Sustaining participation in irrigation systems of Ethiopia: what have we learned about water user associations?

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 961-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mastewal Yami
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Project Staff ◽  
Water User Associations ◽  
Water User ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Irrigation Projects

Community participation, defined as engaging users of schemes in the decision-making processes for the planning and implementation of irrigation projects, is critical for the sustainability of irrigation schemes. This study was carried out in three regional states of Ethiopia to investigate the contribution of water user associations (WUAs) to sustaining participation in irrigation projects. The paper demonstrates that the poor understanding of community participation and institutional development by project staff in donor-supported irrigation projects results in the poor performance of WUAs in enhancing participation in irrigation systems. The interventions of external bodies in setting up the WUA by-laws and in determining the responsibilities of users and WUA committees contributed to the low level of participation. The transfer of schemes to WUAs without building WUA committees' abilities in operation and maintenance constrained their ability to sustainably manage irrigation schemes. The WUA committees are male-dominated and the views of women are hardly represented in the decision making. Therefore, establishing WUA committees that reflect the interests and inputs of scheme users is crucial to achieve fair decision making. Local authorities and non-governmental organizations could do more to change perceptions and behaviour to reflect the importance of gender equity in sustaining the positive outcomes of irrigation at household and community levels.

Equity for Women and Marginalized Groups in Patriarchal Societies during Forest Landscape Restoration: The Controlling Influence of Tradition and Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (03) ◽  
pp. 241-246
Author(s):  
Jack Baynes ◽  
John Herbohn ◽  
Nestor Gregorio ◽  
William Unsworth ◽  
Émilie Houde Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Gender Equity ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Forest Landscape Restoration ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Structured Approach

SummaryWe explore the difficulty of achieving equity for women in two forest and livelihood restoration (FLR) pilot projects, one each in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Philippines. We use institutional bricolage as a framework to explain the context and background of stakeholders’ decision-making and the consequent impact on equity and benefit distribution. In the Philippines, material and institutional support was initially successful in assisting participants to establish small-scale tree plantations. A structured approach to institutional development has successfully evolved to meet the needs of women, even though corruption has re-emerged as a destabilizing influence. In PNG, despite success in establishing trees and crops, the participation of women was subjugated to traditional customs and norms that precluded them from engaging in land management decisions. The capacity-building and gender-equity principles of FLR consequently became compromised. We conclude that in some patriarchal societies achieving equity for women will be difficult and progress will be contingent on a detailed understanding of the effects of traditional customs and norms on participation and decision-making.

Group dynamics effectiveness of water user associations under different irrigation systems in an eastern Indian state

2010 ◽  
Vol 59 (5) ◽  
pp. 559-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Souvik Ghosh ◽  
Ashwani Kumar ◽  
Prabhakar Nanda ◽  
P.S.B. Anand
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Water User Associations ◽  
Water User ◽  
Indian State

scholarly journals Gender Perspective in Water Management: The Involvement of Women in Participatory Water Institutions of Eastern India

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varsha Khandker ◽  
Vasant Gandhi ◽  
Nicky Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eastern India ◽  
Water User Associations ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Water User ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
Gender Balance ◽  
Water Institutions

The paper examines the extent, nature, and factors affecting women’s involvement in participatory irrigation institutions of eastern India. Effective participatory water institutions are urgently needed to improve water management in eastern India, and a significant aspect of this is the involvement of women. There is inadequate representation, participation, and involvement of women in most water institutions. From the participatory and social point of view, this is a significant concern. The relevant data are obtained from the states of Assam and Bihar through a focused survey administered to 109 women in 30 water institutions, and a larger farmer-institutional survey covering 510 households and 51 water institutions. The research examines the extent and nature of the involvement of women in these institutions, as well as in farm decision-making, and the factors that prevent or foster their participation. Additionally, it examines the gender congruence in views regarding water institution activities and their performance, and the perceived benefits of formal involvement of women. The results show that their inclusion is very low (except required inclusion in Bihar), and the concerns of women are usually not being taken into account. Women are involved in farming and water management decisions jointly with men but not independently. Findings indicate that the views of women and men differ on many aspects, and so their inclusion is important. Responses indicate that if women participate formally in water user associations, it would enhance their social and economic standing, achieve greater gender balance, expand their awareness of water management, and contribute to better decision-making in the water institutions.

The Paradox of Poverty: Socio-Economic Aspects of Population Growth.— By T. Scarlett Epstein and Darrell Jackson. The Macmillan of India Limited Delhi, 1975. pp.127.

