Ross Beveridge,Jan Monsees ,Timothy Moss, Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS), , beveridge@irs-net.de
Abstract
Despite the broad consensus of support for the concept of IWRM, many IWRM projects, especially those in Developing and Transition (D&T) countries, have been criticised recently for failing to address adequately the prevailing political and institutional circumstances at local, regional, national and transnational scales. There is an acceptance that water problems are not merely ‘natural’ or ‘technical’ but are rather a problem of ‘governance’. It is increasingly recognized that IWRM project managers need practical support on the ground to help them tune their interventions to fit the institutional and political contexts of implementation. This paper lays the foundations for an analytical framework for assessing the institutional contexts of IWRM projects in D&T countries. To achieve this and in the process move beyond the ‘toolbox’ approach, this paper argues that a more thorough appreciation of the inherent politics of water and the shortcomings of current practices of IWRM is required. A literature review identifies the key institutional challenges and politics of IWRM in D&T countries, emphasising the disjuncture between global norms, policies and practices of IWRM and local contexts of implementation. Building from this the paper concludes by noting key components for an institutional analysis that might encourage a context-specific, politics-sensitive form of IWRM.
Keywords: IWRM, institutions, analysis