Messages and meaning - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 212

Water infrastructure design and maintenance depend on institutions,
governance and policies
Basin teams found that successful design and maintenance of water infra-
structure often depends on governance arrangements and policies that support
and facilitate the corresponding efforts of communities and local institutions.
The Limpopo team observed that, “because [MUS] are complex, institutional
and governance mechanisms are needed (to enable their proper design and
maintenance).”
In the Mekong basin, the cumulative impact of hydropower dams (designed
and operated in uncoordinated “cascades”) and other water infrastructure
remains unknown by local communities and institutions. They are often absent
from discussions of the design and maintenance of water infrastructure.
Engagement with decision-makers, supported by
modeling tools and innovation platforms, helps build
capacity and consensus, and increases the effectiveness
of policy analysis, planning and implementation
Groups with differing interests in water development, including interests in
social and environmental equity, can negotiate ways to share pertinent benefits
and costs so that everyone is better off. Sustained and inclusive engagement
with decision-makers and communities, at different scales and in different
contexts, at all levels, informed by credible and relevant research products,
helps research contribute to positive development outcomes.
Engagement platforms are useful for finding innovative solutions to complex
problems affecting diverse groups with differing interests. They enable people
to work together, connect across different levels and identify workable
solutions.
Outcomes emerge from engagement strategies informed by research
The CPWF has a history of using research outputs to inform strategies to
engage with decision-makers. Successful engagement, however, needs to
extend beyond the lifetime of an individual project. “Facilitating engagement
to assess options and opportunities enables farmers to identify and choose the
best options for themselves”; however, these processes take time (Limpopo).
R4D redefines who decision-makers are. Decision-makers are normally
assumed to be senior government officials. We say assumed because despite the
many references to decision-makers in the literature, they are seldom named or
identified. Within the context of R4D, however, everyone is a decision-maker.
Decisions are made by groups and individuals, among them senior government
officials, business owners, trade unionists, NGO staff, members of farmers'
associations and scientists.