1978 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-382
Author(s):  
M. Javed Akbar Zaki
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Economic Progress ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Fertility Decision ◽  
The Social

To many social theoreticians, the population explosion, particularly in the developing nations presents a crippling threat to their developmental pro¬cesses. Their argument's validity rests mainly on the assumption that expected economic progress is swallowed up by unbalanced rise of numbers in the population. The book being reviewed deals mainly with this subject matter and is divided into two parts, each containing three articles contributed by various researchers. Part one, 'The Social context of Fertility Decision' is focused on analyzing the role of factors affecting fertility at the micro-level decision making process. The first article 'Fertility decision in rural India' by Vinod Jainath, examines the applicability to rural India of various models of the process of fertility decision making and finds most of these wanting with respect to the Indian social situation. While analyzing the fertility patterns of Rural India, he points out the positive need for larger families among the poor small farmers mainly due to labour supply considerations. The author argues that unemployment and under¬employment actually motivate the poor to have more children as it better ensures their economic security in their old age. As the chances of gaining employ¬ment for their offspring diminish, they are induced to increase the total number of children in order that atleast one will be able to support them. Thus a vicious circle of poverty arises in large families because of each of the parents wanting to increase their children's chances of employment by ultimately reducing the overall employment opportunities even further and exacerbating their poverty.

scholarly journals Housing Programs for the Poor in Addis Ababa: Urban Commons as a Bridge between Spatial and Social

2021 ◽  
pp. 009614422198997
Author(s):  
Marianna Charitonidou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Housing Program ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Government

The article presents the reasons for which the issue of providing housing to low-income citizens has been a real challenge in Addis Ababa during the recent years and will continue to be, given that its population is growing extremely fast. It examines the tensions between the universal aspirations and the local realities in the case of some of Ethiopia’s most ambitious mass pro-poor housing schemes, such as the “Addis Ababa Grand Housing Program” (AAGHP), which was launched in 2004 and was integrated in the “Integrated Housing Development Program” (IHDP) in 2006. The article argues that the quotidian practices of communities and their socio-economic and cultural characteristics are related to the spatial attributes of co-housing practices. Drawing upon the idea that there is a mutual correspondence between social and spatial structures, it places particular emphasis on the analysis of the IHDP and aims to show that to shape strategies that take into account the social and cultural aspects of daily life of the poor citizens of Addis Ababa, it is pivotal to invite them to take part in the decision-making processes regarding their resettlement. Departing from the fact that a large percentage of the housing supply in Addis Ababa consists of informal unplanned housing, the article also compares the commoning practices in kebele houses and condominium units. The former refers to the legal informal housing units owned by the government and rented to their dwellers, whereas the latter concerns the housing blocks built in the framework of the IHDP for the resettlement of the kebele dwellers. The article analyzes these processes of resettlement, shedding light of the fact that kebele houses were located at the inner city, whereas the condominiums are located in the suburbs. Despite the fact that the living conditions in the condominium units are of a much higher quality than those in the kebele houses, their design underestimated or even neglected the role of the commoning practices. The article highlights the advantages of commoning practices in architecture and urban planning, and how the implementation of participation-oriented solutions can respond to the difficulties of providing housing. It argues that understanding the significance of the endeavors that take into account the opinions of dwellers during the phase of decision-making goes hand in hand with considering commoning practices as a source of architecture and urban planning frameworks for low-cost housing in this specific context. The key argument of the article is that urban planning and architecture solutions in Addis Ababa should be based on the principles of the so-called “negotiated planning” approach, which implies a close analysis of the interconnections between planning, infrastructure, and land.

Water user associations in Inner Mongolia: Factors that influence farmers to join

2009 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 822-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghua Qiao ◽  
Lijuan Zhao ◽  
K.K. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Inner Mongolia ◽  
Water User Associations ◽  
Water User

scholarly journals Nepal: Food Security, a Localized Institutional Irrigation Perspective on Public Irrigation Systems

2012 ◽  
pp. 95-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Upendra Gautam
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Irrigated Area ◽  
Social Insecurity ◽  
The Government ◽  
Agriculture Extension

Oriental philosophers have given top priority to food for orderly state affairs as well as personal wellbeing. In past, Nepal had a strong agricultural economy based on indigenous Farmer Managed Irrigation System (FMIS). State policy helped promote these systems. But contemporary Nepal opted for state control on irrigation water by building large scale public irrigation systems. In the last 43 years of planned development (1957-2002), the government has spent 70% of US$1.3 billion on these systems, covering 30% of the irrigated area in the country; the remaining 70% is with the FMIS. Despite the investment, these systems neither promoted themselves as an enterprise nor helped enhance agricultural productivity leading to social insecurity. This social insecurity is reflected in the country's increasing import of food, mass workforce exodus for employment abroad, and added socio-economic vulnerability due to climate change.Donor and government recommendations centered on (i) expansion of irrigated area, (ii) irrigation management transfer, and (iii) agriculture extension seem to have failed in Nepal. These failures asked for alternative institutional development solutions, whereas public irrigation systems are (i) localized to establish system's operational autonomy with ownership and governance, (ii) treated as a rich resource-base with water, land and labor, and (iii) recognized as cooperative enterprise of local stakeholders by law with authorities to enter into joint actions with relevant partners for promoting commercialization and environmental quality of irrigated agriculture.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hn.v11i1.7223 Hydro Nepal Special Issue: Conference Proceedings 2012 pp.95-99

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