Land and water governanceIFAD experience

Land and water governanceIFAD experience

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The development of land and water resources is central to the achievement of theMillennium 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) andthis can distract attention from an equally important and more significant water user involumetric terms. This is water use in agriculture and its role in food security and povertyalleviation. In most developing countries more than 80 percent of available water resourcesare already committed to agriculture. Several countries are already below the internationallyaccepted ‘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 whenthere are such severe water shortages. The implications of this for reducing poverty andhunger are significant (Goal 1).

Most international development agencies and water managers now agree that thegrowing water crisis is not so much a crisis of resource availability but one of governanceand that improving Water Governance could be the most effective means of meeting theMillennium Goals. This refers to the range of political, social, economic and administrativesystems that are in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of waterservices, at different levels of society.

But from a farmers’ point of view water is not an issue that can be treated separatelyfrom land – for them the linkages between the two are self-evident – land without water isof little use in an arid climate as is access to water without land. Land provides the pathwayto water. Securing access to land often secures access to water as well and this enablesfarmers to invest with confidence in management practices and technologies that enablesthem 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 WaterGovernance and not just Water Governance.

Over the past decade IFAD has been supporting changes in land and water governanceas 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 andimproved livelihoods among rural populations. This involves working at all levels – withnational 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 andempower 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 recentexperience in this field gained through loans and grants and presents some of the lessonslearnt that may be of benefit for future projects involving land and water development.

INTRODUCTION1

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Four case studies were selected for review and synthesis (sections 3-6 for full details) fromwhich it is planned to seek out the generic issues that would be of value to others involvedin 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

BANGLADESHThe case study from Bangladesh demonstrates how major reforms in the governance ofinland water bodies, supported by several external agencies, can significantly improve thelivelihoods of poor landless fishers. Inland fisheries are critically important to its people forfood security and livelihood but access to lakes by poor landless fishers is problematic. Thewealthy tend to dominate the annual leasing arrangements that leave most fishers to workas share catchers with minimal reward. The lack of secure tenure means there is noincentive for people to invest in the lakes and so they remain in a poor unproductive statewhich 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 significantlyfollowing a package of reforms that introduced long-term lease arrangements for the lakes,decentralized resource management to fisher groups and limited group membership tothose below a set poverty limit to protect the poor. All this encouraged private investmentin the lakes with the result that lakes productivity, fish stocking levels, fishers’ incomes andinfrastructure improved. Women also benefited by the introduction of further reforms thatgave them full access to inputs and benefits. It is an example of how reforms ingovernment leasing practices combined with the legal establishment of fisher organisationsand their empowerment to take on responsibility for sustainably managing their resourcescan produce a win-win situation both for the government and the individuals involved.

PERUThis case from Peru is about smallholder irrigation in communities in the High Andes thatare based on long established land and water management practices. Land and watergovernance reforms over an eight-year period have transformed agricultural productivityand 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 conservationpractices and irrigation was lost over the past 500 years or so; some of it has survived inthe community of Asmayacu. More than 1 000 ha of maize, grazing lands, and other crops

SYNTHESIS2

Secureaccess to land

+ =Secureaccess to water

Access to technology, training, inputs,markets

Increased agricultural production,food security, increased income,sustainable land use

+

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are cultivated on Pre-Colombian terraces year round. Traditional institutions are used tomanage land and water resources. The general assembly of community members elects itswater 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 scheduleagreed upon by the communities. Women are responsible for irrigation as they have theskills and knowledge.

Over a period of four years the community was supported with infrastructure andcapacity development and five other similar communities were encouraged to adopt similarpractices. The communities benefited from a significant shift in decision-making fromgovernment extension and supply services to village organisations with consequentimprovements in individual livelihoods.

THE SUDANIn contrast to Peru the case from The Sudan is about large-scale irrigation and the need toimprove the livelihoods of a large number of poor farming families by reforming practicesthat develop individual and institutional capacity to take over the responsibility for managingthe scheme from the State.

Set up in the 1920s to settle nomadic people, it fell into decline in the 1970s. Themanagement 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 butthis project, which began in 2003 with IFAD support, focuses on improving the livelihoodsof households in the area and puts livelihoods rather than infrastructure development firmlyat the core of future investment. Infrastructure rehabilitation is planned to meet the desiredcapacity development. Local people will be empowered to take responsibility for the schemeby providing them with secure access to land and water.

