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| Title |  |
Moving upstream: changing roles for users and
the state in irrigation management. (12 pages) |
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| Author | David Groenfeldt | |||
| Organisation | Economic Development Institute, now part of the World Bank Institute. | |||
| Year | ||||
| Summary/ Introduction |
The irrigation sector
provides a very graphic landscape on which to observe the
changing role of the state. In the vast networks of
irrigation canals we can literally draw a line between
the jurisdiction of the state and the jurisdiction of the
users. But we are best advised to pencil-in that line,
because the boundary is shifting. And with very few
exceptions, the boundary between the state and users is
shifting upstream. Farmers are doing more for themselves,
and the state is doing less. If we do a straight line projection of what is happening, we would perhaps predict that the state will disappear from the irrigation sector by 2015 or some such date. But no one is really predicting the demise of the state's role in managing irrigation. The interpretation I will discuss today is that the state's role is changing significantly, and in some cases dramatically, but there will continue to be an essential management role for the state. What is happening is a rationalization of the respective roles of government and users. The pendulum that had shifted far towards the direction of strong government involvement in all aspects of irrigation management is now swinging the other way, towards what I believe is a more sensible equilibrium. The topic of today's session is "What role for the State?"; but the sub-text is really "What role for the Bank?". If we are more or less correct in our assessment that the state's role is undergoing a fundamental transformation, how can we as a development Bank, and how can other development actors, respond in a constructive way? Although I tried to reduce my talk to three main sections, I could only get it down to four. First we'll discuss the continuum of how management functions can potentially be shared between irrigation users and the state. Secondly we'll consider how the trend is moving upstream, giving more responsibility to farmers. Thirdly, I'll suggest that this trend is a healthy one for both farmers and the state -- that it constitutes a classic example of "win-win". And fourth, we'll look at the implications for development organizations, and particularly the Bank. |
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Complete document (34k) |
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