Project Duration: 

2005-2007

Geographical Focus: 

Africa, Asia, global

Project Description / Background

It is increasingly recognized that the institutional innovation in the water sector, which is globally called for under the banner of Integrated Water Resources Management, may work in middle- and high-income countries and in the pockets of formal water management in low-income countries, but has to be thoroughly revisited for application in the informal rural economies which harbor the large majority of the word’s poor.

Goal 

To analyze informal water and land arrangements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and to identify policy, legislation, and institutional and infrastructure interventions by governments and NGOs that catalyze sustainable and inclusive institutions for improved water harvesting for livelihoods.

Specific Objectives

Objectives

• Primary and secondary analysis: To conduct primary research and review emerging evidence from published and unpublished research on the design, interpretation, and factual implementation of formal IWRM reforms and the interface with and impacts of reform on local and indigenous water management arrangements in informal rural economies.
• Policy dialogue: To engage, inform, and strengthen the capacity of national and international policy makers, legislators, implementing agencies and scholars by sharing scientific knowledge and policy recommendations on local resource tenure arrangements at the interface with formal water reform, through international and national seminars, international peer-reviewed books and other publications, email conferences, etc.

Strategy

IWMI Southern Africa and IWMI TATA conduct primary research in selected basins, in particular the Indus Ganges, Limpopo transboundary and Rufiji and Pangani (Tanzania) basins. Through international publications and its global networks with partner research organizations and policy makers or global organizations such as the Global Water Partnership, further research is encouraged; findings are shared; and practical recommendations are derived for policy and water legislation.

Outputs

• International peer-reviewed publications (e.g. Community-based water law and water resources management reform in developing countries, CABI publishers; IWMI Research Reports, journal articles, etc.)
• Capacity building (e.g., Ph.D. researchers)
• Dialogue between policy makers and scholars (e.g., international workshop ‘African Water Laws: plural legislative frameworks for managing water in rural Africa’ in 2005)
• Policy recommendations for crafting statutory water laws and providing institutional support for sustainable and equitable home-grown community-based institutions for water management.

Partners 

• International Water Management Institute,
• Southern Africa and India-TATA,
• government water departments,
• agriculture departments,
• NGOs,
• scholars in the South and North,
• water law networks,
• international and national donor agencies, like UNDP, Global Water Partnership, CapNet/WaterNet, etc.

Donors

• Comprehensive Assessment on Water Management in Agriculture