Significant capacity development is needed and institutional reforms are planned at alllevels to include representation of all the stakeholders. The participation and collaboration ofall stakeholders is seen as critical to the success of this project and existing local communityorganizations will be the vehicle for developing the new organizations that will enablepeople to gain more secure rights to land and water. However, it remains to be seen if asociety that has a strong and long tradition of supply-driven irrigation management withfarmers as tenants can change rapidly to one where farmers have land and water rights andresponsibilities for their own future livelihoods.

ZIMBABWEThe case for Zimbabwe is similar to Peru in that it deals with communities of poor farmersand small-scale irrigation. But in this case the farmers have little experience of irrigation andtheir tenure is insecure. A small rural community of farming families is actively seeking toreform land and water governance and have elicited the help of a national NGO withregional connections and international support to help them.

Some 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s population depend on land and water resources fortheir livelihoods but all title to natural resources is vested in the President who holds it intrust for the population. Poor farmers do enjoy users’ rights but one community wishes togo further and rehabilitate a small-scale irrigation scheme to improve their livelihoods. To dothis requires investment and under the present land tenure arrangements, the communitycannot use the land as collateral to obtain credit.

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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 workingin partnership with the community to establish secure land and water rights. This is aninnovative step for both the community and WLWRSA – WLZ. The community has theenthusiasm and the will for change but no experience of advocacy and only limitedexperience of irrigated agriculture. WLWRSA and WLZ have skills in lobbying and advocacybut no experience of commercial irrigation. But together they hope to succeed in changingthe 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 welladapted 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 watercrisis.

■ 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 waterassets. 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 poorfarmers 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 waterwastage.

■ Land and water governance already exists in some form and so the issue is aboutreform. Implicit in reform is the improvement of livelihoods of the rural poor. In ordernot 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 consequentblending of indigenous knowledge and customs with reforms are then likely toencourage the process of change.

■ Reform can be a long, slow process of change and sufficient time must be allowed forenlisting broad support. Since such a process does not always fit with time and budgetconstraints normally associated with ‘projects’, NGOs can be a useful vehicle. They candevelop long-term partnerships that outsiders would find difficult to do, as well asmaintain contact with civil society needs between ‘projects’

■ Individuals, communities and NGOs must have the capacity to take on theresponsibilities that reforms bring. This may involve developing the knowledge, skills andattitudes of individuals, strengthen organizations and developing an enablingenvironment within which individuals and organizations can work effectively.

■ Building social capital is an essential part of capacity development. In its simplest sense itmeans the more people trust each other, the better off will be the society. It describesthe features of social organizations such as social networks and interactions thatfacilitate coordination and cooperation among people so they can act collectively formutual benefit.

■ The role of women in land and water use has to be recognized more openly andaccounted for in the reformed, legally binding rules that protect them.

■ Governments are traditionally strong institutions and provided they are properly fundedand trained they can represent one of the best options for the sustainability of trainingand technical services provision that farmers need in the long term.

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■ Governments are usually reluctant to change because of costs implications when oneconsiders 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, beto their detriment. One of the positive drivers within government is the cost saving onceresponsibilities are transferred to the community.

■ External support is important. Financial support, combined with policy dialogue, can actas a catalyst for the NGOs, communities and Governments to pursue the benefits ofchange. International agencies also provide a sense of international recognition, creditand encouragement to national and local organizations and small communities. There ishowever, the question of sustainability of change.

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IMPROVING BENEFITS FOR POOR, LANDLESS FISHERSIn Bangladesh inland fisheries are critically important to its people for food security andlivelihood 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 beproblematic, particularly for the landless poor who rely on fishing for their livelihood. Underthe usual system, the lakes are leased on an annual basis by auction, but these tend to betaken up by the more wealthy and influential people in the community. This leaves mostpoor 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 thatthere is little incentive for people to invest in the lakes. The result is they remain in a poorcondition, 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 them40 percent of the catch. But this was not sustainable as it relied on continual maintenanceand fish stocking using government funds and the management system was open tocorrupt practices.

