URL: http:www'fao'orgagaglaglw

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International E-mail Conference on Irrigation
Management Transfer June-November 2001

• URL http//www.fao.org/ag/agl/aglw/
• waterinstitutions/toconf.htm
• Contact and order the Conferences CDROM
  imt-moderator_at_fao.org

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Partners

• FAO
• INPIM
• FORD FOUNDATION
• Conference Coordinating Committee 
• Douglas L. Vermillion, IWMI
• Martin Smith, FAO
• J. Raymond Peter, INPIM

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First session

• Registration
• Overview paper
• IMT profiles
• Case studies
• Legal study
• E\DEFAULT.HTM

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Second session
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Final session

• Theme syntheses
• Final remarks
• Fernando Gonzalez
• Ujjwal Pradhan
• Concluding statement 22 November

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Some stats

• Over 400 participants from 80 countries
• More than 140 interventions
• Conference evaluationE\EVALUA.HTM

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Conclusions and recommendations.1

• Importance of IMT
• Water sector
• Economic, administrative, fiscal, political
  reforms
• Transformations in agricultural sector
• Globalization
• Changing the rules of the game
• PIM and IMT mixed results

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Conclusions and recommendations.2

• Policies and scope
• Objective"improve equity and quality of service
  to users (through a service or demand
  orientation) and to empower users to manage the
  physical and social environments and reduce the
  cost of OM
• From tertiary canals to whole system

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Conclusions and recommendations.3

• Policies and scope (cont.)
• Pace from big bang to gradualist approach and
  pilot projects (dont work that well)
• Multi-functionality an issue of concern
  support, services, financing vs. losing focus
• Preconditions for success
• favorable reform environment and political will,
• existence of champions for change,
• clearly defined vision of the direction of
  reform,
• supportive legal framework,
• simple and transparent implementation process,
• incentives aligned with the reform,
• training and capacity building,
• monitoring, evaluation and feed-back (
  benchmarking).

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Conclusions and recommendations.4

• Policies and scope (cont.)
• Form of IMT and strength of government
• Post management transfer process
• Monitoring and evaluation or benchmarking,
• enforcing regulations and agreements,
• auditing,
• attending to complaints and dispute resolution,
  cost sharing,
• providing technical assistance,
• capacity building and
• OM of headworks
• Benchmarking

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Conclusions and recommendations.5

• Organizational, legal and regulatory framework
  for change
• Many models, based on national traditions and
  circumstances and international examples and
  other sectors
• Is legislation a pre-condition for IMT ?
• Regulatory framework
• i. create the user organizations in some cases
  under the civil law
• ii. determine the responsibilities of the
  government including authority to regulate and
  apply sanctions
• iii. establish rights and obligations of water
  users
• gt setting irrigation service fees,
• gt collection mechanisms
• gt allocation of water right

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Conclusions and recommendations.6

• Organizational, legal and regulatory framework
  for change (cont.)
• groundwater management
• conjunctive use
• maintenance and investments in drainage
• gender
• representativity, equity and internal democracy
  within the new institutions

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Conclusions and recommendations.7

• Financing and modernization of systems and
  management
• Need to strengthen technical aspects of
  irrigation. A balanced approach is needed
• Large systems require full-time well trained
  professionals
• technology can in many cases improve performance
  at low costs.
• institutional problems can limit adaptation and
  application
• IMT needs to take such factors as small holdings
  and low productivity into account in order to
  design a process that is appropriate to specific
  contexts.

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Conclusions and recommendations.8

• Financing and modernization of systems and
  management (cont.)
• What should come first, rehabilitation or
  transfer? Ideally, the systems should be in good
  operating conditions for the transfer. Some think
  that the transfer should go ahead independently
  of the investment in rehabilitation.
• A compromise is needed
• IMT is facilitated by applying rehabilitation
  funds as incentives for the transfer.
• Conditioning transfer to "rehabilitation first"
  usually stops the process.

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Conclusions and recommendations.9

• Financing and modernization of systems and
  management (cont.)
• large irrigation schemes
• Professional management organizations.
• Distance between managers and the final users
  increases mechanisms for auditing and ensuring
  transparency in operations are required.
• Small social or "cooperative associations
• can have a more direct contact and more
  participatory community work but lack the scale
  to modernize their systems.
• Right mix of investment and policy reform to set
  an effective incentive framework.
• When incentives are not aligned to the reform
  agenda the results are uncertain.
• Projects with no incentives in the form of
  rehabilitation or modernization may not be
  attractive to irrigation users.
• Sufficient budgets for OM and participation of
  users in decisions about operations and water
  scheduling.
• IMT usually increases the cost of water for
  users.
• Gvts should insure that WUAs are willing and
  capable of paying with their fees at least the
  OM and replacement costs as one of the most
  important pre-conditions to have a successful
  transfer.

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Conclusions and recommendations.10

• Financing and modernization of systems and
  management (cont.)
• volumetric provision of water delivery services
• Difficulties related to water rights and
  volumetric charging.
• lack of measurement infrastructure
• having the physical infrastructure is not
  sufficient. The challenge is to build the social
  and organizational framework to allow this
  provision.
• financial mismanagement is a real risk for WUAs.
• Accountability and transparency,
• auditing,
• disclosure and feedback from users are essential
  processes that need to be in place in IMT.

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Follow-up .1

• Conference proceedings
• www,
• CDROM,
• hardcopy
• IMT Sourcebook
• after the FAO Guidelines publication (FAO
  Irrigation Drainage Paper 58)

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Follow-up .2

• IMT toolkit
• facilitate access to information for decision
  makers and practitioners
• water rights
• incentives and pricing
• regulatory framework
• benchmarking
• institutional options
• etc.

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Follow-up.3Topics for research

• organizational options where WUAs do not have an
  executive role but represent farmer interests,
• multifunctionality of associations and need for
  control mechanisms,
• relation between infrastructure and institutional
  options,
• responsibilities of landowners and tenants,
• sanctions that associations could impose

• allocation and transfer of water rights,
• IMT and gender considerations,
• water scheduling and IMT,
• compilation of training and other support
  materials,
• volumetric water delivery,
• Financing,
• enforcement and social organization,and
• IMT, conjunctive use and drainage

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Follow-up .4

• At Beijing
• link the participatory approaches of PIM to the
  IMT concepts in order to develop a unified
  conceptual framework for reforming the irrigation
  sector
• ( - are there two schools of thought ?
• those who focus on transfer of responsibility
• Those who focus on transfer of authority
• - social capital and class, caste, gender,
  ethnicity, etc. )