Local participation in decentralized water governance: insights from north-central Namibia

Salma Hegga,Gina Ziervogel,Irene Kunamwene

doi:10.1007/s10113-020-01674-x

Abstract

Although several semi-arid African countries are decentralizing water services and attempting to increase the participation of local actors in water resource management, how effectively this is working, and whether it is improving water access, is not yet well researched. Little attention has been paid to the capacities (in terms of knowledge and resources) that local actors need to successfully influence the operation and management of water services they are made responsible for. In a qualitative study, we asked regional and local actors in the Omusati Region of north-central Namibia for their perspectives on how water reforms, initiated in the late 1990s, have impacted on their participation in water governance. Our analysis reveals that decentralized governance of water resources can be ineffective if governments do not allocate sufficient resources to support and enable local actors to participate efficiently and effectively in the governance system. In the context of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, achieving greater equity and efficiency in the water sector while reducing climate risk will require that local actors receive more support in return for fuller and more effective participation. We suggest that policy and practice around decentralized water governance pay more attention to building the capacities of local actors to absorb the responsibilities transferred to them.

Highlights

Policy documents and scientific discussions increasingly cite local public participation as central to effective water management
Our findings focus on the crossscalar institutional support enabling local participation in water governance
We explore what meaningful local participation means, and how this creates an enabling environment for effective action linked to water governance

Summary

Introduction

Policy documents and scientific discussions increasingly cite local public participation as central to effective water management. These documents and discussions focus on how local participation encourages diverse perspectives, strengthening contextspecific responses and ensuring an equitable spread of benefits. In southern Africa, community-based management of natural resources has expanded in line with governments’ stated intentions of increasing local participation and ownership (Shackleton et al 2002). This includes the establishment of local-level water management institutions (Hossain and Helao 2008). The capacities of local actors to contribute meaningfully to decentralized water management, as well as the presence of enabling institutional arrangements and financial resources, tend to be limited (Faguet 2003)

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