In 1990, resource management of 23 lakes in southwest Bangladesh – The OxbowLakes Small Scale Fishermen Project – was decentralized using 50-year leases to fishers toenable them to invest in stocking fish and maintaining and improving the lakeinfrastructure. Fisher groups were formed – Lake Management Groups (LMGs) – to takeresponsibility 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. CPRis a system of common property rights over a resource that can overcome the problems ofopen access such as exploitation by individuals within a group. It introduces equal sharingof 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 wereimposed to give them full access to inputs and benefits. Normally LMGs membership ispredominantly male and in some cases this made it difficult to secure user rights of poorsingle women. To overcome this small Pond Farming Groups (PFGs) with five to eightwomen 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 strongsocial capital to practice effective management within a CPR. They also need workingfinancial capital. The better LMGs, which pay 60 percent and more to members, useharvest income or bank credits to purchase fingerlings and manage lake operations.

CASE STUDY – BANGLADESH3

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Those LMGs that lack social and financial capital are prey to traders who can exploit thesituation and take over management and financial control to the detriment of thefishers’ income.

■ Many members of the more successful LMGs used income from fishing to buy landoutright or on a mortgage to grow rice. This too proved successful since the cash fromfish paid the mortgage and so they did not have to sell their rice immediately followingharvest and they could afford to wait until the price rose before selling.

■ Fishers were also innovative in their approach to fish management. One group beganharvesting smaller table size fish of about 0.5kg rather than the recommended size of1kg. This size proved easier to sell and enabled the LMG to exploit the full biologicalcarrying 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. Boththe 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 allcases and the infrastructure provided by the project has been properly maintained and insome case improved.

LESSONS LEARNED

■ This project was completed in 1997 and evaluations since then have proved valuable indeveloping 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 inpursuance of improved water governance.

■ The empowerment of individuals and grassroots organizations to take full responsibilityfor the use and sustainability of their resources is implicit in the desire to introduceeffective governance of the lakes. Governance is not just a new set of rules laid down byGovernment. It represents a major change in way in which fishers go about developingtheir livelihoods.

■ Granting long-term secure tenure of productive lakes to fisher groups is essential tostimulate sustainable resource management and provides the incentives necessary forpoor people to invest in the resource base. It is also central to ensuring theestablishment of CPR systems of management that can enable both costs and benefitsof resource management to be shared equitably by fishers.

■ The protective environment for poor fishers created by OLP II is being replicated in theongoing Aquaculture Development Project (AqDP). Lease duration in this follow-upproject has been reduced from 50 years to 20 years. The approach to leasing was alsotaken up in ICLARM’s CBFM programme and The World Bank financed Fourth FisheriesProject (FFP). These projects have been operating under 15 and 10 year leasearrangements respectively.

■ It is notable that in spite of the excellent poverty reduction benefits of long term leasingto the poor, the OLP II approach has not been upscaled beyond individual projects. Thismay well be due to the fact that the approach implies major redistribution of lucrativeresources from powerful vested interests in favor of the poor, and is hence very resourceintensive.

■ A strong legal framework is essential to provide fisher groups with the power to seekredress if contractual obligations are not fulfilled or the ownership of resources ischallenged by outsiders, however powerful they might be. In addition, fisher groupsneed constant support from pro-poor institutions such as the Department of Fisheriesand NGOs to ensure their legal rights are enforced.

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■ Fisher groups need several key elements to function properly. They must possess strongsocial capital, favourable access to financial capital and legally enforceable rules toconduct their affairs. They can also protect the group from exploitation by outsiders whomay be keen to take over the weaker groups. Rules are also needed that protectindividuals within groups from internal and external exploitation.

■ Capacity development is essential to build the new fisher groups, to instill thedemocratic and participative processes of CPR and to develop the social capital on whichthey depend. Individuals also need to develop technical and administrative skills in orderto set up and run LMGs. The new knowledge needs to be spread throughout acommunity to ensure that no one monopolizes the group.

■ Group size is a factor in performance. In the smaller there is more collective action andmembers could easily monitor and check the actions of each other. However, they aremore vulnerable to outside threats. The larger groups are not easily threatened byoutsiders but they tend to be less effective because of their larger credit needs and theirsocial capital is weaker.

