Formal and informal decision making on water management at the village level : A case study from the Office du Niger irrigation scheme (Mali)

Vandersypen Klaartje, Keïta Abdoulaye C.T., Coulibaly Yacouba M., Raes Dirk, Jamin Jean-Yves. 2007. Formal and informal decision making on water management at the village level : A case study from the Office du Niger irrigation scheme (Mali). Water Resources Research, 43 (6), 10 p.

Liste HCERES des revues (en SHS) : oui

Thème(s) HCERES des revues (en SHS) : Economie-gestion

Résumé : [i] Water Users Associations (WUAs) are all too often considered a panacea for improving water management in irrigation schemes. Where grassroots movements are absent, they are usually imposed on farmers by national governments, NGOs, and international donors, without fully considering existing forms of organization. This also happened in the Office du Niger irrigation scheme in Mali, where after a partial irrigation management transfer, WUAs were created to fill the resulting power vacuum. This paper demonstrates that, despite active efforts to organize farmers in WUAs, informal patterns of decision making remain dominant. Given the shortcomings of these informal patterns, WUAs could provide a much-needed platform for institutionalizing collective action, on the condition that farmers accept them. Therefore WUAs should adopt some crucial characteristics of informal patterns of decision making while avoiding their weaknesses. First, making use of the existing authority of village leadership and the central management can improve the credibility of WUAs. Second, allowing flexibility in procedures and rules can make them more appropriate for dealing with collective action problems that are typically temporary and specific. Last, formalizing the current pattern of conflict management and sanctioning might enhance its sphere of action and tackle the current absence of firm engagement with respect to some informal management decisions. In addition, WUAs should represent and be accountable to all farmers, including those residing outside the village community.

Classification Agris : P10 - Ressources en eau et leur gestion

Champ stratégique Cirad : Axe 6 (2005-2013) - Agriculture, environnement, nature et sociétés

Auteurs et affiliations

• Vandersypen Klaartje, KUL (BEL)
• Keïta Abdoulaye C.T., URDOC (MLI)
• Coulibaly Yacouba M., URDOC (MLI)
• Raes Dirk, KUL (BEL)
• Jamin Jean-Yves, CIRAD-ES-UMR G-EAU (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0001-8540-7317

Source : Cirad - Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/539843/)

Métriques

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