This document summarizes a training program developed by IWMI to improve community engagement in small-scale irrigation projects. The training aims to address issues like lack of community participation in decision making and poor integration of local knowledge that had led to technical failures and unsustainable water user groups. The 5-day training uses experiential and appreciative approaches, and involves project staff directly interacting with communities. Key activities include using PRA methods, case studies, system walks, interviews and having trainees participate in project planning, analysis and design with the community. The training aims to not just build skills but also make project staff work together and view irrigation systems as complex social-ecological systems.

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Water for a food-secure world
www.iwmi.org
Community
Empowerment and
Participation:
Bridging the gap
between discourses
and practices
Floriane Clement, IWMI
Bryan Bruns
Robert Yoder
Saa Dittoh
6th June 2013, UNESCO-IHE DELFT
Water Integrity Forum

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Water for a food-secure world
Context: small scale irrigation
projects in five countries
• High rate of “technical failure”
Causes identified: lack of technical capacity,
lack of supervision during construction
• Low sustainability of water user groups
Causes identified: lack of institutional
arrangements and ownership of the
community

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Water for a food-secure world
Reframing problems
• Lack of downward accountability to
‘beneficiaries’
• Poor involvement of the ‘beneficiaries’ in
decision-making process
• Poor integration of local knowledge and
customary institutions

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Water for a food-secure world
Improving community engagement
• Project staff directly interacting with project
beneficiaries
• Building capacity
• Changing behaviours and daily working
practices

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Water for a food-secure world
Discourses and practices on
community engagement
• Empowerment, participation, equity, rights-
based approach
• Vague, can embrace multiple meanings
• Lost their original political content
• Still can serve as a common ground for
action and as a bridge between social
activitists, NGOs and bureaucrats

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Water for a food-secure world
Three principles
• Experiential process: learning by doing
• Appreciative approach
• Involving ‘beneficiaries’ in analysis,
planning and decision-making

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Water for a food-secure world
Content
• Five days, including three in the field
• Introduction, understanding methods
• Interacting with a community on a real
problem and coming up with plan
• Assessment of the training and follow-up

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Water for a food-secure world
Activity Where Who?
PRA methods
Case study role play
Classroom Trainees
Authority briefing District HQ Trainees, District
authorities
Community meeting Village Trainees, Community
System walk through
Interviews
Village Trainees, Community
Participation in the project cycle Village Trainees
Analysis using PRA Village Trainees, Community
Design Discussion Village Trainees, Community
Community consultation Village Trainees, Community
Training Assessment / Follow-up Classroom Trainees

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Water for a food-secure world
Lessons
• Be modest on the number of activities
• Include session to build interviewing skills
• Take into account the expectations and
time constraints of the community
• Connect training experience with project
realities

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Water for a food-secure world
Beyond building skills…
• Making people from different disciplines
work together
• Demonstrating that an irrigation system is
not an infrastructure but a complex social-
ecological system
• Initiating reflections and dialogue among
project staff on project constraints and
opportunities

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Water for a food-secure world
Thank you!
f.clement@cgiar.org