■ The time taken to achieve improved governance is considerable. The project started in1990 and finished in 1997 but steady improvements have continued since that date.

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RESTORING LAND USE THROUGH LOCAL WATER GOVERNANCE AND TECHNOLOGYIN HIGH ANDES COMMUNITIESIn Peru many poor farmers live on the steep hillsides of the High Andes and are vulnerableto the impacts of erosion and land degradation. They literally live at the margin of societyand face an uncertain future. There is a long history of “knowledge” and ancient naturalresources management practices particularly in managing soil and water on the steepslopes of the High Andes. Yet, in the last 500 years a number of these practices wereforgotten or abandoned for sociopolitical, economical or environmental reasons. But onecommunity 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 underirrigation) are kept under cultivation on Pre-Colombian terraces year round. Traditionalsocial structures are used to effectively manage land and water. The general assembly ofcommunity members elects its water representatives (alcalde) each year. They are given theresponsibility and related powers to take care of maintenance, distribution and use ofwater for the various sectors. Management is based on a time schedule agreed upon by thecommunities.

Water is distributed among terraces of varying size (between 100 and 2 000 m2 –depending on the gradient of the mountain). Stone walls (up to 4 m in height) containpacked soil, which is planted. During irrigation, special care is needed to avoid land slidesfrom excess water. Women are mainly in charge of irrigation and they have the skills andknowledge to see when the soil profiles are sufficiently watered thereby preventingsaturation which could provoke wall collapse due to water infiltration.

Considering the efficiency of existing indigenous practices and organizational structuresthe MARENASS project further supported terrace rehabilitation, natural fertilisation,technical assistance and the dissemination of knowledge through another social traditioncalled "competition on skills" that is used within the community of Asmayacu and betweenfive communities of the MARENASS project.

LESSONS LEARNED

The MARENASS project is ending this year, after eight years of operation. The lessons fromthis 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 socio-economic issues which rural households and their communities perceive as important.

■ Farmers have changed from being ‘clients’ to citizens responsible for planning, definingpriorities and administering funds (US$30m). This has proved to be very positive.

■ The transfer of decision-making power and authority over resources to communitiesand households has had considerable impacts: economic impact at household level; an increase of the sense of citizenship at community level, which enables them toassume a role in policy-setting; and regulation and guidance.

CASE STUDY – PERU4

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■ The MARENASS project used a traditional celebration as the means to createcompetition 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 communitiesas well as service providers. There was a strong need to raise awareness on theaccountability of service providers to their clients. The farmers and communitiescooperated with each other in order to reach a critical mass and purchase power for the required services.

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LOCAL GOVERNANCE TO SECURE ACCESS TO LAND AND WATER IN THE LOWERGASH WATERSHEDThis case study concerns the challenges of revitalizing a large-scale spate irrigation schemein eastern Sudan that was set up by government in the 1920s to settle poor nomadicpeople into a cash economy growing cotton. It is a traditional large-scale, supply-drivenirrigation development employing tenant farmers that went into serious decline in the1970s for a variety of reasons. The approach to rehabilitating such schemes hastraditionally been infrastructure-led but IFAD is supporting the revitalization by focusing onthe improvement of livelihoods of the many thousands of households in the area throughthe Gash Sustainable Livelihoods Regeneration Project. A central feature of this is toempower local people to take responsibility for the scheme by providing them with secureaccess to land and water.

The Gash Delta in eastern Sudan is inhabited by nomadic people who traditionallyexploited the seasonal floods from the ephemeral Gash River for grazing, subsistencesorghum and producing crop residues for animals. Irrigated agriculture was introduced tothe area in the 1920s to settle the nomads and improve livelihoods. Canalization was usedto divert the seasonal river floods to irrigate cotton and some sorghum and secure grassgrowth for animal feed. A central government based authority was set up to manage,maintain and finance the agricultural operations and product marketing as well organisingthe allocation of land and irrigation water. The Gash delta covers some 295,000ha; of this168,000ha is irrigable land with canalization covering some 105,000ha.

