The Medina Women’s Association is made up of 350 female restaurateurs who prepare more than 5,000 meals per day on the hill of Medina Coura in Bamako, Mali.

The women, who all own small eateries known as ‘gargotières’, formed the association in 2008 with the purpose of fostering good sanitation for food preparation and helping members to improve their welfare standards. After this, they entered an informal partnership with Nestlé’s MAGGI team, who not only assist them with specific product promotions and how best to use our seasoning products, but also provide hygiene training sessions.

Through the partnership, the MAGGI team had already initiated the refitting and maintenance of the restaurant site and provided improved waste collection facilities. The one challenge that remained was lack of direct access to clean water.

In West Africa this is a common problem not only in markets, but even in homes. The majority of these small restaurant owners generally travel long distances to settle in the market for the day. Before starting work they still had to walk for several kilometers to fetch enough water for the whole day in tubs. This was taking time out of their day which could be better spent focusing on their core business.

So, last week was a real turning point for the female entrepreneurs when they officially received a new on-site water tower that MAGGI has provided. You can see my photos from the event here.

With three faucets fixed in different places on site, the tower will allow all the women to store drinking water. Not only will they no longer have to walk long distances to fetch it, but they will minimise risks of contamination from waterborne diseases. The association’s board members will manage the tower to monitor water distribution and ensure the facility is well-maintained.

While other users will be charged to maintain the tower’s working costs, water will be free of charge to all members of the association. This gives them even more of an incentive to work together to protect their shared resource and increase the collective value of their businesses.

Nancy Birdsall, the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) founding president and one of our CSV advisory board members, has been updating us with news of the organisation’s work so far this year.

Writing in the second quarter issue of CGD Partners Council newsletter The Partnership, Nancy recounts a busy few months that have included playing host to the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at a policy breakfast and public speech, the release of three essays ahead of a new book by CGD Senior Fellow Mead Over on the use of performance incentives to bring down HIV infections, and stepping up work on the CGD’s Cash on Delivery Aid theory.

The latter is an interesting proposal that suggests foreign aid payments should be made on the basis of a shared, measurable outcome to which governments and donors are committed to making progress. However within this framework, the recipients are free to spend funding as and where they see fit, focusing on what Nancy describes as ‘what they need to do to make progress rather than spending time documenting expenditures or guessing which strategies are most likely to please their funders’.

While at Nestlé, we prefer to offer people free technical assistance – such as training Colombian farmers in better water management practices as part of our Silvopasture programme - or microfinance for specific projects be paid back over time, I think both approaches share the same vision.

By agreeing on a measurable outcome but placing responsibility and decision-making about the specific use of funds in the hands of the recipient, they are based on the simple idea of cutting out the middle-man to create shared value between two mutually benefiting parties.

If you'd like to read up on some of the issues covered in David Molden’s video (posted by Cécile yesterday), Nestlé has actually just backed a new report by the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) exploring the global water crisis, available to download here.

Released last week, ‘Tackling the World Water Crisis: Reshaping the Future of Foreign Policy’ is a collection of short essays, with contributions from the Rt Hon William Hague MP, the UK's new Foreign Secretary and Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. It argues that the global water crisis may be averted if governments and political leaders prioritise better water management.

This was an idea voiced by members of the panel during the Water and Sustainability discussion session at Nestlé’s second international Creating Shared Value (CSV) Forum in London last month. Echoing David Molden, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, linked water management with food security, explaining that the amount of water required to produce different food products varies widely and suggesting that this needs to be understood and written into trade agreements.

Colin Chartres, Director General of the International Water Management Institute and David Molden’s colleague, stated the need for governance, policy and institutional reform: “I think the really difficult issue is getting governments to change the way they approach and develop policies on water, and the way this is translated by institutions into water management,” he said.

“We need an arsenal of measures to attack water scarcity. We know most of the technologies. We know how to do it. It’s getting capacity developed and built in many countries that is the real problem.”

You can view video highlights from the Water and Sustainability Session at Nestlé's 2010 CSV Forum here. A report summary of the Forum's key findings will also be available here later this month.

I just listened to this very interesting webcast from David Molden of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) on “growing enough food without enough water”. His view is that we need to think about water storage again and manage water demand as part of climate change mitigation measures. While he emphasises the need to craft local solutions, Molden identifies the following pathways:

·         Investment in rainfed agriculture

·         Investment in irrigation

·         Promotion of trade from highly productive to less productive regions

·         Management of demand by consuming and wasting less

In her analysis of the Water and Sustainability session at our second international Creating Shared Value Forum, Sara Wolcott of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) reflects on Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe’s emphasis on the company’s recognition that water has three main dimensions: a social good, an ecological good and a commercial good.

Highlighting his suggestion that “water is a human right for basic hydration and hygiene but not for swimming pools and lawns”, Sara asks whether the panel’s “strong agreement” on the need to price water - in the recognition that it requires infrastructure and manpower - represents an opportunity for “real action” from Nestlé  and other key players to lobby for the importance of finding  (and paying) the “right price for the real cost of this essential element”.

View video highlights from the Water and Sustainability session here.

On Thursday 27 May 2010, experts from a range of organisations including Nestlé, the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and the UN Office for Partnerships, will meet at our second international Creating Shared Value Forum.

International thought leaders including Dr Robert E. Black, Chair, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr Colin Chartres, Director General of the International Water Management Institute and Ruth Oniang’o, the Founder and Executive Director of the Rural Outreach Programme (ROP), Kenya, will convene in London to explore the development challenges certain to face businesses and global partners over the coming years.

We will also be announcing the winner of our first Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value.

This interactive event is an opportunity for you to listen to and engage with some of the world’s top experts in nutrition, water and rural development. Watch the live webcast and submit your question to the expert panel, or get involved by joining the live discussion we are hosting right here on the CSV Forum pages.

A programme of the day’s events is available on our main Nestlé website, where highlights will also be posted after the event.

Globally, the combination of population growth, increasing affluence and changing lifestyle patterns is outstripping the planet’s ability to bear the effects of human activity. We believe that we are facing a serious water crisis in the coming years that will have serious consequences for food security. The food chain, from agriculture to manufacturing and consumption, contributes significantly to water quality and availability, climate change, energy use, biodiversity and soil quality, and air quality – at the same time, it is heavily dependent upon all of these environmental resources. For example, the availability and accessibility of fresh water already affects our business, and we also expect to see the consequences of climate change on our operations over the next decades. Our ambition is to produce tasty and nutritious food and beverages that also have the lowest environmental footprint, so we strive to continuously improve our operational efficiency and environmental performance. We apply a life cycle approach to assess the impacts of our own operations and those associated with the wider value chain, thereby contributing to a better future and Creating Shared Value for both Nestlé and society.

• How can businesses mitigate or adapt to the impact of climate change on water availability?
• How can agriculture’s impact on water be radically reduced?
• What are the keys to better water management?

The Tehuacán Valley captures the tragedy and triumph of Mexico’s worst freshwater crisis in decades. Forces of man and nature have turned this valley’s freshwater supply, once renowned throughout Mexico, into an ancient memory. Industrial and agricultural pollution have rendered many waterways dangerous, and some deadly. Rainfall is scarce, leaving soils parched and aquifers dangerously empty.

As Tehuacán confronts its water crisis, a Mexico-based non-profit called Alternativas helps communities find solutions that combine modern technology with ancestral wisdom. It’s a new paradigm for water management that offers part of the solution for Mexico’s water future.

Andrew Maddocks of Circle of Blue interviews Raúl Hernández Garciadiego, Director General of the NGO Alternativas on how he and his team overcame this challenge.