Land and water governance IFAD experience

Transcription

1 Land and water governance IFAD experience

2 Land and water governance IFAD experience

3 1 INTRODUCTION The development of land and water resources is central to the achievement of the Millennium Goals. But water and not land typically dominates the international debate. The main focus of attention is on sustainable access to safe drinking water (Goal 7) and this can distract attention from an equally important and more significant water user in volumetric terms. This is water use in agriculture and its role in food security and poverty alleviation. In most developing countries more than 80 percent of available water resources are already committed to agriculture. Several countries are already below the internationally accepted water poverty limit of 500m3/capita/yr and the demand continues to grow. So it is paradoxical that more than half the water diverted for agriculture is wasted when there are such severe water shortages. The implications of this for reducing poverty and hunger are significant (Goal 1). Most international development agencies and water managers now agree that the growing water crisis is not so much a crisis of resource availability but one of governance and that improving Water Governance could be the most effective means of meeting the Millennium Goals. This refers to the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society. But from a farmers point of view water is not an issue that can be treated separately from land for them the linkages between the two are self-evident land without water is of little use in an arid climate as is access to water without land. Land provides the pathway to water. Securing access to land often secures access to water as well and this enables farmers to invest with confidence in management practices and technologies that enables them to improve their livelihoods and to use limited water resources wisely. To address the water crisis comprehensively means fully recognising the significance of land and its influence on water governance so the real issue is one of Land and Water Governance and not just Water Governance. Over the past decade IFAD has been supporting changes in land and water governance as a means of improving poor peoples access to productive natural resources. The aim is to ensure such changes support the reduction of poverty, increased food security and improved livelihoods among rural populations. This involves working at all levels with national and local governments to introduce changes in national policy and legislation and at a local level engaging with civil society through NGOs to build social capital and empower people to participate in managing the common property resources on which their livelihood depends. This paper makes the case for Land and Water Governance by synthesising IFAD s recent experience in this field gained through loans and grants and presents some of the lessons learnt that may be of benefit for future projects involving land and water development. 1

4 2 SYNTHESIS Four case studies were selected for review and synthesis (sections 3-6 for full details) from which it is planned to seek out the generic issues that would be of value to others involved in land and water governance reform. There is a geographical spread Bangladesh, Peru, The Sudan, and Zimbabwe as well as a variety of experiences and different ways of approaching reform. THE CASE STUDIES Secure access to land Secure + access + training, inputs, = to water Access to technology, markets Increased agricultural production, food security, increased income, sustainable land use BANGLADESH The case study from Bangladesh demonstrates how major reforms in the governance of inland water bodies, supported by several external agencies, can significantly improve the livelihoods of poor landless fishers. Inland fisheries are critically important to its people for food security and livelihood but access to lakes by poor landless fishers is problematic. The wealthy tend to dominate the annual leasing arrangements that leave most fishers to work as share catchers with minimal reward. The lack of secure tenure means there is no incentive for people to invest in the lakes and so they remain in a poor unproductive state which does little to sustain and improve the livelihoods of the landless fishers. Over the past 14 years the situation in the project area has improved significantly following a package of reforms that introduced long-term lease arrangements for the lakes, decentralized resource management to fisher groups and limited group membership to those below a set poverty limit to protect the poor. All this encouraged private investment in the lakes with the result that lakes productivity, fish stocking levels, fishers incomes and infrastructure improved. Women also benefited by the introduction of further reforms that gave them full access to inputs and benefits. It is an example of how reforms in government leasing practices combined with the legal establishment of fisher organisations and their empowerment to take on responsibility for sustainably managing their resources can produce a win-win situation both for the government and the individuals involved. PERU This case from Peru is about smallholder irrigation in communities in the High Andes that are based on long established land and water management practices. Land and water governance reforms over an eight-year period have transformed agricultural productivity and improved the livelihoods of these rural communities. Peru has a long history of natural resources practices in land and water management. Although much of the indigenous knowledge of hillside agriculture, terrace conservation practices and irrigation was lost over the past 500 years or so; some of it has survived in the community of Asmayacu. More than ha of maize, grazing lands, and other crops 3

5 are cultivated on Pre-Colombian terraces year round. Traditional institutions are used to manage land and water resources. The general assembly of community members elects its water representatives each year and they are given the responsibility and related powers to take care of maintenance and water management, which is based on a time schedule agreed upon by the communities. Women are responsible for irrigation as they have the skills and knowledge. Over a period of four years the community was supported with infrastructure and capacity development and five other similar communities were encouraged to adopt similar practices. The communities benefited from a significant shift in decision-making from government extension and supply services to village organisations with consequent improvements in individual livelihoods. THE SUDAN In contrast to Peru the case from The Sudan is about large-scale irrigation and the need to improve the livelihoods of a large number of poor farming families by reforming practices that develop individual and institutional capacity to take over the responsibility for managing the scheme from the State. Set up in the 1920s to settle nomadic people, it fell into decline in the 1970s. The management is authoritative, top-down and moribund and farmers accuse managers of lacking in empathy with their need for social development, income generation and a sustainable livelihood. The traditional approach to rehabilitating such schemes has been infrastructure-led but this project, which began in 2003 with IFAD support, focuses on improving the livelihoods of households in the area and puts livelihoods rather than infrastructure development firmly at the core of future investment. Infrastructure rehabilitation is planned to meet the desired capacity development. Local people will be empowered to take responsibility for the scheme by providing them with secure access to land and water. Significant capacity development is needed and institutional reforms are planned at all levels to include representation of all the stakeholders. The participation and collaboration of all stakeholders is seen as critical to the success of this project and existing local community organizations will be the vehicle for developing the new organizations that will enable people to gain more secure rights to land and water. However, it remains to be seen if a society that has a strong and long tradition of supply-driven irrigation management with farmers as tenants can change rapidly to one where farmers have land and water rights and responsibilities for their own future livelihoods. ZIMBABWE The case for Zimbabwe is similar to Peru in that it deals with communities of poor farmers and small-scale irrigation. But in this case the farmers have little experience of irrigation and their tenure is insecure. A small rural community of farming families is actively seeking to reform land and water governance and have elicited the help of a national NGO with regional connections and international support to help them. Some 70 percent of Zimbabwe s population depend on land and water resources for their livelihoods but all title to natural resources is vested in the President who holds it in trust for the population. Poor farmers do enjoy users rights but one community wishes to go further and rehabilitate a small-scale irrigation scheme to improve their livelihoods. To do this requires investment and under the present land tenure arrangements, the community cannot use the land as collateral to obtain credit. 4

6 A regional platform the Women s Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa (WLWRSA) together with its national antenna the Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLZ) is working in partnership with the community to establish secure land and water rights. This is an innovative step for both the community and WLWRSA WLZ. The community has the enthusiasm and the will for change but no experience of advocacy and only limited experience of irrigated agriculture. WLWRSA and WLZ have skills in lobbying and advocacy but no experience of commercial irrigation. But together they hope to succeed in changing the law that will enable the community, and many other like them, to invest in the land and to start operating commercially. RESULTS AND LESSONS These four case studies represent a wide range of approaches that are generally well adapted to the local circumstances. Several common elements were found: In most developing countries agricultural water use accounts for more than 80 percent of the available resources. An increased focus on this is required to address the water crisis. In agriculture, water and land cannot be treated as separate issues they are symbiotic. This corresponds to the core interest of IFAD target population to access land and water assets. So water governance reforms must consider land reforms as well. As access to water is often linked to access to land, securing land tenure for poor farmers is a pathway to securing water rights. This in turn leads to access to credit and investment in farms with the potential to improve livelihoods and to reduce water wastage. Land and water governance already exists in some form and so the issue is about reform. Implicit in reform is the improvement of livelihoods of the rural poor. In order not to just establish a new book of rules and laws, full participation and commitment of all the stakeholders involved in the changes needs to be supported. The consequent blending of indigenous knowledge and customs with reforms are then likely to encourage the process of change. Reform can be a long, slow process of change and sufficient time must be allowed for enlisting broad support. Since such a process does not always fit with time and budget constraints normally associated with projects, NGOs can be a useful vehicle. They can develop long-term partnerships that outsiders would find difficult to do, as well as maintain contact with civil society needs between projects Individuals, communities and NGOs must have the capacity to take on the responsibilities that reforms bring. This may involve developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes of individuals, strengthen organizations and developing an enabling environment within which individuals and organizations can work effectively. Building social capital is an essential part of capacity development. In its simplest sense it means the more people trust each other, the better off will be the society. It describes the features of social organizations such as social networks and interactions that facilitate coordination and cooperation among people so they can act collectively for mutual benefit. The role of women in land and water use has to be recognized more openly and accounted for in the reformed, legally binding rules that protect them. Governments are traditionally strong institutions and provided they are properly funded and trained they can represent one of the best options for the sustainability of training and technical services provision that farmers need in the long term. 5

7 Governments are usually reluctant to change because of costs implications when one considers the sheer inertia of change and the reluctance of people and organizations, steeped in a culture of supply, to change for something that may, in the short term, be to their detriment. One of the positive drivers within government is the cost saving once responsibilities are transferred to the community. External support is important. Financial support, combined with policy dialogue, can act as a catalyst for the NGOs, communities and Governments to pursue the benefits of change. International agencies also provide a sense of international recognition, credit and encouragement to national and local organizations and small communities. There is however, the question of sustainability of change. 6

8 3 CASE STUDY BANGLADESH IMPROVING BENEFITS FOR POOR, LANDLESS FISHERS In Bangladesh inland fisheries are critically important to its people for food security and livelihood with over 80 percent of rural households catching some fish each year either for their own consumption or for sale. But access to inland lakes for fishing can be problematic, particularly for the landless poor who rely on fishing for their livelihood. Under the usual system, the lakes are leased on an annual basis by auction, but these tend to be taken up by the more wealthy and influential people in the community. This leaves most poor landless fishers to work as share catchers and they are entitled to retain only 25 percent of their catch. The lack of secure tenure from one year to the next means that there is little incentive for people to invest in the lakes. The result is they remain in a poor condition, productivity is low and the system of lake management does little to sustain and improve the livelihoods of the landless fishers. In the 1980s the Government, with World Bank support, tried to improve the system by taking full control of some of the lakes. They appointed teams of fishers and paid them 40 percent of the catch. But this was not sustainable as it relied on continual maintenance and fish stocking using government funds and the management system was open to corrupt practices. In 1990, resource management of 23 lakes in southwest Bangladesh The Oxbow Lakes Small Scale Fishermen Project was decentralized using 50-year leases to fishers to enable them to invest in stocking fish and maintaining and improving the lake infrastructure. Fisher groups were formed Lake Management Groups (LMGs) to take responsibility for the leases and to manage the lakes using a common property regime (CPR) that would increase the flow of benefits to poor fishers, both men and women. CPR is a system of common property rights over a resource that can overcome the problems of open access such as exploitation by individuals within a group. It introduces equal sharing of costs and benefits by fishers as a means of securing higher income the target is 50% of the catch. To encourage women to participate in the project additional membership rules were imposed to give them full access to inputs and benefits. Normally LMGs membership is predominantly male and in some cases this made it difficult to secure user rights of poor single women. To overcome this small Pond Farming Groups (PFGs) with five to eight women members were established with the same rights as the LMGs. Some seven years after the project ended an evaluation showed that: Leases were still largely in the hands of those who had secured the rights during the project, although there were some problems when leases came up for renewal after 10 years as some non-fishers tried to take control of the lakes. Rules alone proved not enough to protect fishers from exploitation. LMGs need strong social capital to practice effective management within a CPR. They also need working financial capital. The better LMGs, which pay 60 percent and more to members, use harvest income or bank credits to purchase fingerlings and manage lake operations. 7

