Research on institutions for agricultural water management under the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 139

the results. The real impact of the investment in the DSS will come when the
intended users can adapt and use the model routinely. Second, by targeting
these decision makers, did the project reinforce a top-down system? According
to project accounts, farmers said that they wanted community rather than
provincial management of water. The project also reported frankly that though
they were invited to participate in focus group discussions, women's voices
were not heard, which means that if their opinions differed from those of the
men, they were unlikely to have been taken into consideration.
Decision-support activities under PN22: Environmental services in rural
development
This project looked at the potential of PES to stimulate economic and social
development in the Andes. The project developed a framework (Rubiano et
al., 2006) and a bioeconomic model (ECOSAUT) and applied them at sites
in the Andes (Quintero et al., 2009). The objective was to quantify the eco-
nomic, social, and downstream environmental impacts of adopting improved
farming and land management in the upper parts of catchments. The project
worked with local stakeholders to design, fund and implement PES schemes
that were informed by the results of the modeling work but adapted to suit
local social and political contexts. Intended users of the results were organiza-
tions that would pay for services, for their own use or on behalf of others. The
project targeted sites that were ecologically appropriate and where there was a
willing payer for environmental services.
The project team was well integrated with local organizations, both public
and private, in both the agriculture and environment sectors. In Colombia,
the project worked with the environmental authority (CAR) in the Fuquene
watershed. As a result of project efforts, a fund was created to support the
adoption of conservation agriculture in ecologically sensitive parts of the
watershed. In Peru, the project worked with the municipal water agency to
identify alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture. Implementation of the
scheme required project partners to get approval from the national government
to adjust water charges to enable payments to farmers.
Members of the project team were proactive in terms of presenting
innovative options to local decision makers. They did not target their work to
the decisions that decision-makers identified as being highest priority, but
rather showed decision makers new ways to deal with current problems. This
may have worked because the project team members were well-informed
about the local situations. They were also highly regarded nationally and
internationally—evidenced in part by the support from CPWF—for their
expertise in their fields of work.
As with the previous projects, this CPWF project built on a history of other
projects involving some of the same individuals and organizations. The project
report noted that GTZ, a partner in the project, played a key role as an
interlocutor between project and governments (Estrada et al., 2009).