Building North-South Partnerships for a better world

Samenwerking tussen partijen uit "rijke" Noorden en het "arme" Zuiden zijn aan de orde van de dag in de ontwikkelingssamenwerking. In dit artikel onderscheiden we een aantal factoren die van invloed zijn op het proces van aangaan van samenwerkingsverbanden binnen de context van ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Het gaat daarbij om ideologie en waarden, politiek getinte relaties, unilaterale financiële afhandelijkheid, culturlere en fysieke afstanden, en fragiel sociaal vertrouwen. Aan de hand van twee publiek-private samenwerkingsverbandden, organische katoen en verantwoorde teelt van soja, bekijken we hoe activisten, financierse en ontwikkelingswerkers met deze tegenstellingen te maken krijgen en hoe ze opgelost worde

Correlations, Causes and the Logic of Obscuration: Donor Shaping of Dominant Narratives in Indonesia's Irrigation Development

This article analyses policy trends in Indonesian irrigation, particularly during the last five decades, from the perspective of dominant narratives, as authored, suggested and pushed by international donors. It argues that international donors' adherence to ‘deferred maintenance’ as the core element of irrigation policy problem framing does not match with farmers' and the irrigation agency staff perceptions and practices. The logic of obscuration and the discursive manoeuvers that maintain it are analysed. The article concludes that there is space for more profound conceptual contestation and for alternative actions pathways even within the ‘dominant paradigm’ to address management problems more effectively

Sector-specific development and policy vulnerability in the Philippines

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Water, Works and Wages The everyday politics of Irrigation management reform in the Philippines

Water, Works and Wages gives an in-depth assessment of the world-famous ‘Philippine experience’ in water resource management. It unravels the socio-political dimensions of large-scale irrigation management and shows the impact of turnover policies, the change to a financially autonomous irrigation agency (the NIA), and the dramatic downsizing of the agency’s workforce. Following a ‘state-in-society’ perspective, Oorthuizen show how people organize in the rough environment of the Philippine countryside. Boundaries between the ‘political’ and the ‘administrative’ are blurred and give way to alliances brought together by interpersonal relations based on political patronage and friendship. The author emphasizes the importance of finance for sustainable management. He puts forward a perspective that shifts away from mistrust of the government, towards an understanding of the circumstances under which public servants and farmers become accountable and committed actors

The other side of the coin: A case study on the impact of financial autonomy on irrigation management performance in the Philippines

The paper assesses the impact of the removal of operating subsidies to the Philippine National Irrigation Administration on the management performance of a small canal irrigation system in Southern Luzon. It shows that in this case the creation of financial autonomy of the agency did not fully engender the often assumed positive effects regarding both accountability relationships and irrigation management performance. The conclusions specify a number of issues related to the theory of financial autonomy which require further study