The scheme went into serious decline in recent decades and there are many reasons forthis. 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 educationprovided particularly for poor households. Droughts and security problems have led to aninflux of large numbers of people in and around the scheme, which has increased thedemand on meager resources. The total cultivated area has decreased by 50 percent overthe past 20 years and the area per tenant has declined from 3ha to 0.5ha. Many of thepoorest 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 essentiallyauthoritative and top-down in approach, has changed many times over the scheme’shistory and scheme managers are perceived by farmers as lacking in understanding theirneed for social development, income generation and a sustainable livelihood. Until recentlythere 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 thatlacks transparency, inequitable patronage systems, erratic support services and non-payment of service charges that have led to a weakening of traditional solidarity and socialsupport mechanisms. This has not been helped by the problems of recruiting good staff to work in remote regions and demanding environments.

CASE STUDY – THE SUDAN5

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Until now farmers have been tenants with no security of land tenure. Land allocationpractices are decided by a lottery each season – a process over which farmers have nocontrol. Water allocations too are uncertain but these are dependent to some extent on theGash 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 legallyrecognised secure access to land as an essential pre-requisite to their future livelihood withinthe scheme. Access to land is also seen as an important step towards securing access towater for irrigation. To this end an IFAD supported project started in 2003 with the aim ofregenerating the livelihoods of 67,000 poor households based upon a shared vision ofdevelopment and stable institutional arrangements between farmers and administration at different levels. This approach places livelihoods rather than infrastructure developmentfirmly at the core of future investment and highlights the key institutional and economicarrangements needed to enable local development, economic stability and social and genderequity. Infrastructure rehabilitation will be designed to meet the desired capacitydevelopment.

Institutional changes are planned at all levels. The existing Board of Directors that haveoverall responsibility for the scheme will evolve to include grass-roots in decision making andwill comprise representatives of all stakeholders from government ministry staff to farmersunions 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 rightsand claims and has set up a commonly accepted land register. Tenants will be allotted areasin specified locations that will be registered permanently in their names. The effect of thiswill be to reduce the number of tenants and increase the allotted area to a more financiallyviable area of 1.25ha per household.

Farmers will be encouraged to form Water User Associations with legally establishedpowers 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 thisproject and existing local community organizations will be the vehicle for developing newforms of organization that allow the local people to gain more secure rights to naturalresources 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 tomost government-initiated development in the past, particularly in irrigation, which hasbeen led by infrastructure development with little or no participation of stakeholders.This project reverses that traditional process and it remains to be seen just howsuccessful this will be in a society with a long history and culture of the top-downapproach.

■ Effective land and water governance is at the core of this project. Secure access to landand water is seen as the key to implementing this change in development approach andto its successful outcome. Without security of land tenure experience has shown thatfarmers are unlikely to invest in the land. But land without water is of little benefit in thisregion, as is access to water without land. So the focus is on the governance of bothland and water and the inter-relationships between the two.

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■ The full participation of all stakeholders in the project planning and implementationprocess is seen as an important pre-requisite for these significant changes in land andwater governance to succeed. But if people are to engage effectively in this process theywill need the capacity to do so. This means developing the institutional structures thatenable individuals to function effectively and a favourable social and economicenvironment within which they work as well as ensuring that individuals develop newskills and practices.

■ Building new institutional structures can be fraught with difficulties and it is often betterto build on existing ones rather than start with a blank sheet. In this case there is onlythe Board of Directors in place and so new ones are needed but the intention is to uselocal well-established informal institutions such as the Farmers’ Union to provide afoundation 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 allocateland title and Water User Associations that give farmers power to influence themanagement of water. All will have strong stakeholder representation.

■ The challenge for this project is to develop this capacity in a society that has a strongand long tradition of top-down irrigation management with farmers as tenants and haschanged rapidly to one where farmers are now owners of land with rights to seek legalredress for failure to deliver on contracted services.

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ADVOCACY FOR COMMUNITY RIGHTS TO LAND AND WATER IN LUSHONKWEThis case from Zimbabwe is about how a regional platform, a national NGO and a ruralcommunity are working in partnership to develop an advocacy and lobbying strategy thatwill influence national policy formulation on land and water governance. The aim is toenable poor farmers to secure access to land and to water for irrigation to improve theirlivelihoods.

