Gender, Social Capital and Collective Action: A gender perspective on collective sustainability of water resource governance in west Nepal

In Nepal, as in other South Asian countries, water resource development is often considered to be a primarily technological challenge, requiring engineered solutions. Many years of advocacy for gender equality in water management - drawing attention to the need for local institutional changes has shifted this outlook. Thus, today women’s participation in water user associations (WUA) is encouraged and identified to be key in enabling gender equality, a more equal participation in water governance, and a more equal share of water infrastructure and services. Nonetheless, these well intention efforts tend to overlook complex social dynamics in rural areas, which influence the effectiveness of women’s participation. If initiatives to engaging women are to succeed in promoting gender equality, they must be considered in the light of the wider social and political contexts – of what makes for a community, a society

Literature Review: Gender and water management organisations in Bangladesh

This literature review was led to inform the project “G3 - Water Governance and Community-based Management”, funded by the Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF). G3 is part of a cluster of project in the Ganges Basin on Community Based Management. The specific objectives of G3 are to understand the different modes and outcomes of water governance in selected polders and the role that communities play in such governance. This review of gender and water relationships in Bangladesh aims at taking stock of the current research findings and identifying gaps and key issues that might need further investigation within the G3 project. The objectives are to ensure a gender sensitive approach of water governance issues within the project and make sure that recommendations on institutional change do take into account gender aspects. The focus of this review was primarily on gender and water management organisations (WMOs) but it was equally important to locate gender relationships within the broader social, political and biophysical context in which they are embedded

Sustainability and Replicability of Multiple-Use Water Systems (MUS)

The concept of multiple-use water services and systems (MUS) has received increasingattention in international water and development fora and has emerged as a promising wayto enhance the social and gender equity and productivity of water systems designed forsingle use, e.g. for irrigation or water supply. In Nepal, several MUS models have beenpiloted and implemented for more than a decade by the International DevelopmentEnterprises (iDE) and a few other development organizations. Whereas the short-termbenefits of these systems on gender relationships, women's empowerment, nutrition andhealth have been documented, the sustainability and resilience of these systems has not yetbeen analyzed. The latter is the focus of the research study presented in this report, whichwas conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Western Nepalas part of the USAID-funded Market Access and Water Technology for Women (MAWTW)project

A multi-level analysis of forest policies in Northern Vietnam : uplands, people, institutions and discourses

PhD ThesisThe dissertation presents a thorough analysis of forest policies in Northern Vietnam which simultaneously apprehends the biophysical conditions, institutions, discourses and socio-politico-economic context in which actors are embedded. The analysis is based on the case study of two sets of policies: the Five Million Hectares Reforestation Programme (5MHRP), a state-led afforestation campaign, and forestry land allocation (FLA) to households. The study is innovative in several respects. Firstly, it focuses on the impact of these policies on land use and management, which has not so far deserved much attention. Secondly, it develops and uses an enriched version of Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Kiser and Ostrom, 1982) aiming at "politicising" it, i. e. making it better suited to policyprocess analysis. Thirdly, it applies this original framework at multiple levels, bringing fresh insights on cross-scale linkages, and uses an historical perspective to develop a dynamic understanding of policy outcomes. Fourthly, it collates several qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate the topic from a variety of angles. Results indicate that from a regional outlook, the 5MHRP has not succeeded in involving households in forestry and FLA has had little impact on afforestation. Rather, the individual-property regime has been observed to be ill-adapted to the socioecological settings of Northern Vietnam. Underlying drivers for these poor achievements result from a complex combination of the upland biophysical conditions, socio-political-economic setting, institutions and discourses. One of the most important contributions of the study is to disclose the co-production and co-action of these variables at multiple institutional and geographical levels. Policy recommendations include: (1) increasing the accountability of state administration to higher governance levels and to the population; (2) improving policymakers' mental representation of the mountainous socio-ecological systems; and (3) adapting institutions to their complexity and diversity of upland systems by devolving greater responsibilities to local people.British Council, Entente Cordiale scholarship: Fondation Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, Bourse pour la Vocation grant: Management of Soil Erosion Consortium (MSEC) research programme, International Water Management Institute Southeast Asia (IWMI-SEA): Promotion du Developpement Durable dans les systýmes de Recherche Agricole du Sud (DURAS) project, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Women?s empowerment and the will to change: Evidence from Nepal

