Good Governance and Sustainable Development:

Lessons for the South Caucasus from South Africa, Turkey and

AzerbaijanDr. Farhad Mukhtarov

Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences & Policy

ADA University, Baku, Azerbaijan

PlayPumps as a solution?

What is Good Governance?

“Politikos” (something to do

with citizens)

A set of rules and guidelines

Something that does not exist in all

languages

Something that is enforced by “police”

Something that anyone may have

Something that a government

does

World Bank defines Good Governance as follows:

A predictable, open, and enlightened policy-making (that is, transparent processes); a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; an executive arm of government accountable for its actions, and a strong civil society participating in public affairs, and all behaving under the rule of law (World Bank, 1994).

What is Governance?

Hutema, Dave, online. www.watergovernance.eu

Flood Insurance Provision in the EU

Why “Good Governance” can be dangerous?

Good governance can be seen as a panacea;

“We know how to transfer resources, people and technology across cultural borders. But well-functioning public institutions require certain habits of mind, and operate in complex ways that resist being moved” (Fukuyama, 2005)

Water User Associations (WUA)

“A water users’ association, or WUA, is a nongovernment, nonprofit organization initiated and managed by a group of farmers and other water users along one or more hydrological subsystems or watercourses. [...] By organizing themselves, they can put together the financial, material, technical, and human resources needed to manage, operate, and maintain an efficient irrigation and drainage system in their locality.“ (ADB, 2006)

Case 1: South-eastern Turkey’s failure to have good governance

Harris, Leila (2002) Water and Conflict Geographies of the Southeastern Anatolia Project

Irrigation infrastructure in GAP

People who farm and use water

Case 2: Azerbaijan’s failure to have decentralised irrigation management

Case 2: Azerbaijan’s failure to have decentralised irrigation management

On-farm canals in Quba, Azerbaijan

Key points emerged from the case study

- Infrastructure and capacity-building

- Path-dependence and the Soviet legacy

- Collective action in a hierarchical society

And above all – the importance of context in introducing “good water governance” to countries…

Performance and context

Turkey Azerbaijan

a) infrastructure

Poor drainage & irrigation, especially on-farm earth canals;

Poor irrigation infrastructure, especially on-farm earth canals;

b) socio-economic

Community clan organization of society & no prior farming knowledge;

Small sizes of farm plots & part-time involvement of farmers;

c) policy and governance

Lack of prior irrigation skills; Land ownership patters;

Lack of experience in collaborative governance mechanisms; poor extension services of the state;

Why did PlayPumps become a success story?

• Collaborative Design where designers, users and intermediaries work together• Experimentation and learning (started with 900 and then adjusted). Worked from the context, not from the “text”.

Thank You!

• Contact information: fmukhtarov@gmail.com

• Policy Blog: www.policytranslation.eu

• Upcoming paper on this subject

Mukhtarov, F., Fox, S., Wegerich, K. and Mukhamedova, N. (2015) Institutional design in the face of contextual relevance: water user associations in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Environmental Science and Policy. Forthcoming