Water Study – Good Practices in Water Development in the Drylands


Background

The Regional Learning and Advocacy Project (REGLAP) is a consortium project that aims to promote resilience among vulnerable dryland communities in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya through policy change and practice.

With seemingly increasing episodes of drought, and in response to the recent 2010/2011 drought which badly affected Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia, much attention has been placed on increasing water development initiatives in the dryland areas of the Region1. Water access and availability are key factors in determining the wellbeing of local populations, their livelihoods and the surrounding environment in dryland areas. There is, however, significant evidence of the negative impacts that inappropriate water development can have on dryland ecosystems, local resource management systems and ultimately livelihoods.2 Research carried out in Ethiopia, and Kenya, has indicated considerable levels of environmental degradation around water infrastructure and in some places the entire collapse of livelihood systems as a result of disruptions to settlement, grazing patterns and ecological cycles.

Agencies providing support during emergencies are often disconnected from organisations working on long term water or natural resource management. There are few formally recognised water management plans in these areas that have been developed with communities and adhered to by all private and public interventions. Existing plans do not usually contain contingency actions to ensure rapid response interventions that are in line with the long‐term water management approaches. Water supply is also frequently considered as an isolated sector, distinct from wider natural resource or land management issues, resulting in calculations on water demand and supply that fail to understand the seasonal variation in dryland environments, or the key role that pasture and forest resource play in driving the water cycle. These and other problems often result in the development of unnecessary, or incorrectly sited, water infrastructure that break down ecological and management systems, and that are not owned or understood by local communities. More nuanced
understanding of the water systems that can guide more appropriate responses are needed in dryland areas.
Good Practice Principles Good practice principles around water development in dryland areas have been developed within the REGLAP consortium. These are currently quite broad, and have predominantly been based on ‘what not to do’ analyses of inappropriate water development across the Horn of Africa. From these 1 IGAD, AfDB 2 Gomez, Nassef, Flintan etc 3 For example, the water development cycle in Kenya guides the development of water resource user associations and development of subcatchment management plans, however currently there is no inclusion of contingency actions for when there is an emergency situation such as a drought analyses, a range of principles have been developed related to various stages of water development, from planning and design through to implementation.
The best practice principles that have been developed to date are as follows:

 The need to use and practice the principles of Integrated Water and NRM and thus to understand the broader water and NR base and management patterns
 Understand the local socio‐cultural, economic, political, institutional and ecological context prior to intervening
 Evaluate the need for additional infrastructure using methods such as Environmental and Social Impact Assessments prior to intervention
 Use locally appropriate and available technology and materials
 Integrate water development with other pastoral development interventions, such as….
 Use participatory methods to engage communities, and ensure community contribution and participation to build ownership and sustainability prior to intervening
 Strengthen existing or develop new governance arrangements around water infrastructure and its management ; build on traditional institutions wherever possible
 Strengthen the technical capacities of communities and institutions to locally maintain and operate infrastructure
 Ensure emergency interventions do not create dependency and/or undermine good governance.

The Water for DRR Learning Group of REGLAP, led by IUCN, has been established to collate and disseminate practical examples of good integrated water development in dryland environments, in order to influence and provide practical guidance to policy makers and practitioners. As such, IUCN would like to commission and oversee an investigative study that provides examples of good practice principles in use, from across dryland areas of the globe. The study will examine how the good practices were used, what took place, what the impacts of such interventions were, and what made them successful or otherwise. It will consider the underlying policy and practice environments in the case study areas that enabled, or restricted the processes and analyse the transferability of such approaches to countries of the Horn of Africa. It will relate these approaches to the specific policy and practice contexts in the Horn, and make practical suggestions on how to overcome challenges and build on opportunities to plan and implement water development differently.

Overall objective
 To provide evidence of effective approaches to water development in Dryland areas. To analyse what they achieved and how, whether they were successful or not and why, and make suggestions for transferability within the Horn of Africa context.

Specific Objectives of Study:
 To identify case study examples from global dryland areas demonstrating the use of good practices in water development.
 To examine what made these case studies successful or not, what was the enabling policy and practice context, and what were the impacts of such approaches , both positive and negative.
 To analyse the policy and practice contexts for water development in the Horn of Africa and consider the specific opportunities and challenges to adopting such good practice approaches.
 To provide practical suggestions for replicating good practices, in terms of enabling different ways of working, overcoming implementation barriers, and policy opportunities and constraints.

Areas of Research
1. Background ‐ characteristics of Drylands that are important to consider when intervening in water development
 Scale
 Climatic and Resource variability
 Mobility
 Humanitarian/Development integration
 Governance – marginal, traditional systems, across administrative units
(but also changes – land fragmentation, demographic changes – urbanisation/population growth, climate change)
2. Case Study examples of good practice principles in water development in practice:
Analysis of how the good practice approaches were implemented, what the impacts were and what made them successful or not:

Specific areas of interest:
 Examples where NRM and Water Institutions have collaborated during planning, design and implementation of water systems and infrastructure
 Examples where IWRM approaches have been adapted to dryland ecologies
 Examples of participatory practices in the planning, design and implementation of water systems and infrastructure.
 Examples of landscape level approaches to water development and planning, considering downstream impacts, seasonal movements and climatic variability.
 Examples of links between emergency and developmental water planning and interventions – contingencies, early warning, etc.
 Examples where focus on governance and institutional arrangements have ensured local ownership and engagement in the process and ensured the sustainability of the water structure and system and its use.
3. What are strengths, weaknesses; opportunities and threats (SWOT) to effective water development in Drylands?
 Implementation capacities, knowledge, resources, timeframes, institutional structures, policy environments etc
4. Analysis of water policy and practice environment within Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda
 What is the comparable policy environment within the 3 countries ‐ what will
enable/what will constrain the use of good practice?
 What opportunities are there in the policy and practice environment to adopt different
ways of working, and influence change in implementation and practice?
 What are the key challenges to overcome? What constrains adoption of good practice?
5. Practical suggestions for adopting good practice approaches?
 Suggestions on how good practice principles can be taken up in each of the 3 countries – Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. ‘How to guidelines’ for influencing changes in ways of working.
 Refined good practice principles and Indicators of success: environmental, social, economic.

Outputs
 Research report containing case study examples of good practice approaches in water development in the Drylands: how did they work? what were the impacts, why were they successful or not? ‐ including policy and practice in water development, analysis.
 Updating and deepening of the REGLAP Good Practice Principles on Water Development, containing practical ‘how to’ suggestions for adopting different implementation practice and effecting change within the contexts of water policy and practice in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

Timeline
This is time bound assignment and delivery is required with 25 days. This includes desk review, interviews, analysis and reporting writing.

Consultant
We are looking for someone with extensive knowledge on water development and drylands, consultancy experience, experience in other regions – West Africa, Sahel and excellent report writing and communication skills

How to apply 
Interested persons should submit the following documents: (i) a brief write‐up on his/her interpretation of the TORs, (ii) a work plan for the activity (iv) letter of interest, v) CV, and (vi) financial proposal to sarah.gibbons@iucn.org

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