International Water Management Institute
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| Formation | 1985 |
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| Type | Nonprofit research organisation |
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Key people
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Jeremy Bird, Director General. Ian Makin, Deputy Director General - Research, Syon Niyogi - Corporate Services Director |
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Parent organization
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CGIAR |
| Website | www.iwmi.cgiar.org |
| Remarks | IWMI won the 2012 Laureate. It celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011. |
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a non-profit research organisation with headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and offices across Africa and Asia. Research at the Institute focuses on improving how water and land resources are managed, with the aim of underpinning food security and reducing poverty while safeguarding vital environmental processes.
As water becomes scarcer, there is a growing need to find ways to produce sufficient food to feed the world’s expanding population, while using less water, safeguarding fragile environmental services and without having much opportunity to open up new agricultural lands. The Institute undertakes research projects with this aim in mind.
Its research focuses on: water availability and access, including adaptation to climate change; how water is used and how it can be used more productively; water quality and its relationship to health and the environment; and how societies govern their water resources. In 2012, IWMI was awarded the prestigious Laureate by for its pioneering research, which has helped to improve agricultural water management, enhance food security, protect environmental health and alleviate poverty in developing countries.
IWMI is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for sustainable development, and leads the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. IWMI is also a partner in the CGIAR Research Programs on: Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS); Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); Dryland Systems; and Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics.
The Institute was originally founded under the name International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) in 1985 by the Ford Foundation and the Government of Sri Lanka, supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the World Bank. During the Green Revolution of the 1940s to 1970s, billions of dollars had been spent building large-scale irrigation systems. These contributed, along with new fertilizers, pesticides and high-yielding varieties of seeds, to helping many countries produce greater quantities of food crops. By the mid 1980s, however, these irrigation systems were no longer performing efficiently; IIMI's job was to find out why.
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