A static and apolitical framing of women's empowerment has dominated the development sector. In contrast, we assess the pertinence of considering a new variable, the will to change, to reintroduce dynamic and political processes into the way empowerment is framed and measured. This article uses a household survey based on the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and qualitative data collected in Nepal to analyze how critical consciousness influences women's will to change the status quo and the role of visible agency, social structures, and individual determinants in those processes. A circular process emerges: women with higher visible agency and higher critical consciousness are more willing to gain agency in some, but not all, of the WEAI empowerment domains. This analysis advances current conceptualizations of empowerment processes: the will to change offers valuable insights into the dynamic, relational and political nature of women's empowerment. These findings support the design of development programs aiming at increasing visible agency and raising gender critical consciousness and argue for improving the internal validity of women's empowerment measurement tools

Improving water productivity, reducing poverty and enhancing equity in mixed crop-livestock systems in the Indo-Gangetic Basin: CPWF project report 68

Farming systems / Mixed farming / Water productivity / Feed production / Livestock / Energy consumption / Gender / Poverty / River basins / Case studies / India / Indo-Gangetic Basin / West Bengal / Haryana / Uttar Pradesh

Tackling Change: Future-Proofing Water, Agriculture, and Food Security in an Era of Climate Uncertainty

In 1950 the global population was just over 2.5 billion. Now, in 2013, it is around 7 billion. Although population growth is slowing, the world is projected to have around 9.6 billion inhabitants by 2050. Most of the population increase will be in developing countries where food is often scarce, and land and water are under pressure. To feed the global population in 2050 the world will have to produce more food without significantly expanding the area of cultivated land and, because of competition between a greater number of water users, with less freshwater. On top of land and water constraints, food producers face climatic and other changes which will affect food production. There remains great uncertainty as to how climate change will affect any given locality, but it seems likely that it will have a profound effect on water resources. Projected rises in average temperature, more extreme temperatures, and changes in precipitation patterns are likely to alter the amounts and distribution of rainfall, ice and snow melt, soil moisture, and river and groundwater flows. Now and in the future, agriculture and food security depend on managing water—a finite resource, but variable in time and space

Tackling Change: Future-Proofing Water, Agriculture, and Food Security in an Era of Climate Uncertainty

In 1950 the global population was just over 2.5 billion. Now, in 2013, it is around 7 billion. Although population growth is slowing, the world is projected to have around 9.6 billion inhabitants by 2050. Most of the population increase will be in developing countries where food is often scarce, and land and water are under pressure. To feed the global population in 2050 the world will have to produce more food without significantly expanding the area of cultivated land and, because of competition between a greater number of water users, with less freshwater. On top of land and water constraints, food producers face climatic and other changes which will affect food production. There remains great uncertainty as to how climate change will affect any given locality, but it seems likely that it will have a profound effect on water resources. Projected rises in average temperature, more extreme temperatures, and changes in precipitation patterns are likely to alter the amounts and distribution of rainfall, ice and snow melt, soil moisture, and river and groundwater flows. Now and in the future, agriculture and food security depend on managing water—a finite resource, but variable in time and space

Tackling Change: Future-Proofing Water, Agriculture, and Food Security in an Era of Climate Uncertainty

In 1950 the global population was just over 2.5 billion. Now, in 2013, it is around 7 billion. Although population growth is slowing, the world is projected to have around 9.6 billion inhabitants by 2050. Most of the population increase will be in developing countries where food is often scarce, and land and water are under pressure. To feed the global population in 2050 the world will have to produce more food without significantly expanding the area of cultivated land and, because of competition between a greater number of water users, with less freshwater. On top of land and water constraints, food producers face climatic and other changes which will affect food production. There remains great uncertainty as to how climate change will affect any given locality, but it seems likely that it will have a profound effect on water resources. Projected rises in average temperature, more extreme temperatures, and changes in precipitation patterns are likely to alter the amounts and distribution of rainfall, ice and snow melt, soil moisture, and river and groundwater flows. Now and in the future, agriculture and food security depend on managing water—a finite resource, but variable in time and space