Presentation made by Katharine Cross, IUCN

1. INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE
Good practices in public participation
Katharine Cross, IUCN
IW Learn African Regional Workshop
April 4th
, 2012

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Outline
• Modes of public participation
• Multistakeholder platforms
• Engaging from top down and bottom up
• Case studies – Tanzania, Uganda and Guatemala
• Tools
• Discussion questions

3. Modes of public participation

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Multistakeholder platforms
• Stakeholders with interests in water decisions need to work together to
understand their differences and search for solutions that each can accept
• Different stakeholders are identified and, usually through representatives,
invited and assisted to interact in a deliberative forum that focuses on:
– sharing knowledge and perspectives
– generating and examining options
– informing and shaping negotiations and decisions
• The purpose and scope of an MSP must be clear, with appropriate scales
and levels for deliberation and analysis (for example watershed versus river
basin, or local district versus national).
• MSPs expand representation and participation of stakeholders in
governance. They encourage learning and greater understanding of
interdependencies among stakeholders and ways of resolving contested
issues
• By providing a pathway for deliberation, MSPs can lead to better decisions
and water agreements that can be more successfully implemented.

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Who are the stakeholders?
National
State/Provincial
District
Local Government
Community
Households
National
River basin
Sub-catchment
Stream/furrow
Users
Transboundary basins
(regional)

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Top down
-Evidence based
policy influencing
Bottom up
- Demonstration
Regional
(e.g. Nile, LVBC, EAC, EAPP)
National
Basin
Catchment
WaterManagementPlanning
WaterInvestmentPlanning
Local government Water user
associations
Water users

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Case study: Pangani, Tanzania
• At the national level the 2002 National Water Policy
(NAWAPO) and the 2009 Water Resources Management
Act provides for stakeholders’ participation in water
resources management within a decentralised framework
• Pangani Basin has a high level of conflicts over access
to water so there was a strong need for dialogue
• At the basin level, IUCN has been providing technical
backstopping and capacity building to establish lower
level governance structures to manage and allocate
water resources

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• At the local government and community level, IUCN and partners
facilitated the formation of several water user associations (WUAs)
within a subcatchment of the Pangani Basin which bring together
different water users sharing a common water source
– Inventories of water resources, water governance institutions
– Extensive awareness raising and training with local governments,
communities, commercial water users on their rights and responsibilities;
Exchange visits between upstream and downstream users
– Facilitated registration of WUAs (built on existing institutions) so legally
recognized entity
• WUAs are being brought together to form a subcatchment forum
which will facilitate management of water resources. The forum will
interact with basin organizations
• The experiences gained from establishing and strengthening WUAs in
the Pangani Basin are being used by the Ministry of Water in Tanzania
to develop guidelines for WUA establishment and operation in the
whole country
Case study: Pangani, Tanzania

9. Resilience shift: Pangani
• water over-allocation
• conflict
• information scarcity
• disjointed governance
• new knowledge shared
• conflict resolution
• coordinated institutions across
scales
• negotiation forums
• allocation within the limits of
availability

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Case study: Upper Nile, Uganda
• The Uganda government are promoting
integrated water resource management
(IWRM) through decentralized structures.
– Provides for the creation of multistakeholder
platforms to foster participation and dialogue
on how to work together towards ensuring
sustainable flow of water resources for
various uses.
• The government has established four
catchment-based Water Management Zones
(WMZs), and plans to formally define and
devolve responsibilities to lower level
management structures are under way
• IUCN is supporting the establishment of the
local level platform in the upper Aswa sub-
catchment area, in the Upper Nile Water
Management Zone .
•

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• To date – have supported the set-up of a micro-catchment
management structure which includes water user groups
– public awareness of IWRM principles and the new national water
resources management strategy;
– participatory mapping, assessment of catchment status and
stakeholder analysis.
– Creations of Catchment Facilitation Team (CFT) to coordinate
dialogue with water resources user groups (WUGs), through which
communities have mobilized to develop stream-level management
plans.
• WUGs were brought together to form a Water User Association
(WUA)  linking the local level to a wider sub-catchment scale for
water resources management.
• Government is using this demonstration of local level participation
to develop guidelines for establishing WUAs at the local level
• Missing link – connection with regional processes (Nile Basin
Initiative; Nile Basin Discourse)
Case study: Upper Nile, Uganda

12. Resilience shift: Upper Nile, Uganda
• return of refugees
• encroachment on water sources
• loss of skills
• top down water management
• lack of local water user participation
• linkage of local water users to
catchment institutions
• alternative livelihood options
identified
• development of skills and capacity
at grassroots levels
• sustainable management of water
sources

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Case study: Guatemala
• At the community level in Guatemala, IUCN facilitated development of
alliances with community development committees and coordinated with
Municipal and National Development Councils, to enable integration of
micro watershed planning and management with community-led action on
development.
– Project implementation has demonstrated that projects formulated by the
communities rather than institutions translate into responses to the real
demands of communities, not just institutional goals.
• At the Department (or Sub-national level) of San Marcos, an alliance was
created with 16 government and non-governmental organizations, to form
CORNASAM (the Inter-Institutional Coordinating Body for Natural
Resources and the Environment of San Marcos).
– CORNASAM has adopted the microwatershed as the unit of planning for water
and the environment and, together, these groups have coordinated outreach
and training in the micro-watershed approach.

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• At the national level, they are also supporting the strengthening of the
National MicroWatershed Commission of Guatemala, which has been
formed to lead application of governance reform through micro-watershed
management country-wide.
– Additionally, spaces have been created to organize and promote Payment for
Environmental Services, water policies and participatory plans in micro
watersheds, under the guidance of IUCN.

15. Resilience shift: Tacanà, Guatemala
• deforested watersheds
• degraded farming systems
• social upheaval
• downstream disaster – impacted
lives and livelihoods
• weak coordination
• local coordination of priorities
• landscape restoration &
diversification
• social entrepreneurship
• municipal – provincial liaison
• disaster planning

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Governance as the engine for adaptation
• use the best knowledge you can get
• enabling policy-legal-institutional framework to support
multistakeholder public participation
• institutions that foster social learning
• decentralisation of decision making
• differentiation of roles and responsibilities
• governance coordination across scales
• leadership and champions: political will and energy
Conclusions: participation is part of building
adaptive capacity

17. • RULE: shows how national water reform
processes can deliver good water
governance by focussing on the principles
and practice.
• SHARE: describes the benefits to be gained
from cooperation and the challenges of
constructing legal frameworks, institutions,
management processes, financing, and
partnership strategies to govern
transboundary waters.
• NEGOTIATE: makes the case for
constructive engagement and cooperative
forms of negotiation in dealing with complex
water issues through constructive
approaches such as Multi-Stakeholder
Platforms (MSPs) and Consensus-Building.
IUCN
Tools

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Other tools available
Doing things differently: Stories
about Local Water Governance
in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine
www.project.empowers.info/
page/3353
www.policy-powertools.org www.gwptoolbox.org

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Discussion questions
• How are you engaging with public participation in your projects? At
which levels?
• How are you able to link local to national and regional levels?
• What are the obstacles?
• What have been the opportunities and successes?
• What resources are needed to improve public participation?