Some 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s population depends on land and water resources fortheir livelihoods but all title to natural resources is vested in the President (under the newLand Reform and Resettlement Programme), who holds it in trust for the population. Poorfarmers do enjoy users’ rights with 99-year leases but the community of Lushonkwe inMatabeleland, comprising some 160 farming families, wished to go further and rehabilitatea small-scale irrigation scheme to improve their livelihoods. This requires investment and asno 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 InZimbabwe (WLZ) – in association with a regional platform – the Women’s Land and WaterRights in Southern Africa (WLWRSA) – has been working to address women’s land andwater rights and to improve their access to production resources. Their main expertisedeveloped since 1998 is lobbying and advocacy for change at the highest levels ingovernment. Over a 3-year period WLZ has been reviewing the status of women in relationto the new Land Reform and Resettlement Programme and they have identified value-added natural resources that might benefit women and carried out an assessment study todetermine the needs of resettled women farmers, which they shared with other NGOs insouthern Africa. It is of note that very few NGOs work in this area in spite of its importanceto poor communities throughout the region.

The community of Lushonkwe village provided WLZ with an opportunity for a practicaltest case to demonstrate the current difficulties in governance and the need for change.Although principally focused on advocacy, WLZ recognised they would need to developtheir 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 andcommunity and not just women.

The main thrust of the test case is to seek group title for land by challenging theexisting legal and policy framework. The nature of smallholder irrigation and the need forcooperative management of common water resources lends itself to group ownershiprather than to individual tenure. The securing of water rights would follow as water rightsare linked to land tenure. This is an innovative step for both the community and WLZ. Thecommunity has enthusiasm and the will for change but no experience of advocacy and onlylimited experience of irrigated agriculture. WLZ has the advocacy skills but no experienceplanning and implementing a commercial irrigation scheme. However, if successful, theircombined efforts could enable the community, and others like them, to invest in the landand to begin operating commercially.

CASE STUDY – ZIMBABWE6

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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 areprecedents for group title in other African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and in SouthAfrica where provision is made for this under the Communal Lands Rights Act, 2003.

Although this process is still underway it is possible to identify a number of pre-requisitesthat have enabled the community to make good progress so far. The first is the fullparticipation, commitment and empowerment of the community to take the many stepsranging from advocacy and lobbying at various levels of government through to planningand implementing a smallholder irrigation project. Paying lip service to participativeprocesses, as is often the case in development projects, is not enough. Evidence from thiscommunity suggests that the farmers are pressing strongly for the group land title and haveexpressed 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 elementis the development of the capacity of both the community and WLZ to undertake all thetasks envisaged. This involves not just the skills of individuals but institutional developmentto enable the community to operate as a cohesive organisation. The skills needed includeadvocacy and lobbying, financial, conflict and management skills and also technical andentrepreneurial skills to operate and maintain commercial irrigation. The community alsorecognises the need for specialist service providers for the planning and implementation ofthe irrigation scheme although their remoteness from the main source of services in Hararedoes 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. Asignificant shift in land and water governance is being demanded and this may be resistedby the Government, which is still silent on the issue. But there is some growing supportfrom local authorities that are under pressure to come forward with win-win solutions toresource 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 loanshave 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 aninternational NGO – the International Land Coalition (ILC). The support by IFAD is importantnot just in terms of finance but also by providing a sense of international recognition, creditand encouragement to national and local organisation and small communities. It has alsoenabled what is essentially an advocacy NGO to develop its capacity to take on theimplementation 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 tenureand access to water. One without the other is not enough.

■ A number of pre-requisites have been identified that have enabled the community tomake 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 quitecounterproductive in this case.

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– Sufficient capacity must be developed within the community and the NGOs toundertake all the tasks envisaged including the development of participatory skills.

– A strong partnership between the community and the NGO is essential if they are towork 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 thecommunity to pursue the benefits of change.

■ Practical field experience can increase the legitimacy of NGOs that are generallyadvocacy-based. The links in this case between WLZ and the WLWRSA can also help toshare the Zimbabwe experience across the southern African region. Very few NGOswork 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 underwayfor three years and is now gaining momentum but it may take as much time againbefore the community knows if it has been successful.

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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-LushonkweVillage, 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

REFERENCES

The authors wish to acknowledge all the inputs made by IFAD staff and consultants,especially Heli Perrett, and partners, FAO and ILC.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS