INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, PARTNERSHIPS AND POWER

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INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT,
PARTNERSHIPS AND POWER

• Bruce Mitchell
• University of Waterloo
• Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

• Integrated to make into a whole, to put or
  bring together parts into a whole. (World Book
  Dictionary)
• For integration to occur,
• Collaboration (act of working together) and
  Coordination (harmonious adjustment or working
  together, or, arranging in proper order and
  relationships) (World Book Dictionary) normally
  are necessary.

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• Integration is a means, not an ends.
• IWRM should be preceded by a shared vision about
  a desired future condition.
• Nanus (1992) a vision is a realistic, credible,
  attractive future....
• A vision articulates the destination towards
  which a group or society agrees to aim. The
  vision represents a future which in significant
  ways is better or more desirable than the
  present.
• Without such direction, it is difficult to
  determine which parts need to be brought together
  into a whole, and who should be working together
  to arrange proper order and relationships.

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• Rationale for integration as a means to help in
  achieving a vision
• Allows the desired future condition to be
  achieved
• effectively produce the desired effects,
• efficiently produce the desired effects without
  waste of time and energy, and
• equitably ensure benefits and costs of the
  desired effects are distributed fairly among
  people in space and time.

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PARTNERSHIPS AND PARTICIPATION

• Collaboration and cooperation normally require
• Partners people or groups who share risks and
  gains, and
• Participation sharing taking part
• In IWRM, one outcome for stakeholders should be
  
• Empowerment achieving or gaining power.

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• Rationale for partnerships and participatory
  approaches
• define problems more effectively,
• access information and understanding outside of
  the scientific realm,
• identify socially acceptable solutions, and
• create a new sense of ownership of both problems
  and solutions, leading to more effective and
  efficient implementation

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Desirable Attributes for a Partnership

• Compatibility between participants based on
  mutual trust and respect, even when from time to
  time legitimately different needs and
  expectations may exist.
• Integrity, patience and perseverance by all
  partners. Obstacles will need to be overcome,
  and progress will not always occur as quickly as
  everyone would like. Combined with mutual trust
  and respect, these three attributes help partners
  deal with difficult situations.
• Adaptability allows a partnership to respond
  positively to inevitable change, uncertainty and
  conflict.

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Desirable Attributes (contd)

• Equitable power for partners (does not mean equal
  power). Even when differential power is held, all
  partners must be able to be involved, and feel
  valued.
• Benefits to all partners. If no prospect of
  benefits for all partners, and if benefits will
  not be distributed or shared equitably, prospects
  for a sustained partnership are low.
• Communication channels. Potential for
  misunderstanding and miscommunication always
  exists, even in the presence of mutual trust and
  respect.

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Effective Partnerships

• Viessman (1993 14)
• ... partnering must be based on an understanding
  that the missions, legislative mandates, and
  administrative policies among partners may be
  very different. It requires that differences in
  view be identified and accepted, and that
  commonalities in interest be sought as the
  building blocks for consensus. The goal should
  be to ensure that there are no real losers, that
  all receive some spoils in pursuing a common
  target. Partners must recognize that trade-offs
  must be made to improve the collective whole. A
  necessary condition for establishing mutual trust
  is that partnering arrangements be open, frank
  and honest. Unless that condition is met, there
  will be little incentive for meaningful
  cooperation.

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POWER

• Power strength, might, force authority,
  control, influence (World Book Dictionary)
• Authority, control, influence mean power to
  direct or to act on others
• Authority applies to legal power, given by a
  persons position or office, to give commands and
  enforce obedience.
• Control applies to power, given by a persons
  position, to direct people and things.
• Influence applies to personal power, coming
  from a persons character, personality or
  position, to shape the actions of others.
• Partnerships and participatory approaches
  normally involve reallocation of authority and
  control.

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THREE TYPES OF TENSION RELATED TO IWRM,
PARTNERSHIPS, AND POWER

• Collaboration versus Competition
• Cooperation and Collaboration
• Imply willingness of two or more people or groups
  to work together.
• Imply sharing of information, knowledge,
  expertise, and resources along with risks and
  benefits from working together.
• Motivation different individuals or groups
  contribute specific knowledge, experience and
  expertise, which when combined lets the
  partnership accomplish goals not achievable by
  any one participant.

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• Competition
• Competition to try hard to obtain something
  wanted by others be rivals contend to strive
  for preeminence (World Book Dictionary).
• Partnerships assume a willingness to collaborate
  and cooperate.
• Humans often are competitive, and highly
  motivated by self interest.

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• Implication
• More time and care needed to create management
  processes based on the presence of competition
  related to satisfying self interest, rather than
  on willingness to share, be open, and cooperate.
  
• Significantly, need to design partnerships, both
  formal and informal, to take advantage of the
  likelihood of ongoing competition and conflict,
  based on differing values and interests, to
  ensure that conflict can be a positive force.

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• Homogeneous versus Heterogeneous Publics
• Infrequently one public or one public interest
  normally, many publics with diverse and often
  conflicting interests.
• Distinction often made between active and
  inactive publics.
• Active public easily heard from.
• Challenge is to ensure that active publics
  represent full range of public interests.
• Much public participation initiatives focus on
  the inactive public.

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• Big Picture versus Local Perspective
• IWRM focuses on entire system, or on big
  picture.
• Many individuals and groups interested only in a
  part of the entire system.
• Challenges
• how to take big picture view, yet be sensitive
  to specific local conditions
• how to reconcile conflicts among different
  localized interests and groups.

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STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS TENSIONS
CONTEXT
VISION

• Mix of Leverage Points to achieve IWRM

CREDIBILITY
FUNCTIONS
CULTURE ATTITUDES
STRUCTURE
PROCESSES MECHANISMS
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• Mix of Participatory Mechanisms for IWRM

Rungs Nature of Involvement Degrees of Power Sharing
1. Manipulation Rubberstamp committees
2. Therapy Powerholders educate or cure citizens Non-participation
3. Informing Citizens rights and options are identified
4. Consultation Citizens are heard but not necessarily heeded Degrees of tokenism
5. Placation Advice is received from citizens but not acted upon
6. Partnership Trade-offs are negotiated
7. Delegated Citizens are given management power for all or parts of programs Degrees of citizen power
8. Citizen control
Source S. Arnstein, A Ladder of Citizen
Participation, Journal of the American Institute
of Planners 35, no. 4 (1969)216-24.1
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• Mix of Scales for IWRM and Partnership Approaches
• Entire Catchment Create a catchment-based
  stakeholder group with representation from all
  sub-areas and sectors in the basin.
• Provides a big picture perspective, to consider
  a full range of values and interests, and
  associated conflicts, such as those involving
  different priorities due to different spatial
  interests (such as from upstream and downstream
  communities) or different sectoral interests
  (such as from forestry, agriculture, wildlife,
  recreation, etc.).

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• Sub-Catchments In parallel with the
  catchment-wide group, sub-catchment groups ensure
  the catchment-wide group does not get overwhelmed
  by the many interests and conflicts across an
  entire basin, and also does not develop
  strategies or initiatives that do not make sense
  in sub-catchments.
• Several members from each sub-catchment group
  become members of the catchment-wide group, to
  ensure that the spatial and sectoral views from
  each sub-catchment is shared at the catchment
  scale.

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ELEMENTS OF BEST PRACTICE FOR IWRM AND
PARTNERSHIPS

1. Importance of understanding and appreciating the
   context or local conditions which require
   capacity to custom design solutions.
2. Appreciation of the need to take a long-term
   perspective. Problems usually were not created
   in a few years and therefore are unlikely to be
   resolved quickly. Decades often are required to
   stop or reverse degradation, or to resolve
   scarcity problems.

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BEST PRACTICE (contd)

1. Importance of having a vision or desirable
   direction so that there is a clear understanding
   about the desired future condition.
2. Legitimacy or credibility for an integrated and
   collaborative approach must be established, best
   achieved through ongoing commitment from
   political and other leaders in local communities.

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BEST PRACTICE (contd)

1. A leader or champion who will continue to work
   for and support an integrated and collaborative
   approach through inevitable set backs,
   disappointments and frustrations. Such a
   committed leader often is the key factor related
   to success.
2. Willingness to share or redistribute power is
   usually necessary, if significant change is to
   occur.

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BEST PRACTICE (contd)

1. A multi-stakeholder group should be created to
   ensure that processes are representative, open,
   transparent and accessible.
2. Decisions by the multi-stakeholder group should
   be based on consensus, the best way to ensure
   long-term commitment from the community to accept
   decisions.

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BEST PRACTICE (contd)

• Awareness of the likelihood of burnout by
  volunteers from the community who participate in
  IWRM.
• There never can be enough time devoted to
  communication within and between groups. Such
  communication should be done in plain language
  to ensure all participants are kept informed and
  updated. progress regarding decisions and plan
  recommendations.