Sida, a division of the Swedish government, will funnel the funds into the Wetlands Alliance Programme, which assists local agencies in improving the food security of the region's rural poor, many of whom rely on rivers and wetlands for their livelihoods.

The programme is a joint effort among AIT, the WorldFish Centre, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Coastal Resources Institute of the Prince of Songkla University. Staff from the organisations will work closely with local agencies and municipalities along the Mekong River in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Vietnam.

"We want to integrate advanced scientific knowledge with local knowledge - all for the best of the region," said Said Irandoust, president of the AIT, a Bangkok-based graduate school that focuses on teaching how to use technology to build sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region. "This way we can help ensure sustainability and food security for the people in the region."

The programme will run through December 2008.

Irandoust said neither the AIT nor the other three organisations would dictate the agenda of the programme to local residents.

Instead, the alliance would seek advice from community groups, such as district and provincial offices, to learn where the money should go, saidHakan Berg, a visiting associate professor at AIT.

He said eventually the alliance could work on projects such as improving technology in fish farms, or even helping various institutions learn from each other by creating communications networks. It will first concentrate on six locations - two in Laos, two in Cambodia and two in Vietnam.

Nick Innes-Taylor, coordinator of Aqua Outreach, the field development arm of AIT, said that the programme would rely on resources already available among the four participating organisations.

"For example, the WWF has hundreds of people on the ground so there is no need for the others to replicate that," he said.

The alliance will focus first on working with national and local institutional partners in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, some of which the alliance members have worked with on past projects. By working together, they hope to simplify, streamline and enhance their collective efforts, Innes-Taylor said.

J Nils Wright

The Nation