Water and Livelihoods Initiative (WLI): Final Technical Report

Abstract

This final technical report offers a summary of the activities completed by partners of the WLI during the lifetime of the project covering the period October 2009- September 2017. The WLI aims to improve rural livelihoods in areas where water scarcity, land degradation, water quality deterioration, food insecurity and health problems are prevalent; focusing initially on selected benchmark sites that exemplify the full spectrum of livelihood and watershed challenges and constraints. Research technologies and strategies developed in the benchmark sites can thus be applied at the national and regional level by ‘scaling-out’ lessons learned and results obtained at the benchmark sites. The sites also represent the three major agricultural eco-systems in the region - with Syria and Lebanon representing the rainfed systems; Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon the irrigated; and Jordan representing the rangeland agricultural eco-systems. Tunisia and Palestine had more than one benchmark site representing more than one agricultural eco-system to capture the different systems and challenges and opportunities they present.