Under theme 5, the Challenge Program will improve knowledge of the complex interplay between global change and policymaking and use the results to build institutional capacity in this area. The aim is to support policy making both within and outside the water sector to enhance food security and human health, to promote the production of more food with less water, to help alleviate poverty, and to protect ecosystems.

Theme 5 research will provide a coherent basis for analyzing various scenarios of global change and the impact on water stakeholders, policies and institutions at multiple levels. Researchers will investigate the links between policies normally seen as lying water sector, including trade and macroeconomic policies, and policies specific to the sector, including water rights, economic incentives, and investment policies. They will evaluate policies and strategies for adapting to change, mitigating its adverse impacts, and for enhancing pro-poor agricultural growth.

The three priority research areas are competing demands for water (from irrigation, industry, and households); national strategies for developing agriculture and fisheries; and the relation between climate change and the global water cycle.

Specific benefits expected from having policymakers and institutions apply the research findings and resulting analytical tools include the following:

• growth of agricultural production in irrigated and rainfed areas
• more effective use of water in less favorable, non-irrigated environments such as dry land areas
• reversal of degradation of watersheds and irrigated lands
• higher rural incomes
• protection and promotion of rights to domestic and irrigation water for the poor, women, indigenous communities, and other vulnerable groups
• better management of disputes over water.