Enhancing multi-scale Mekong water governance

The CPWF Project PN50 “Enhancing multi-scale water governance” was a flagship activity of the Mekong Program on Water, Environment Resilience (M-POWER). The goal of helping improve livelihood security, human and ecosystem health in the Mekong Region through democratizing water governance was pursued through critical research and direct engagement with stakeholders involved in managing floods, irrigation, hydropower, watersheds, fisheries and urban water works at various scales. We identified commons governance problems and suggested ways that some can be addressed. Often, for example, there are needs to: strengthen local representation, improve the quality of deliberative processes, enhance the interplay between institutions at different levels, and build capacities to handle uncertainties and adapt to changes in flow regimes

Enhancing coordination in water management through communication tools: results from experimental games in Coastal Bangladesh

Canal siltation is a pervasive problem in coastal Bangladesh causing water-logging and losses in crop yield. Although timely maintenance of canals through regular contributions from the community can solve this problem; it often breaks down because of the free riding issue, a common feature in the provision of public goods. Previous literature on experimental games has shown how different communication strategies can help to achieve coordination. We conducted experimental games with the aims to: (i) determine the effectiveness of these communication institutions in the specific problem of maintenance of canal; and (ii) compare the relative effectiveness of different communication mechanisms. Playing these games was also a part of a participatory action research approach with the idea that community members would have a clearer understanding of the incentives and constraints of contribution for canal maintenance. The basic insight from our study is that any institution that enables more information sharing about both the intended contribution and setting the group norm translates into better coordination among the users to increase the group income towards Pareto Optimum outcomes. The lessons from these games could potentially open up a forum of discussion and help the villagers in their future communications as a tool for understanding and testing different alternatives for community management of natural resources. The results are also of interest for development practitioners supporting community organizations for sustaining local public goods

Achieving strategic fit in onion seed supply chain

Findings: Result revealed that the market actors of supply chain are taking significant benefit of value addition due to more investment in value creation. Vertical coordination is completely absent and the existence of horizontal coordination is in fragile form. The functional strategies in the upstream as well as the market side are not properly matching with the preference of the downstream actors of supply chain. It is suggested that the supply chain activities should work with different functional strategies such as proper drying and storage of seed and production of preferred varieties to satisfy the need of end consumers

The robustness of Montane irrigation systems of Thailand in a dynamic human water resources interface

This paper examines the dynamism and robustness of two irrigation systems of the Kok River system within the Mekong River basin in northern Thailand in the context of changing governance mechanisms and evolution of technological and market forces. It analyzes both temporal and spatial dynamism of the irrigation systems. The temporal dynamism was analyzed over three phases: before intervention, initial operation, and long-term. The before intervention phase analysis examined the effect of various attributes of users on starting an irrigation system, whereas the initial operation phase inquiry included the process of development of rules and level of autonomy in developing the users own rules over time. The long-term phase analysis focused on external factors affecting the sustainment of these irrigation systems. Spatial dynamism was examined across upstream and downstream systems and within different locations of the system. The analysis was centered on linkages and relationships between five entities: resource, resource users, public infrastructure, public infrastructure providers, and external disturbances. Both systems were still robust, owing to the sustainment of local customs and the role of local leaders still vital, albeit in different forms. The group efforts, their self-governing capabilities, and local institutions, including the changed role of leaders in dealing with external forces, have played an important role in maintaining the robustness of these systems.

Gender relations and water management in different eco-cultural contexts in northern Thailand

This paper assessed water management by households from three ethnic groups in two contrasting ecological settings (upland and lowland) in the Upper Ping River Basin in Northern Thailand. Important gender differences in the use and management of water were identified. Women are major users of water for agriculture in the uplands, but less so in the lowlands. In the lowlands irrigation is viewed as a masculine activity. In the uplands the role of women is more widely accepted, with women frequently being members of water user groups. Men, however, dominate ‘decision-making’ positions in communitybased and state-led water organisations in both upland and lowland areas. Perceptions of contributions to daily tasks, and behavioural traits important to governance roles, differed between men and women, and sometimes also across eco-cultural contexts, underlining the complexity of factors influencing gender relations in water governance