Planning in Democratizing River Basins: The Case for a Co-Productive Model of Decision Making

Abstract

We reflect on methodologies to support integrated river basin planning for the Ayeyarwady Basin in Myanmar, and the Kamala Basin in Nepal, to which we contributed from 2017 to 2019. The principles of Integrated Water Resources Management have been promoted across states and regions with markedly different biophysical and political economic conditions. IWRM-based river basin planning is complex, resource intensive, and aspirational. It deserves scrutiny to improve process and outcome legitimacy. We focus on the value of co-production and deliberation in IWRM. Among our findings: (i) multi-stakeholder participation can be complicated by competition between actors for resources and legitimacy; (ii) despite such challenges, multi-stakeholder deliberative approaches can empower actors and can be an effective means for co-producing knowledge; (iii) tensions between (rational choice and co-productive) models of decision complicate participatory deliberative planning. Our experience suggests that a commitment to co-productive decision-making fosters socially legitimate IWRM outcomes.

Public Policy Analysis on Watershed Governance in Indonesia

“…The lack of government attention to planning activities in watershed management shows that the government does not consider planning activities important in realizing good watershed management, namely integrated, collaborative, and sustainable watershed management. This finding confirms that the Indonesian government does not have a good watershed management plan, which impacts the unclear direction of watershed management in Indonesia [45]. In integrated watershed management, planning activities are the first steps that the government must pay attention to and take seriously in realizing sustainable watershed management [46].…”

Managing Water Resources in Large River Basins

“…Foran et al [9] explore stakeholder participation in large basins, putting technology to one side and exploring river basin decision making from collaborative governance and deliberative process standpoints. They make the case for co-production of knowledge and planning scenarios to improve the social and political legitimacy of basin planning decisions.…”