|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
The management of, and access to, water resources have been
universally identified as a key aspect of poverty reduction,
agriculture and food security and sustainable development in
developing, transitional, and developed countries worldwide. Yet
good "water governance," so eagerly sought, has in practice proven
difficult to achieve. This book, edited and authored by leading
authorities on water resource management, examines the recent
changes in governance, institutions, economics, and policies of
water, from a global point of view and a cross-country perspective,
with special emphasis on African and Southern African case
studies.The authors show that in recent years, water policies,
institutions, and governance have shifted from technical,
quantitative, supply-driven, centrally controlled management to
more demand-sensitive, qualitative, decentralized, participatory,
integrated approaches. Such a move also often supposes cost
recovery principles, resource allocation among competing sectors,
and privatization. In most developing countries, motivations for
these changes have been increased resource scarcity, increased
diversity of users and uses, urbanization, financial constraints
and the need for sustainable development through renewed water
management. Yet the creation and operation of new policies and
legal frameworks often fall short of initial expectations since
management transfer and decentralization processes, cost recovery
principles and the emergence of new local organizations have proven
difficult to implement. The book examines these issues through case
studies at national, river basin, and local levels using accessible
multidisciplinary approaches that integrate economics,
institutional analysis, geography, and policy analysis. Ultimately
the book untangles and presents best practices for policy and
decision makers, governments and regulators, NGOs and user groups,
farmers, water-supply companies, and researchers, and points
towards how good water governance structures can be developed and
implemented for the benefit of all.
Good management of water resources - universally identified as a
key aspect of poverty reduction, agriculture and food security -
has proven, in practice, as difficult to achieve as it is eagerly
sought. This book, edited and authored by leading authorities on
water resource management, examines the recent changes in
governance, institutions, economics and policies of water, covering
developing, transitional and developed countries, with special
emphasis on southern African case studies. The book examines how
water policies, institutions and governance have shifted in recent
years from supply-driven, quantitative, centrally controlled
management to more demand-sensitive, decentralized, participatory
approaches. Such a move often also implies cost recovery
principles, resource allocation among competing sectors, and
privatization. The case studies demonstrate that the new policies
and legal frameworks have been difficult to implement and often
fall short of initial expectations. Using an accessible
multidisciplinary approach that integrates economics, sociology,
geography and policy analysis, the book untangles the issues and
presents best practices for policy- and decision-makers,
governments and regulators, NGOs and user groups, service
providers, and researchers. The overall aim is to show how good
water governance structures can be developed and implemented for
the benefit of all.
This book is about the process of water management decentralization
in African countries, which is seen as a means of advancing river
basin management at the lowest appropriate level. There are very
different stages of implementing decentralization in practice. This
called for research aiming to understand the following questions:
(i) why do some water agencies succeed more than others? (ii) What
are the variables involved in such reform process? (iii) which
variables have a positive or a negative impact on the
implementation of decentralization processes? (iv) Which variables
could be affected by policy interventions, and how? This study
aimed to answer these questions through the following objectives:
(i) analyze the factors that have potentially affected the results
of decentralization process in SSA basins, and (ii) analyze the
performance of decentralization process in SSA basins. Qualitative
and quantitative approaches were used. The main findings are that
water scarcity is a major stimulus to reform; water user
associations, if not well prepared and trained, may deter the
decentralization process; and being part of an existing treaty over
an international basin helps foster the process. Conditions
improving decentralization performance include: scarcity of water
resources, longer period of implementation, bottom-up creation, and
appropriate budgetary support.
|
|