We take the nomination of Best Paper and Honourable Mention very seriously, so the selection process is a bit elaborate. A short list of candidate papers is drawn up by the editors of Water International and forwarded to the WI Editorial Board, which selects the successful candidates. Selection of best papers is based on relevance, rigor, impact and any other factors deemed important by members of the Editorial Board “jury”.
Authors of awarded papers from 2018, 2019 and 2020 will be recognized at the IWRA XVII World Water Congress, to be held on the 50th anniversary of the IWRA in Daegu, Korea, 29 November to 3 December 2021.
The Best Paper and Honourable Mention awards for 2019 look at two timely issues of adaptation to water scarcity—in the context of social shocks to the water sector of Jordan, a water-scarce country with a history of hosting refugees, now trying to cope with the Syrian refugee crisis; and the development of water rights and markets in a highly contested arid part of China. Both exemplify what the International Water Resources Association and this its official journal aim to be — interdisciplinary, multinational, and linking science/technology and policy.
Best Paper Awardee
Patience Mukuyu, Jonathan Lautze, Alistair Rieu-Clarke, Davison Saruchera and Matthew McCartney
Water International, 45:7-8, 884-900 doi 10.1080/02508060.2020.1850026
This extremely important and illuminating article develops and applies an assessment framework for data exchange to twenty-five transboundary river basins. In so doing, it highlights where data exchange can be improved and the role of global assessment framework indicators in motivating that improvement.
Patience Mukuyu is a Researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pretoria, South Africa; Jonathan Lautze is Research Group Leader at IWMI South Africa; Alistair Rieu-Clarke is Professor at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Davison Saruchera is Coordinator of the Water Programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), East and Southern African Region, Pretoria, South Africa; and Matthew McCartney is Research Group Leader at IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka
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Honorable Mention Awardee
Cesario Cambaza, Jaime Hoogesteger and Gert Jan Veldwisch
Water International, 45.1, 3-19 doi 10.1080/02508060.2019.1702310
This timely and highly relevant article explores how irrigation management transfer policies were implemented in Mali, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. It finds that those policies were shaped by the interplay between international donors, macro- economic dynamics, national politics and the interactions with (and the nature of) irrigation infrastructure, bureaucracies and organized users.
Cesario Cambaza is Head of the Consulting, Studies, Projects and Fundraising Department at the Institute Superior Politécnico de Gaza, Chókwè, Mozambique; Jaime Hoogesteger is an Assistant Professor and Gert Jan Veldwisch is an Associate Professor in the Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
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