User:Frijsberman

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Since 2000, Frank Rijsberman has been Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). IWMI is the leading international research organisation on water, food and environment, headquartered in Sri Lanka. It is one of the 15 centres supported by the CGIAR. IWMI has over one hundred senior researchers, a staff of 380, offices in 12 countries in Africa and Asia and a budget of US$28M. Its mission is to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature. In 1999, Rijsberman was appointed part-time Professor at the UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Education (jointly appointed at Wageningen University since 2003).

At IWMI, Frank Rijsberman has developed and spearheaded international initiatives to (a) increase the dialogue among agriculturalist and environmentalists (The Dialogue on Water, Food and Environment) and (b) increase water productivity in agriculture (Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management for Agriculture; CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food). He has 25 years of experience in natural resources management research and consulting, specifically for fresh water resources, coastal zones, soil erosion, environmental management and climate change / sea level rise. From 1998-2000 Frank Rijsberman was one of the key organisers of the World Water Vision and second World Water Forum process. He has been active in the international water management arena through background papers for the Dublin and Bonn international freshwater conferences and consultancies for the Global Water Partnership, UN agencies and governments. He was a member of the Water Task Force of the UN Millennium Development Goals Project, invited speaker at CSD 12, and chapter review editor of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Frank Rijsberman has had continuous senior management responsibility since 1986. He is a high-energy individual and visionary manager, with excellent communications skills, international experience in both the public and private sector and is a successful fund-raiser. From 1990-2000 he was a co-founder, partner and managing director of Resource Analysis, a private research and consulting firm in the Netherlands. In 2000 Resource Analysis had a professional staff of 75, with offices in Delft (the Netherlands) and Antwerp (Belgium). From 1981-1990 Rijsberman worked for Delft Hydraulics Laboratory and the International Federation for Advanced Studies (IFIAS), mainly in the area of policy analysis for water and coastal resources management. For most of the last 25 years Frank Rijsberman spent a considerable amount of time on assignments and projects throughout Asia and Africa. He has more than 50 scientific and technical publications.