1. Water Management Institutions and Reform Course
2.1 Multi-level organizations in the water sector and their relations with organizations in other sectors By
Amare Bantider and Alex Bolding

2. Outline 2.1.1 Introduction: institution and organization
Multi-level organizations
Local level organizations
National and international level organizations
2.1.3 Collaboration and conflict between organizations
Collaboration and conflict among water organizations
Collaboration and conflict across sectors

3. 2.1.1 Introduction: institution, organization, multi-level
Institutions defined “... as rules that define action situation, delineate action sets, provide incentives and determine outcomes both in individual and collective decision setting in the context of water development, allocation, use and management” (Saleth 2006:4 based on Commons (1934), North (1990), and Ostrom (1990))
The rules can be broadly categorized as:
Legal
Policy rules
Organizational rules

4. Salient features of Institutions:
Cont’d
Salient features of Institutions:
First, they are subjective in origin & operation; objective in manifestation and impact
Second, they are path dependent
Third, their stability & durability properties do not preclude their malleability and diversity
Fourth, they comprise a number of functionality, linked components, hierarchic and they are nested both structurally and spatially
Finally, they are embedded and complementary with each other and defined by the cultural, social, economic and political milieu

5. Cont’d Organizations: Defined
“Organizations are “networks of behavioral roles arranged into hierarchies to elicit desired individual behavior and coordinated actions obeying a certain system of rules and procedures” (Cernea 1987 in Bandaragoda D.J, 2000)
“purposive entities designed by their creators to maximize wealth, income, or other objectives defined by the opportunities afforded by the institutional structure of the society...” (North1990 in Bandaragoda D.J, 2000)

6. Cont’d Organizations as Structures Networks with hierarchies
A tool to maximize some interest by creators
Multi-level:
The concept has several understandings from different disciplinary perspectives. It may mean different scales (spatial, temporal, stakeholders and institutional hierarchy)
Multi-level institutions – institutions ranging from local level to global level with different level of interactions, cooperation and conflicts (influence of each other)
See fig 1 as an example of multi-level stakeholders in sustainable land management and fig 2 ten levels of decision making, which could be used in water resource use decision making.

7. Fig 1: Intervention levels and activities in a multi-level stakeholder approach to sustainable land management (source: Hurni, 1997)

8. Household Level
Individual Level
Locality Level
A set of communities having social and economic relations; this is the same as the sub-district level where a market town is the sub-district centre
Community Level
A relatively self-contained socio-economic residential unit
Group Level
A self-identified set of persons with some common interest; may be persons in a small residential area like a neighborhood, or an occupational, age, gender, ethnic or other grouping
National level
International level
Regional/Provincial level
District level
Sub-District level
Household level
Individual level
Fig 2: Ten levels of decision making and activity (source: Uphoff 1986 in Uphoff 1992)

9. 2.1.2 Multi-level organizations
(1) Local level water use organizations
Local institutions:
Too often, the term "local" has been a residual category, equated with whatever is not national and above individual/household level. But what is "local" has its own positive characteristics, providing a basis for collective action, for building consensus, for undertaking coordination and management responsibilities, for collecting, analysing and evaluating information, energised by a degree of interpersonal solidarity
Three levels could be recognized: localities, sets of communities that have kinship, marketing or other connections, communities or villages or towns, and groups.

10. Cont’d
Localities, communities and groups have in common the prevalence of face-to-face interpersonal relationships, which are naturally more frequent and intense within groups and communities than within localities.
The best example are
“Water Users Association”,
Customary/indigenous institutions
(see section Block 4 for the definitions of local level organizations such as WUA)

11. (2) National and international River Basin Organizations (RBO)
An RBO is defined …as a societal entity created to manage, develop or monitor natural water resources in a large watershed.
The minimum size of a “basin” is quite arbitrary, but a suggested size is the macro-scale - at least 100,000 km2. At this scale, strategic management decisions are made to allocate natural resources, primarily by governments.
RBOs vary considerably in form and function and there many types of basin organizations in the world today

12. Types of RBOs Type 1: Advisory Committee – Type 2: Authority:
A formalized or quasi-formal organization
governments ‘hand over’ strategic planning to such organizations;
they frequently have no or limited legal jurisdiction.
Examples include:
Fitzroy Basin Association, Eastern Australia
Verde Watershed Association, South-western USA
Type 2: Authority:
An organization which makes planning decisions at a central or regional government level;
may set and enact regulations, or have development consent authority;

13. Cont’d Type 3: Association :
Grand River Conservation Authority, South-eastern Canada
Niger Basin Authority, West Africa
Tennessee Valley Authority, Central-eastern USA
Type 3: Association :
Similar to an Advisory Committee, this is an organization of like-minded individuals and groups with a common interest.
have varying roles: providing advice, stimulating basin awareness, education and ownership of basin natural resources management issues; educational functions and information exchange.
An example is the Missouri River Basin Association, Midwest USA

14. Cont’d Type 4: Commission:
An organization which is delegated to consider natural resources management matters and/or take action on those matters.
A basin commission’s powers vary, and include advisory/education roles, monitoring roles, undertaking works, fulfilling goals of a specific government’s charter or an international agreement.
Commissions normally are instituted by a formal statement of a command or injunction by government to manage land and water resources; commissions may also have regulatory powers.

