Messages and meaning - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 209

BSMs are not only market-driven payments for ecosystem services (PESs);
sometimes negotiated, non-market driven BSMs are more suitable. Although
they can flourish without supporting regulatory frameworks, well-designed
regulations can greatly assist their design and implementation. BSMs should
be created as dynamic (rather than static) programs with continuous moni-
toring and adjustments. Cross-scale feedback mechanisms can inform cycles
of dialogue and negotiation for matching high-level priorities with local needs.
A transparent and accountable water governance framework is a
prerequisite to improving water management
Most developing countries around the world have water governance frame-
works, often imposed by development banks. CPWF experience shows that
they are often neither transparent nor accountable, which hampers improve-
ments in water management. The Mekong team observed that “transparency
is a critical ingredient to hydropower planning.”
The Ganges team, working in polder land in coastal areas, found that “the
present institutional coordination is too fragmented and disjointed. There is a
need for a transparent and accountable water governance framework for
the polders that (i) formalizes and enhances the role of local government
institutions in all levels of water governance, and (ii) follows IWRM river-
basin governance principles, giving due attention to interactions and inter-
dependence among different scales and sectoral users.”
Innovations occur within a policy and political context and the engagement
processes involved deal with power relationships (Chapter 7). This is especially
true at innovations aimed to improve the transparency and accountability of
water governance.
Recognizing the rights of the most vulnerable prevents conflicts and
increases water and food security
In basins characterized by strong inequities, vulnerable groups (often women)
are caught in poverty traps. CPWF experience showed that recognizing and
securing their rights prevents conflicts and increases water and food security.
The Limpopo team observed that, “securing land and water rights for those
producers with insecure tenure” was a major institutional change to increase
water and food security. For multiple-use water services (MUS), which are
often targeted at the poorest populations, they also observed that, “institutional
and governance mechanisms are needed for [MUS] because they are complex.”
Participatory mechanisms called Conversatorios were established in the Andes.
These aimed to promote environmental justice, defend territorial rights and
social and institutional governance, and help empower the most vulnerable,
especially women. “Through enhanced recognition of their rights, women were
able to liberate their voice, which led to a transformation of the state-community
relationship in the form of increased social accountability and transparency.”