Resources

In 1984, MYRADA and the Government of Karnataka, with backing from the Swiss Development Co-operation, started working together in Gulbarga on a project focusing on watershed management. This booklet discusses invaluable practical lessons learnt so far in the PIDOW project about supporting people to better manage their natural resources. The first part discusses general lessons: critical indicators of success (sustainability and equity), people's priorities, the role of people's institutions, and why focus on people's participation in watershed management. The next three sections discuss strategies used in the intervention. They are applicable to projects in which Government and NGO are co-intervenors and operational partners; parts can certainly be adopted by an NGO-only project. The three sections deal with the entry phase, planning phase and implementation phase. The emphasis throughout is on the role of the NGO. The booklet ends with a case study of a situation which differs from the Gulbarga experience and the consequences of such differences in the process which takes place.

This film addresses issues of community management in the context of a government-funded irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, India. It looks at the problems farmers faced as a result of uneven water distribution, and how their greater participation in managing the scheme provided viable solutions. Irrigation was seen as the key to responding to growing pressure to increase food production (01). Yet with the construction of large-scale irrigation systems farmers became recipients and were no longer the planners and operators of their own systems (03). The loss of control over water distribution, combined with poor maintenance of the canal network, meant that those at the head of the system had too much water while those at the tail received too little (10). A meeting was held for farmers from all the villages concerned to discuss the problems and ways of resolving them (24). A map was drawn showing the water outlets and cropping patterns in the irrigated area. After much discussion a consensus was reached regarding water distribution, canal maintenance, and cropping patterns. Penalties for violation were also agreed (28). Having conducted their own analysis of the problems and devised their own solutions the commitment of the farmers was assured (29).

Field observations have led many people to believe that beneficiary participation in decision making can contribute greatly to the success of development projects. When people influence or control the decisions that affect them, they have a greater stake in the outcome and will work harder to ensure success. But the evidence supporting this reasoning is qualitative so that many practictioners remain skeptical. Three questions need to be addressed: to what degree does participation contribute to project effectiveness? which beneficiary and agency characteristics foster the process? and, if participation does benefit project outcomes, how can it be encouraged through policy and project design? To answer these questions, researchers studied evaluations of 121 completed rural water supply projects in forty-nine developing countries around the world. The results show that beneficiary participation contributes significantly to project effectiveness, even after statistically controlling for the effects of 17 other factors. The basic conclusion of this study is that rural water projects must be fundamentally redesigned in order to reach the one billion rural poor who lack a sustainable water supply. Redesign must encompass a shift from supply-driven planning to demand-responsive, participatory approaches to ensure beneficiary participation, control, and ownership.