15. Cont’d Great Lakes Commission, North America
Examples include:
Great Lakes Commission, North America
International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, Central & Eastern Europe
International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine , Western Europe
Lake Chad Basin Commission, Central Africa
Mekong River Commission, South-east Asia
Murray-Darling Basin Commission, South-eastern Australia

16. Cont’d
Type 5: Council:
A formal group of experts, government ministers, politicians, NGOs and lay people brought together on a regular basis to debate matters within their sphere of basin management expertise, and with advisory powers to government.
A council is contrasted with a commission which, although also a body of experts, is typically given regulatory powers in addition to a role as advisor to the government.
An example is the Fraser Basin Council, western Canada - North-western USA

17. Cont’d Type 6: Corporation:
A legal entity, created by legislation, shareholders (for-profit companies) or members (non-profit companies), to create an organization --- focusing on pursuing set objectives, and empowered with legal rights which are usually only reserved for individuals, such as to sue and be sued, own property, hire employees or loan and borrow money.
Also known as a "company”. The primary advantage of a for-profit corporation is that it provides its shareholders with a right to participate in the profits (by dividends) without any personal liability because the company absorbs the entire liability of the organization.
Examples include:
Damodar Valley Corporation, Northern India
The former Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (now Snowy Hydro), South-eastern Australia

18. Cont’d Type 7: Tribunal:
A basin entity which has formalized procedures and quasi-judicial powers; a heavy emphasis on bureaucratic decision making;
stakeholders may formally participate through hearings; major decisions are taken by independent bodies, like a water pricing tribunal.
A Tribunal acts as a special court outside the civil and criminal judicial system that examines special problems and makes judgments,
for example, a water tribunal, which resolves disputes between water users.
An example is the Valencia Water Court, Spain.

19. Cont’d
Type 8: Trust:
A trust is legal device used to set aside money or property of one person for the benefit of one or more persons or organizations.
It is an organization which undertakes river basin works; develops and implements a strategic plan;
its mandate is to be the river basin ‘advocate’;
it co-ordinates local programs through Memoranda of Understanding or other agreements;
it raises local levies (funds) for its works and programs. A Trust keeps monies raised in ‘trust’ for the benefits of its citizens.
An example is:
the former Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Trust (now part of the Sydney Catchment Authority), South-eastern Australia.

20. Cont’d Type 9: Federations:
A collaboration of organizations or departments within one government or between state and national governments to establish and undertake actions for river basin management.
Governance actions at various levels (national, state and local) include: agreements on water sharing and water quality management, shared statements of intent; shared policy development; information exchange; joint actions for management of ecosystem degradation.
Collaboration is expressed in terms of framework directives, cost-sharing arrangements, joint statements of intent, partnerships, joint programs and agreed policy.
Examples include:
International Network of Basin Organizations; Global, based in France
European Commission – Water Framework Directive (Directive on River Basin Management)

21. (3) Other International level organizations
The other form organizations are those organizations as subsidiary to UN-system & multilateral organizations. E.g., European Commission, etc where by these serves as the regional platforms for the negotiation and effective utilization of water resources.
NGOs, in which they are playing advocacy role. E.g., Global Water Partnership

22. 2.1.3 Collaboration and conflict between organizations
Collaboration and conflict among water
organizations
discuss collaborations and conflicts among different water organizations for different uses (e.g., irrigation, municipal water supply, flood management, hydroelectric generation, organizations responsible for surface water vs organization for ground water management) seen at different spatial scale!) or Roles and duties of water organizations at different hierarchy! (local water users association to national water resource management ministries)
Discuss also collaboration and conflicts of water organizations located upstream and down stream locations

23. cont’d Collaboration and conflict across sectors
Evaluate collaborations and conflicts of different sectors using water for different activities at different scales :
Agricultural sector vs energy generation sector vs environmental protection sector vs water transport sector. etc
(for the issue of “water use cooperation and conflict” --- such as: up stream/down stream, transboundary/international river basin, etc---- refer section. 3.1 of the course “Water & River Basin Governance and Policy”. See also an article by Wolf (1998) ---- “Conflict and cooperation along international waterways. Water Policy. Vol. 1 #2, pp ”)