Project Leader.
• FANRPAN informed Zimbabwean Minister of Agriculture and Challenge Program advisor of LBFP activities.
• GWP draft work plan for Phase 1 prepared.

• Stakeholder analysis to identify organizations/interventions/gaps (on going). GWP
• Create matrix of existing/known interventions—by theme. FANRPAN
• April 7-11 Mozambique National Dialogue. FANRPAN present, promote LBFP (link with GWP).
• April 8-9 GWP country team meeting, Mozambique. Doug to present LBFP (link with FANRPAN).
• April 17-21 SADC Poverty meeting, Mauritius. FANRPAN to present, promote LBFP.
• April 22 Regional workshop with GWP country representatives and FANRPAN country nodes. Present, promote LBFP, plan activities.
• May (tentative) Zimbabwe National Dialogue. FANRPAN present promote LBFP.

6 Knowledge base development

• Finalized work plan for phase I.
• Completed the English version of the brochure and received the Portuguese translation.
• Brochure distributed to team members electronically, and is on FANRPAN web site
• The website e-library, where documents can be loaded and discussed, has been developed and is being tested.

• The Portuguese version of the brochure should be available from the 7th of April 2008.
• Continue testing of the website; it should be fully functional by 4th of April.
• Continue work on meta-database.
• Do work plan for phase II.

Workshops / Conference

• Team members including PL and students have submitted some abstracts for CPWF Addis conference
• Team members including PL have submitted abstracts for Waternet Symposium (October 2008)

• Regional Stakeholder workshop 22 April
• Work plan workshop 23-25 April

Impact Assessment

• No further action

• Waiting for inputs from Boru and Sophie

Other

Overall

1 Water poverty

2 Water availability

3 Water productivity

4 Institutional analysis

5 Intervention analysis

6 Knowledge base development

Workshops / Conference

Impact Assessment

Other

Overall

• The appendices on products and payment schedule of most partner MoUs were revised and revisions were accepted. These were based on April planning workshop outcomes.

• Semi-annual progress report to be submitted

1 Water poverty

• Literature review underway

IIAM: The CESE team is preparing the appraisal/assessment/ground truth questionnaire to be used in the selected sites;

• Literature review due to be completed and submitted to PL
• Work plan including travel plan to be submitted by WP leader to PL
• IIAM is preparing for a rural survey but notes they need to interact with the WP Leader on the questions

2 Water availability

• Literature survey and preliminary water balance modeling is being done

• Report writing and model refinement going on.
• Student mini projects and proposals to develop some themes of this component are being prepared.
• Literature review on water availability to be completed and submitted to CPWF
• IIAM notes it would be advisable to get support from the WP Team leader in order to instruct exactly what to be done and who, once modeling as expected must be dealt with the river authority, i.e. Ara-Sul?

3 Water productivity

• Annexes drafted and MoU signed
• Drafting data requirement list for field site description
• Collation of WP info and bibliography

IIAM: On-going characterization of agricultural production systems, and assessment of agricultural potential of land resources/major constraints at local level; some field visits already carried out in Massingir/Elefantes River in order to study current farming systems, soil types and natural resource management issues; literature review on Chokwe irrigated crop budget/water requirements; wetland systems characterization/assessment.

• Continue lit review
• Follow-up on student agreements
• IIAM notes that determination of crop water use methodologies as well as a standard format for the assessment is needed and hopefully this may be provided by the WP3 Team Leader in order to progress with necessary studies. Guidelines on how to proceed are urgently needed.

4 Institutional analysis

• Institutional framework and guide to be completed and submitted to CPWF

5 Intervention analysis

• Interventions matrix updated further and circulated again to team
• GWPSA and stakeholder engagement tasks clarified and incorporated into the work plan and milestones
• Preliminary liaison with Country Water Partnerships in 4 riparian states to establish possible dates for country stakeholder analyses and initial national stakeholder workshops on promoting the project among stakeholders and seeking inputs for the interventions matrix being developed in WP5
• Sourcing relevant and recent literature on development interventions for sharing with regional and country teams
• Regional Consultation Workshop report drafting in progress.

Most of the work so far concentrated on WP1 to 3, before any effort is made, although some literature review, particularly relevant reports have been consulted, i.e. WB Water Development and its impact into Mozambique rural economy.

• Report on Regional Consultation Workshop to be completed and submitted to CPWF
• Report on potential significant intervention packages (the matrix) to be completed and submitted to CPWF

6 Knowledge base development

• Completed project web site for posting and sharing data
• Document of how to register and use the e-library was sent to members
• Started to write “Guidelines for Collecting Data”

Assessing existing databases and its format in order to make it compatible for use/incorporate/supporting other activities at basin level

• Continue work on meta database.
• Finalize “Guidelines for Collecting Data” document
• GIS assistance for WP 2
• Meeting planned for 5 June to mobilize GIS support to WPs

Workshops / Conference

• Two conference papers for IFWF2 accepted and the papers are being prepared for submission before deadline (30 June).
• From IIAM: A seminar on climate changes at Limpopo basin level attended and existing experience/expertise/knowledge shared with other actors.

Impact Assessment

Other

• Several student projects reviewed and students invited to submit final proposals
• IWMI has apparently lost the entire data set it had on the Olifants and Limpopo and cannot confirm any backup copies exist

• Project Leader hopes to do at least one field visit (surgery has prevented this so far)
• Complete 2-3 student proposals for contracting

Overall

• Preparation of agreed milestone outputs for submission to CPWF Secretariat

• Submission of milestone outputs in early part of the month
• Submission of financial account and invoice for next payment

1 Water poverty

• Continued with literature review on methodology for analyzing water-related poverty
• Gathered some secondary data on human poverty, population density, and livelihood activities in Limpopo

• Continue gathering secondary data on poverty and determine data and information gaps
• Provide back up to formal surveys on water poverty

2 Water availability

• Draft literature review nearly completed
• Submitted two papers to Addis Conference

• Complete literature review for submission to CPWF (milestone)

3 Water productivity

• Meetings held with UP re finalization of work plan & agreement on student research
• Inventory of RS-GIS data available with IWMI; interact with ARC for transfer of spatial data files
• Collation of WP info and bibliography

• Continue lit review & draft report
• Follow-up discussions with UP

4 Institutional analysis

• Review of literature on institutions and policies
• Revision of draft framework and guide for review of institutions and policies

5 Intervention analysis

• Followed up on matrix inputs from previous workshops, meetings, team communications
• Commented on TORs for student researchers.
• Two page write up of matrix—approach and methods.
• Contributed to Impact Pathways map

• Update, edit matrix paper
• Refine methodology and begin synthesis of matrix data
• Provide guidance/direction for student researcher developing intervention packages literature review.
• Schedule national level dialogues for Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa

6 Knowledge base development

• Completed the “Guidelines for Collecting Data”.

• Continue work on meta database.
• Finalizing the inventory of GIS data.
• GIS assistance for WP 2

Workshops / Conference

• Completion of report on April regional stakeholders consultation
• Presentation on LBFP to FANRPAN Board and Partners’ Meeting 20 June, South Africa

• Finalize schedule of national stakeholder consultations
• Mozambique national stakeholder consultation

Impact Assessment

• Draft impact pathways map prepared

• Complete and submit impact Gantt Chart

Other

• None

• Complete new format project 6-month report

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