 Welcome to, I think that call is a soft seat because it is very soft today. So I'm here with Boroom and we're going to be talking about IFWM3. So first of all Boroom, you just tell us what is IFWM3? Excuse me, tell me where you're going to ask me that question. The International Forum on Water and Food. And the third of the CD forums, is that correct? That's right, yes. So can you briefly segue in what happened and where it's going to be? There's going to be the 14th, the 17th of November in South Africa between Johansson and Victoria. As you said, this is the third forum, so what were the previous two forums about and why is this third one happening? Well we had the first forum in the middle of our phase one. I think it was in 2006-2006? Yes. And that was about building, it was the first time that the CPWF community came together. So it was about bringing that community, starting to build it. And I think that was, if there was one thing we could say that that was really about, it was creating a flavour in the CPWF for a programme that is a little bit different. It's experimental, sometimes makes mistakes and gets things wrong. But it's interesting and if anyone went into any of those sessions, they were quite different to your normal scientific conference. Then the second forum we had was at the end of our phase one. And that was more about, okay, so what are the results which have come out of phase one and what are we going to do now in phase two? And coming back to the community and validating and building up our proposals for what we were going to do in our phase two basis. So that's where we first floated these ideas of basic development challenges and got feedback on them. And now this third forum is going to be in the middle of our phase two. It's going to be about, if it's about just one thing, it will be about sort of sparking and really sort of bringing together for the first time the global programme that we have in phase two is getting people interacting, sharing ideas and motivating the research level that will happen in the remaining two years. So who are you expecting to attend? I mean, roughly how many people? And presumably a lot of people from each of the BDCs. How many people from each of the BDCs? There will be, I think, from about each project we're expecting about four or five. So you're looking at about 20 people per BDC. So some four will need to be put into who goes. So you're thinking in terms of a BDC dedication. Yeah, I attended both the first two forums and they just said they were quite innovative in a way. So I was just wondering if you could give us some idea of what sort of activities we might expect in this third forum and how we'll be different. I think we've got no more conferences. What will people do? Right. Well, I mean, I think we're going to try and do six things in this third forum. It's going to be about results. So it's going to be what are the promising early results are coming out to share those two spark ideas. It's going to be about progress. So just standing back like we've been doing in this workshop and seeing how we're doing as a program. It's going to be about messages. So what are the messages that we as a program are able to articulate? What are the agendas and the global agendas that we're able to talk to as well as to look at some of the emerging agendas and global processes that we should be aiming at? It's also going to be about sparking ideas. I mean, we're a research and development program. We want to make a difference. We want change to happen. And that happens through people. And it happens through basically mixing people together with ideas. And so the idea is that by bringing our projects, big delegations from projects together, that we really do start to spark some cross-based learning beyond what we are doing and that we envision in the working groups. And it's going to be a very strategic time in the life of the CG when the CRPs are coming on board. And we believe that we have learned some lessons, a lot of lessons, and some of those are going to be relevant. There's also an opportunity for us to interact with CRPs and one thing we'll be looking at is who we bring to the forum from the CRPs. CRP5 in particular, which is the CPWS home, CRP, but also some of the others as well. So do the BDCs in the topic working groups, what do they need to do to prepare for the forum? Because you really are expecting them to come up with these key messages and things, but is there anything else they need to do? Yes, so most of you should have got an invitation to submit two pages. So these are two-page abstracts, two-page descriptions of promising results coming out, lessons learned. We're looking at probably three, four per project. We're looking at them both in project and also for BDC. And it's those abstracts, which we're going to... the deadline is the 15th of July. We'll process those, there'll be an internal review process, and it's those abstracts, you telling us what's coming out, which will then very much shape the program, because the program is quite flexible still. So just to be clear, are these the abstracts that come from the BDC as a whole, rather than from individuals? No, both from projects and from the BDC as a whole, because they're going to be project-specific stories, but there's also going to be stories about what the BDC as a whole has been able to... Were you expecting any high-profile keynote speakers? Who might be there that would attract us to this workshop? Well, I can't give you any names now for security reasons, but... No, we're... we are looking at attracting people like, yeah, some pretty high-profile keynote speakers. For the first day. So the first day before that's when we'll have the keynotes, and they will sort of frame the band and basically set the tone. And those keynotes, they'll be talking to some of the global issues, global challenges, and particularly Africa, an African issue within challenges. The forum being based in South Africa is going to have a very strong African perspective. Okay, so one slightly different question. I mean, there's a school of thought that these big international forums, which there are a large number these days, are just big talk-and-shops. They're very expensive. They cost a lot of money. That huge carbon footprint has been going to thrive in the world and this sort of thing. I just wondered whether you could say something about why you think this is good value for money and why money shouldn't be spent in a different way, perhaps in the innovation fund or something like that. Yes, I think these forums are extremely useful. It's extremely valuable. And the reason I think derives from how change happens, it is about people and it's about new ideas and it's about coming across new ideas. It's coming through mixing people and ideas which haven't come into contact with each other before. And I mean, that's what happens. And I think for any of us who have been to a good conference or a workshop, we've had some idea and we haven't had much support for it in our own organizations and you're just about to give up on it and then you meet a couple of like-minded people and you start to talk about it and you realize, no, it's actually not such a bad idea after all and you then start to form a network with these people and experiences like that can actually change the trajectory of your whole career. So these things can be extremely important. They're about building social capital. They're about building a network capital. I guess it's hard to put a monetary value to that capital because so often the messages and what happens in the conference like that it's adding to what you already know. It's just triggering things. So they're extremely important and this will be particularly important for the ZBWF for where we are now in terms of the CRPs and perhaps our lives are changing and perhaps this will be a tipping point. Okay, so thank you very much. Finally, can you remind us when and where the fall is going to happen and what we need to be thinking about to make it a success? Okay, all of your participation to make it a success is going to be in South Africa. Johannesburg, 14th to 17th of November. The abstracts, think about those. Get those in by the 15th of July. And there are going to be three main things really. There are going to be basic sessions. There are going to be topic working group sessions and there's going to be share fare. So for three hours, there are going to be three-hour lunches on dates two and three which are going to be share fare events. So think of bringing your posters and your interesting tools and methods to share with other colleagues from other bases from the parts of the world. Okay, thank you very much. From the soft chain. Thank you so much.