AWARI (Asian Water and Resources Institute)

Promar Consulting is also headquarters for the Asian Water and Resources Institute (AWARI), a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of Washington, which was established to carry out worldwide research on major water, resource and environmental issues. Promar’s president John Ward is one of the four founders of AWARI. In addition to John Ward, AWARI’s active partners are:

Dr. James Simpson, International Agricultural Economics (USA)

JAMES R. SIMPSON, an agricultural economist specializing in world food and livestock issues, is Affiliate Professor, Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy and Public Service, Washington State University, as well as Professor Emeritus, Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida, and Professor Emeritus at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan where he spent 10 years. In addition to six years of long-term assignments in Chile, Costa Rica and Paraguay (he is fluent in Spanish), he has also worked short-term and had professional visits in over 35 other countries, including more than 25 trips to China (PRC) spanning a period of over a year. Dr. Simpson is author of nine books on international agricultural topics including four on Japan as well as one on China, more than 400 articles, monographs and chapters in books, has presented papers at numerous national and international conferences, and has done extensive consulting with organizations such as The World Bank, The Latin American Development Bank, The Asian Development Bank, and the CG System of International Research Centers as well as many private companies. His current activity is co-director of a two-year project “ China’s Food and Water Security to 2030” in the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dr. James Nickum, Water and Environmental Governance  (Japan)

Dr. Nickum is an institutional economist specializing in water and environmental governance. He is currently Secretary-General of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) and is the editor-in-chief of the association’s journal, Water International. Through AWARI, he has collaborated with Promar on a major watershed program in Laos and Indonesia for MAFF and a report on water pricing in agriculture in Japan and South Korea for the OECD. He has worked at top universities and research institutes in the United States and Japan, was China country officer for Winrock International promoting academic and policy exchange in the area of agricultural economics, and has consulted for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and various UN organizations. Dr. Nickum speaks fluent Japanese, Mandarin and German.