Water governance for resilient food systems for future climates

The statement calls for a transformation of water governance to protect food systems from climate-driven water cycle disruptions. It proposes six foundational attributes for water-resilient food systems: interconnected systems thinking, polycentric inclusive governance, continual innovation and learning, diversity and redundancy, system preparedness, and long-term planning. The authors emphasize that the climate crisis is effectively a water resilience crisis, requiring a shift from reactionary responses to proactive, robust, and flexible management strategies that prioritize equity and the inclusion of marginalized groups.

• The authors assert that the climate crisis is essentially a water resilience crisis, where disruptions to the water system create cascading risks across the entire food system, from inputs and production to processing and consumption.
• The document identifies several regional water-related threats to food security, including saltwater intrusion in the mega-delta food bowls of Asia, altered river flows from the Andes to the Himalayas, precipitation shifts in Central Asia, and desertification in Africa.
• To reduce future water risks, the authors propose six critical focus areas: adopting interconnected systems thinking, implementing multi-level inclusive (polycentric) governance, enabling continual innovation and learning, incorporating diversity and redundancy, ensuring system preparedness, and planning for long-term horizons.
• The statement highlights the 'paradox of irrigation efficiency,' noting that simple policy reforms or infrastructure investments in irrigation modernization often fail to reduce water consumption when scaled from the farm to the basin level.
• The authors advocate for polycentric governance to allow for semi-autonomous, localized responses to water security threats and to increase the inclusion of women, youth, and marginalized populations.
• The document emphasizes the use of incentive-based financial instruments, such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), to drive behavioral change and sustainable resource management, citing examples like the Conservation Reserve Program in the USA and the Grain-to-Green Program in China.
• The authors argue that resilience should be built through preparedness and increasing adaptive capacities rather than relying on precise response plans for predicted situations, as future shocks cannot be perfectly predicted.

APA

Global Resilience Partnership (2021). Water governance for resilient food systems for future climates. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/resilientfood_statement_final.pdf

Chicago

Global Resilience Partnership. Water governance for resilient food systems for future climates. 2021. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/resilientfood_statement_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Global Resilience Partnership |title=Water governance for resilient food systems for future climates |date=September 2021 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/resilientfood_statement_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{globalresiliencepartnership2021water, author = {{Global Resilience Partnership}}, title = {{Water governance for resilient food systems for future climates}}, publisher = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2021}, month = sep, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/resilientfood_statement_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }