From research outputs to development outcomes—selected stories - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 185

fellowship program was an important capacity-building initiative. It established
a cohort of governance scholars within the Mekong region with 60 fellows.
They will continue to have a constructive influence on water policy and
decision-making in the region for decades to come.
The CPWF Project PN50 “Enhancing multi-scale Mekong water gover-
nance” was a flagship activity of M-POWER. The main goal was to help
improve livelihood security and human and ecosystem health in the Mekong
region through democratizing water governance. Fellows pursued this goal
through critical research and direct engagement with stakeholders. The stake-
holders were involved in managing fisheries, floods, irrigation, hydropower,
watersheds, urban water works and integrated water management at various
scales. In each policy domain, fellows identified common, shared, problems
with current patterns of governance and made suggestions on how they could
be addressed. Many of the activities supported coordination and collaboration
among individuals working in six countries. The network grew substantially as
a result of the M-POWER Fellowship program.
Policy dialogue
There was progress in strengthening local representation and the value of local
inputs into planning and implementation recognized by central government
agencies. Given the local styles of governance, this was no small accom-
plishment. The quality of deliberative processes improved. The body of event-
convening and multi-stakeholder platforms grew and became an important
resource on which other projects and practitioners could draw. A constructive
interplay among institutions both horizontally and vertically gave important
roles for engaged scholarship to link non-state and state actors at various levels.
Fisheries
It is now no longer possible to talk about dams and not talk about fisheries.
There is an entrenched narrative of doom and crisis regarding the region's
fisheries, however, that underpins policy, research and debate. Evidence of the
potential adverse impacts of infrastructure on fisheries is now acknowledged.
This initiative contributed to Xayaburi dam developers incorporating a fish
pass in the controversy over constructing the dam.
Flood management
Flood management policies, measures and practices in the greater Mekong
region are intended to reduce risks but often shift those risks on to vulnerable
and disadvantaged groups. Government policymakers and dam developers now
pay more attention to issues such as compensation for resettled villagers. The
M-POWER flood working group undertook activities that helped establish
flood and disaster management in the Mekong region as valid subjects for