Water Politics And Critical Perspectives Flashcards
Institutions
Norms, rules strategies of society. Provide frameworks for behaviour and contribute to the stability and functioning of society
- The rules of the game (Ostrom)
Definition of Governance
By the book definition:
- Complex process that considers multi-level participation beyond the state
- Includes public institutions, private sector, civil society
- looking at the greek epistemology: to steer and coordinate the economy and society, and how to reach collective goals, whether directly or indirectly (Pierre and Peters, 2000)
Newig’s representation of what governance is
1. A descriptive-analytical umbrella term of governing activities and structures, which encompasses al variations of decision making (state vs non-state, formal and informal, coordination and steering of and within policy, polity and politics)
- Different from government
As it is multi- level, actor and modal
Comes from neoliberal ideology - Governance is a value laden concept which leads to good governance
World Bank established that good governance is related to good politiy (political system) good politics (governing) and good policies (regulation, laws and programs)
Definition of water governance
Water Governance is the social function that regulates development and management of water resources and provisions of water services at different levels of society and guiding the resource towards a desirable state and away from an undesirable state.
- OECD, 2015
- The range of political, institutional and administrative rules, practices and processes (formal and informal) through which decisions are taken and implemented, stakeholders can articulate their interests and have their concerns considered, and decision-makers are held accountable for water management
- Zwarteveen et al, 2017
- The practices of coordination and decision making between different actors around
- Because, such practices are thick with politics and culture; are linked to creative processes of imagining and producing collective water futures, and combine political problems of scale (spatial, ecological, administrative, and temporal), with problems of coherence (the durable allignment of different people and different waters despite the problems of commensurability and political interests)
- The practices of coordination and decision making between different actors around
- wants to look more at the descriptive side
Give an example of water governance at every scale
Local level = waste water management
National level = harmonisation of dam building
Transnational = round table of water management
What is the definition of Government?
The administrative machinery or body through which the state’s authority is exercised and public policies are implemented.
Includes: executive, legislative and judicial branches
What are characteristics of the New Governance Approach
- Less Government Authority (instead of government and bureaucracy)
- Civil Society and Markets (instead of power monopoly)
- Diversity of actors
- Decentralisation
- Networks
- Dialogue and partnership
- Participation and negotiation
What entails the “Politics of Scale” of Gupta & Pahl-Wohl (2013)
Complexity of water governance calls for multi-level governance.
As there is not one panaceas for wicked problems such as water related problems.
Different forces and motivations lead to movement between different scales based upon priorities. (Scaling up and down).
- not as black in white in reality
What is the Subsidiarity principle?
The notion that governance should happen at the lowest level of scale.
Benefit = this brings the political and governance authority closer to the problem
Example = Water as a human right
Give the 4 reasons to scale up in the Politics of Scale of Gupta?
- To enhance understanding of a problem
motivations can be:- to account for the global hydrological system
- To determine the global impacts and thresholds of a problem & To understand ideologies driving decision making & To include actors in decision making
Example = freshwater systems are connected and need to be dealt with as a whole, what is the influence of global trade?, putting pressure on upstream countries etc.
- To Improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of policy making
Motivations: To include actors in decision making, to protect the common good, to attain sustainable development
example: holistic hydrological resource management - To promote domestic interests
Motivations = to avoid a race to the bottom
example = the EU with homogenic water quality policies per countries - To promote extra-territiorial interests
motivations=To increase the decision making space, thus enlarging the scope for trade-offs
example = the concept of virtual water (Allan), which expands the space for action
What are 3 reasons to scale down (Gupta)?
-
To Enhance Understandig
Motivation: To Enhance problem understanding regarding critical local and contextual elements
example: Local ppl know -
To Improve Effectiveness of Action
Motivation: To use existing problem-solving institutions, To Mobilize local people in designing and implementing solutions, using their knowledge and capabilities
example = To build on existing local and community institution -
To Strategise
Motivations = to manage and protect national and local interests
example= avoiding being told by other what action should be taken
Multilevel governance
Gupta and Pahl-Wohlst (2013) argument this based on the Politics of Scale
Benefits:
1) Internalizing externalities
2) Allows heterogeneity and self-organization
3) Nested hierarchies and self organisation
4) creates a balance between bottom-up and top-down approaches and cross-level coordination
Challenge = determination what should be governed at which level + what kind of cross-level coordination is required to achieve sustainable management
Focus = distribution of authority across various levels of government and organization within a hierarchical framework
Link to Ostrom nested polycentric governance
- emphasizes the existence of multiple, overlapping governance structures that operate at different scales and are capable of addressing complex environmental and resource management issues.
Both recognize importance decentralized decision-making and the need for coordination between different actors at multiple levels of governance to effectively manage common pool resources
- difference = less strict hierarchy
What are important Water Governance History moment?
From Woodhouse & Muller (2017)
- 1972 - Conference of Human Environment
- 1977 - UN Water Governance
- Since this point debates started on how water governance could and should respond to the challenges of sustainable development
- 1981 - 1990 is the international drinking water supply and sanitation decade but the 1980s deemed the lost decade for water
- 1992 - Rio Earth Summit
- Dublin ICWE
- New global institutions promoting universal norms, proliferation of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)
- Water is central
- 2000 - the Hague WWF
- Global water crisis is seen as one of management
- OECD, 2011: “ Clearly the current water crisis is not a crisis of scarcity but a crisis of mismanagement, with strong public governance features”
- 2003 - Establishment of UN-Water
- 2015 - COP21 in Paris
- 2016 - Paris Agreement & 2030 SDGs implemented
- 2018 - Start of the Water Action Decade
- 2023 - UN Water Governance
Development of decentralised governance of environmental resources + How importance grew
What are the main claims from Woodhouse & Muller (2017)?
- often not clear what water governance entails nor what its goals should be
- The role of context: difficulty that comes with the diversity of circumstances
- Weak motivations for adoption of formal global systems of water governance
- Challenging universalising norma of best practice and silver bullet solutions
- Explicitly avoiding normative approaches
- Advocating for locally-diverse approaches that see water governed within ‘Problem-sheds’ rather than ‘Water-sheds’
- Water decisions are rarely separable from social and economic, politica decisions practice
- Nexus approach
- A need to go beyond the ‘rules, practices and processes’ approach to water governance
- Moving beyond the characterisation of water as a ‘sector’ to be governed by technical criteria
Advocatisation to focus on descriptive, focus on locally-diverse approaches (link to subsidiarity from Gupta)
What are the direct and indirect drivers of water issues?
From Gupta & Pahl-WOhlst (2013)
Direct = agriculture, land-use change, infrastructure, overuse, pollution
Indirect = Economy, Demography, Technology, Climate Change
Institutions influence this too
What are the 4 ES water provides and how do these influence human well-being?
ES;
1. Regulatory services
2. Provisioning
3. Cultural
4. Supportive
Influences on Well-being:
1. Security
2. Quality of life
3. Health
4. Social Relation