9 Those LMGs that lack social and financial capital are prey to traders who can exploit the situation and take over management and financial control to the detriment of the fishers income. Many members of the more successful LMGs used income from fishing to buy land outright or on a mortgage to grow rice. This too proved successful since the cash from fish paid the mortgage and so they did not have to sell their rice immediately following harvest and they could afford to wait until the price rose before selling. Fishers were also innovative in their approach to fish management. One group began harvesting smaller table size fish of about 0.5kg rather than the recommended size of 1kg. This size proved easier to sell and enabled the LMG to exploit the full biological carrying capacity of the lake. This has now become a standard part of lake fisheries management in the region. Overall the project, more than 7 years after completion, is considered successful. Both the lakes and ponds have become resources with substantially improved productivity. There are high levels of stocking and income, the water condition is good in almost all cases and the infrastructure provided by the project has been properly maintained and in some case improved. LESSONS LEARNED This project was completed in 1997 and evaluations since then have proved valuable in developing important lessons. Although this project is predominantly about water, inland fishing is about exploiting the interface between land and water and so the issues of land cannot be ignored in pursuance of improved water governance. The empowerment of individuals and grassroots organizations to take full responsibility for the use and sustainability of their resources is implicit in the desire to introduce effective governance of the lakes. Governance is not just a new set of rules laid down by Government. It represents a major change in way in which fishers go about developing their livelihoods. Granting long-term secure tenure of productive lakes to fisher groups is essential to stimulate sustainable resource management and provides the incentives necessary for poor people to invest in the resource base. It is also central to ensuring the establishment of CPR systems of management that can enable both costs and benefits of resource management to be shared equitably by fishers. The protective environment for poor fishers created by OLP II is being replicated in the ongoing Aquaculture Development Project (AqDP). Lease duration in this follow-up project has been reduced from 50 years to 20 years. The approach to leasing was also taken up in ICLARM s CBFM programme and The World Bank financed Fourth Fisheries Project (FFP). These projects have been operating under 15 and 10 year lease arrangements respectively. It is notable that in spite of the excellent poverty reduction benefits of long term leasing to the poor, the OLP II approach has not been upscaled beyond individual projects. This may well be due to the fact that the approach implies major redistribution of lucrative resources from powerful vested interests in favor of the poor, and is hence very resource intensive. A strong legal framework is essential to provide fisher groups with the power to seek redress if contractual obligations are not fulfilled or the ownership of resources is challenged by outsiders, however powerful they might be. In addition, fisher groups need constant support from pro-poor institutions such as the Department of Fisheries and NGOs to ensure their legal rights are enforced. 8

10 Fisher groups need several key elements to function properly. They must possess strong social capital, favourable access to financial capital and legally enforceable rules to conduct their affairs. They can also protect the group from exploitation by outsiders who may be keen to take over the weaker groups. Rules are also needed that protect individuals within groups from internal and external exploitation. Capacity development is essential to build the new fisher groups, to instill the democratic and participative processes of CPR and to develop the social capital on which they depend. Individuals also need to develop technical and administrative skills in order to set up and run LMGs. The new knowledge needs to be spread throughout a community to ensure that no one monopolizes the group. Group size is a factor in performance. In the smaller there is more collective action and members could easily monitor and check the actions of each other. However, they are more vulnerable to outside threats. The larger groups are not easily threatened by outsiders but they tend to be less effective because of their larger credit needs and their social capital is weaker. The time taken to achieve improved governance is considerable. The project started in 1990 and finished in 1997 but steady improvements have continued since that date. 9

11 4 CASE STUDY PERU RESTORING LAND USE THROUGH LOCAL WATER GOVERNANCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN HIGH ANDES COMMUNITIES In Peru many poor farmers live on the steep hillsides of the High Andes and are vulnerable to the impacts of erosion and land degradation. They literally live at the margin of society and face an uncertain future. There is a long history of knowledge and ancient natural resources management practices particularly in managing soil and water on the steep slopes of the High Andes. Yet, in the last 500 years a number of these practices were forgotten or abandoned for sociopolitical, economical or environmental reasons. But one community of 67 families, Asmayacu, kept alive the ancestral knowledge and practices for the conservation of terraces and irrigation water application and management. More than 1 000ha of maize, grazing lands, and other Andean crops (some under irrigation) are kept under cultivation on Pre-Colombian terraces year round. Traditional social structures are used to effectively manage land and water. The general assembly of community members elects its water representatives (alcalde) each year. They are given the responsibility and related powers to take care of maintenance, distribution and use of water for the various sectors. Management is based on a time schedule agreed upon by the communities. Water is distributed among terraces of varying size (between 100 and m 2 depending on the gradient of the mountain). Stone walls (up to 4 m in height) contain packed soil, which is planted. During irrigation, special care is needed to avoid land slides from excess water. Women are mainly in charge of irrigation and they have the skills and knowledge to see when the soil profiles are sufficiently watered thereby preventing saturation which could provoke wall collapse due to water infiltration. Considering the efficiency of existing indigenous practices and organizational structures the MARENASS project further supported terrace rehabilitation, natural fertilisation, technical assistance and the dissemination of knowledge through another social tradition called "competition on skills" that is used within the community of Asmayacu and between five communities of the MARENASS project. LESSONS LEARNED The MARENASS project is ending this year, after eight years of operation. The lessons from this experience include: The project has seen the devolution of decision-making and its focus on turning around government agricultural extension supply services towards a wider spectrum of socioeconomic issues which rural households and their communities perceive as important. Farmers have changed from being clients to citizens responsible for planning, defining priorities and administering funds (US$30m). This has proved to be very positive. The transfer of decision-making power and authority over resources to communities and households has had considerable impacts: economic impact at household level; an increase of the sense of citizenship at community level, which enables them to assume a role in policy-setting; and regulation and guidance. 11

12 The MARENASS project used a traditional celebration as the means to create competition between households within a community and between communities. This mechanism facilitated the dissemination of good practices, in particular the "composturas". The MARENASS project also developed the capacity of individuals and the communities as well as service providers. There was a strong need to raise awareness on the accountability of service providers to their clients. The farmers and communities cooperated with each other in order to reach a critical mass and purchase power for the required services. 12

13 5 CASE STUDY THE SUDAN LOCAL GOVERNANCE TO SECURE ACCESS TO LAND AND WATER IN THE LOWER GASH WATERSHED This case study concerns the challenges of revitalizing a large-scale spate irrigation scheme in eastern Sudan that was set up by government in the 1920s to settle poor nomadic people into a cash economy growing cotton. It is a traditional large-scale, supply-driven irrigation development employing tenant farmers that went into serious decline in the 1970s for a variety of reasons. The approach to rehabilitating such schemes has traditionally been infrastructure-led but IFAD is supporting the revitalization by focusing on the improvement of livelihoods of the many thousands of households in the area through the Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project. A central feature of this is to empower local people to take responsibility for the scheme by providing them with secure access to land and water. The Gash Delta in eastern Sudan is inhabited by nomadic people who traditionally exploited the seasonal floods from the ephemeral Gash River for grazing, subsistence sorghum and producing crop residues for animals. Irrigated agriculture was introduced to the area in the 1920s to settle the nomads and improve livelihoods. Canalization was used to divert the seasonal river floods to irrigate cotton and some sorghum and secure grass growth for animal feed. A central government based authority was set up to manage, maintain and finance the agricultural operations and product marketing as well organising the allocation of land and irrigation water. The Gash delta covers some 295,000ha; of this 168,000ha is irrigable land with canalization covering some 105,000ha. The scheme went into serious decline in recent decades and there are many reasons for this. Cotton as a cash crop ceased production in the 1970s and this led to financial decline, which had a knock-on effect on the provision of local social services and primary education provided particularly for poor households. Droughts and security problems have led to an influx of large numbers of people in and around the scheme, which has increased the demand on meager resources. The total cultivated area has decreased by 50 percent over the past 20 years and the area per tenant has declined from 3ha to 0.5ha. Many of the poorest farmers now rely on sharecropping on small plots of land occasionally allotted to them. In 2002 the irrigated area was reduced to 8,400ha (8 percent of the total) a record low. Managerial and institutional issues have also played a prominent role in this decline. The government controlled management structure, which has always been essentially authoritative and top-down in approach, has changed many times over the scheme s history and scheme managers are perceived by farmers as lacking in understanding their need for social development, income generation and a sustainable livelihood. Until recently there has been no agreed development plan for the area and a lack of financial support. This has led to an ad-hoc and unpredictable use of current resources and investments that lacks transparency, inequitable patronage systems, erratic support services and nonpayment of service charges that have led to a weakening of traditional solidarity and social support mechanisms. This has not been helped by the problems of recruiting good staff to work in remote regions and demanding environments. 13

14 Until now farmers have been tenants with no security of land tenure. Land allocation practices are decided by a lottery each season a process over which farmers have no control. Water allocations too are uncertain but these are dependent to some extent on the Gash flooding as well as the managers ability to control and distribute available water. Farmers see the need for a transparent and community-led means of allocating legally recognised secure access to land as an essential pre-requisite to their future livelihood within the scheme. Access to land is also seen as an important step towards securing access to water for irrigation. To this end an IFAD supported project started in 2003 with the aim of regenerating the livelihoods of 67,000 poor households based upon a shared vision of development and stable institutional arrangements between farmers and administration at different levels. This approach places livelihoods rather than infrastructure development firmly at the core of future investment and highlights the key institutional and economic arrangements needed to enable local development, economic stability and social and gender equity. Infrastructure rehabilitation will be designed to meet the desired capacity development. Institutional changes are planned at all levels. The existing Board of Directors that have overall responsibility for the scheme will evolve to include grass-roots in decision making and will comprise representatives of all stakeholders from government ministry staff to farmers unions and water user associations. New land allocation procedures will replace the lottery system. A judicial committee (Legal Committee for Land Reform) has already been established to examine tenancy rights and claims and has set up a commonly accepted land register. Tenants will be allotted areas in specified locations that will be registered permanently in their names. The effect of this will be to reduce the number of tenants and increase the allotted area to a more financially viable area of 1.25ha per household. Farmers will be encouraged to form Water User Associations with legally established powers to manage irrigation water and to collect water charges on behalf of the Board. The legal text is already being prepared. Representatives from WUAs will be Directors on the Board. The participation and collaboration of stakeholders is critical to the success of this project and existing local community organizations will be the vehicle for developing new forms of organization that allow the local people to gain more secure rights to natural resources and to manage them in a concerted, equitable and sustainable manner. LESSONS LEARNED This project is in its very early stages and so drawing too many lessons from it is premature. However, there are features that are worthy of note: The project is innovative for The Sudan as it is designed to put people first. Infrastructure will then be developed to fit the desired capacity of the people. This is in contrast to most government-initiated development in the past, particularly in irrigation, which has been led by infrastructure development with little or no participation of stakeholders. This project reverses that traditional process and it remains to be seen just how successful this will be in a society with a long history and culture of the top-down approach. Effective land and water governance is at the core of this project. Secure access to land and water is seen as the key to implementing this change in development approach and to its successful outcome. Without security of land tenure experience has shown that farmers are unlikely to invest in the land. But land without water is of little benefit in this region, as is access to water without land. So the focus is on the governance of both land and water and the inter-relationships between the two. 14

15 The full participation of all stakeholders in the project planning and implementation process is seen as an important pre-requisite for these significant changes in land and water governance to succeed. But if people are to engage effectively in this process they will need the capacity to do so. This means developing the institutional structures that enable individuals to function effectively and a favourable social and economic environment within which they work as well as ensuring that individuals develop new skills and practices. Building new institutional structures can be fraught with difficulties and it is often better to build on existing ones rather than start with a blank sheet. In this case there is only the Board of Directors in place and so new ones are needed but the intention is to use local well-established informal institutions such as the Farmers Union to provide a foundation on which to build. Strong legally enforced rules will be put in place to form a new Board of Directors, a Legal Committee for Land Reform with powers to allocate land title and Water User Associations that give farmers power to influence the management of water. All will have strong stakeholder representation. The challenge for this project is to develop this capacity in a society that has a strong and long tradition of top-down irrigation management with farmers as tenants and has changed rapidly to one where farmers are now owners of land with rights to seek legal redress for failure to deliver on contracted services. 15

16 6 CASE STUDY ZIMBABWE ADVOCACY FOR COMMUNITY RIGHTS TO LAND AND WATER IN LUSHONKWE This case from Zimbabwe is about how a regional platform, a national NGO and a rural community are working in partnership to develop an advocacy and lobbying strategy that will influence national policy formulation on land and water governance. The aim is to enable poor farmers to secure access to land and to water for irrigation to improve their livelihoods. Some 70 percent of Zimbabwe s population depends on land and water resources for their livelihoods but all title to natural resources is vested in the President (under the new Land Reform and Resettlement Programme), who holds it in trust for the population. Poor farmers do enjoy users rights with 99-year leases but the community of Lushonkwe in Matabeleland, comprising some 160 farming families, wished to go further and rehabilitate a small-scale irrigation scheme to improve their livelihoods. This requires investment and as no one has secure land tenure that can be used as collateral they cannot obtain credit. In parallel with the desires of this community a national NGO Women and Land In Zimbabwe (WLZ) in association with a regional platform the Women s Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa (WLWRSA) has been working to address women s land and water rights and to improve their access to production resources. Their main expertise developed since 1998 is lobbying and advocacy for change at the highest levels in government. Over a 3-year period WLZ has been reviewing the status of women in relation to the new Land Reform and Resettlement Programme and they have identified valueadded natural resources that might benefit women and carried out an assessment study to determine the needs of resettled women farmers, which they shared with other NGOs in southern Africa. It is of note that very few NGOs work in this area in spite of its importance to poor communities throughout the region. The community of Lushonkwe village provided WLZ with an opportunity for a practical test case to demonstrate the current difficulties in governance and the need for change. Although principally focused on advocacy, WLZ recognised they would need to develop their own technical and business capacity in order to support irrigation development. They also recognised that they would need to deal with the wider issues of family and community and not just women. The main thrust of the test case is to seek group title for land by challenging the existing legal and policy framework. The nature of smallholder irrigation and the need for cooperative management of common water resources lends itself to group ownership rather than to individual tenure. The securing of water rights would follow as water rights are linked to land tenure. This is an innovative step for both the community and WLZ. The community has enthusiasm and the will for change but no experience of advocacy and only limited experience of irrigated agriculture. WLZ has the advocacy skills but no experience planning and implementing a commercial irrigation scheme. However, if successful, their combined efforts could enable the community, and others like them, to invest in the land and to begin operating commercially. 17

17 Seeking group title is also a significant innovative step in Zimbabwe and would require a major shift in policy and in the law governing natural resources. However, there are precedents for group title in other African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and in South Africa where provision is made for this under the Communal Lands Rights Act, Although this process is still underway it is possible to identify a number of pre-requisites that have enabled the community to make good progress so far. The first is the full participation, commitment and empowerment of the community to take the many steps ranging from advocacy and lobbying at various levels of government through to planning and implementing a smallholder irrigation project. Paying lip service to participative processes, as is often the case in development projects, is not enough. Evidence from this community suggests that the farmers are pressing strongly for the group land title and have expressed a willingness to go all the way to get it. The community, with support from WLZ, is attempting to engage with all stakeholders by linking up with relevant local organisations. The local government authority has already offered their support. A second element is the strong empathy and trust that has grown between the WLZ and the community over the three years they have been working together. A third element is the development of the capacity of both the community and WLZ to undertake all the tasks envisaged. This involves not just the skills of individuals but institutional development to enable the community to operate as a cohesive organisation. The skills needed include advocacy and lobbying, financial, conflict and management skills and also technical and entrepreneurial skills to operate and maintain commercial irrigation. The community also recognises the need for specialist service providers for the planning and implementation of the irrigation scheme although their remoteness from the main source of services in Harare does create problems. Although this local groundswell of opinion strongly supports a change in governance, the process is still underway and at present it is not at all sure how it will turn out. A significant shift in land and water governance is being demanded and this may be resisted by the Government, which is still silent on the issue. But there is some growing support from local authorities that are under pressure to come forward with win-win solutions to resource conflicts. Continued cohesion among those seeking change is seen as essential to avoid divisions that may weaken their case. Because of the attitude of the Zimbabwe government, IFAD activities involving loans have been suspended but others continue through civil society. Financial support is given via grants to NGOs. In this case technical and advocacy support is provided through an international NGO the International Land Coalition (ILC). The support by IFAD is important not just in terms of finance but also by providing a sense of international recognition, credit and encouragement to national and local organisation and small communities. It has also enabled what is essentially an advocacy NGO to develop its capacity to take on the implementation of an irrigation scheme. LESSONS LEARNED The process has been underway for some three years and is not yet complete. However, there are some lessons that can be drawn from it: The case for linking land and water governance for effective development is well made by this example of a small-scale irrigation scheme. It is vital to secure both land tenure and access to water. One without the other is not enough. A number of pre-requisites have been identified that have enabled the community to make good progress so far: Full participation of all stakeholders is essential as well as full commitment to change by the community. Lip service to participative processes would be quite counterproductive in this case. 18

18 Sufficient capacity must be developed within the community and the NGOs to undertake all the tasks envisaged including the development of participatory skills. A strong partnership between the community and the NGO is essential if they are to work together effectively. Good working relationships can take many years to form in this case three years. Financial support from outside can act as a catalyst for both the NGOs and the community to pursue the benefits of change. Practical field experience can increase the legitimacy of NGOs that are generally advocacy-based. The links in this case between WLZ and the WLWRSA can also help to share the Zimbabwe experience across the southern African region. Very few NGOs work in this area in spite of its importance to poor communities throughout the region. Changes in land and water governance can take time. This process has been underway for three years and is now gaining momentum but it may take as much time again before the community knows if it has been successful. 19

19 REFERENCES IFAD internal documents and the following case studies: 1. Ali Adeeb Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project, Kassala State, The Sudan 2. Nathan Dev Case Study of the Oxbow Lakes Small-Scale Fishermen s Project, Bangladesh 3. Abby Taka Mugugu A Case Study on Land and Water Governance in Tuli-Lushonkwe Village, Gwanda District, Matabeleland South Province, Zimbabwe 4. Theofilo Zamalloa Riego con Composturas, una técnica que ahorra agua y conserva el suelo. Experiencia de la Comunidad Campesina de Asmayacu Apurímac, Perú ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to acknowledge all the inputs made by IFAD staff and consultants, especially Heli Perrett, and partners, FAO and ILC. 21