Political challenges to implementing IWRM in Southern Africa

Swatuk, Larry A.

doi:10.1016/j.pce.2005.08.033

Cited by 107 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Many attempts that try to relate water management with broader governmental reforms also fail to hit the political core and, in particular, ignore complex social, economic, material and discursive arrangements (Köhler, 2005). Against the denial of the political dimension of water management, Swatuk (2005) recommends that it is important to reconsider and be prepared to revise the basic assumptions driving IWRM-based reforms.…”

Section: Interrogating the Institutional Water Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water reforms in Brazil: opportunities and constraints

Ioris

2009

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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The last decade saw repeated attempts to adopt and implement an integrated management of water in Brazil. Internationally established principles, such as water economics and public participation, have influenced the development of a novel regulatory framework for water use and conservation in the country. However, despite changes in policies and in the legislation, the opportunity to address old and new management problems has been largely frustrated by the internal contradictions of the ongoing institutional reforms. A case study of the Paraiba do Sul River Basin demonstrates the distance between, on the one hand, calls for decentralisation and responsibility sharing and, on the other hand, the persistence of bureaucratised and exclusionary practices. The main distortion is the excessive effort expended on the introduction of water pricing and environmental charges, a controversial policy instrument that has dominated the agenda of the new river basin committee, at the expense of addressing river restoration, public mobilisation and environmental justice.water regulation, integrated water resource management (IWRM), water charges, water pricing, public participation, Paraiba do Sul, Brazil,

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Section: Interrogating the Institutional Water Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water reforms in Brazil: opportunities and constraints

Ioris

2009

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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“…However, a growing body of research highlights that the experiences of IWRM in many developing country contexts have been mixed. In the African context, there is emerging evidence that it has not produced the anticipated socio-economic, political or ecological outcomes due to the uncertainty and complexity of river basins and the plural, overlapping and competing formal and informal legal and customary systems (Swatuk, 2005). In this vein, Merrey, Drechsel, de Vries, and Sally (2005) have criticized IWRM for being too narrow, for not prioritizing the livelihoods of poor people and for ignoring wider natural resources management and the linkages with land -a valid criticism considering the growing trends of land and water 'grabbing' in Sub-Saharan Africa (Mehta, Veldwisch, & Franco, 2012).…”

Section: What Is Iwrm?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The politics of IWRM in Southern Africa

Mehta

Alba

Bolding

et al. 2014

International Journal of Water Resources Development

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This article offers an approach to the study of the evolution, spread and uptake of integrated water resources management (IWRM). Specifically, it looks at the flow of IWRM as an idea in international and national fora, its translation and adoption into national contexts, and the on-the-ground practices of IWRM. Research carried out in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique provides empirical insights into the politics of IWRM implementation in southern Africa, the interface between international and national interests in shaping water policies in specific country contexts, and the on-theground challenges of addressing equity, redress and the reallocation of water.

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“…It emerges as these multiple actors discuss, negotiate and influence the outcomes of decisions in various phases of the process (Bennett 1991;Robertson 1991;Evans and Davies 1999;Rose 2005). For water resources management, Swatuk argues that it is this political dimension that explains the many negative experiences with water reform in Southern Africa (Swatuk 2005).…”

Section: Concepts Phases and Questions In Policy Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, this is critical when it comes to making new water policy arrangements work in practice, as argued for instance by Swatuk (2005) and Van der Zaag (2007) for water reforms in Africa. Although such matchmaking is known to be important in policy transfer, there is little specific guidance as to how to deal with it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Approach to Support Learning from International Experience with Water Policy

Hermans

2010

Water Resour Manage

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International experiences with water policy and governance arrangements are shared through various international meetings and reports. The underlying assumption is that these experiences provide useful information to policy makers who are looking for ways to improve water resources management in their home country or region. However, little has been written about analytical support for these potentially interested policy makers. They have to reach informed decisions about whether or not to initiate a process of policy transfer, about which foreign experiences to consider and about what parts of those experiences to copy, adapt, or reject. Providing such analytical support is complicated by the involvement of multiple actors in water resources management, who do not necessarily agree on these decisions. This paper outlines an approach to offer analytical support to these multiple actors in the initial phase of a policy transfer process. The approach is applied to the case of the Büyük Menderes river basin in Turkey, where local policy makers were engaged in a policy transfer process related to the EU Water Framework Directive. It is concluded that the outlined approach can be used to inform local policy makers, as it yielded new and valid information in the case. In the absence of overriding political concerns, such information would lead to different decisions in various phases of policy transfer, when compared to a process that lacks this analytical support.

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Political challenges to implementing IWRM in Southern Africa

Cited by 107 publications

References 45 publications

Water reforms in Brazil: opportunities and constraints

Water reforms in Brazil: opportunities and constraints

The politics of IWRM in Southern Africa

An Approach to Support Learning from International Experience with Water Policy

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