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Decentralization of river basin management : a global analysis

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  • Dinar, Ariel
  • Kemper, Karin
  • Blomquist, William
  • Diez, Michele
  • Sine, Gisele
  • Fru, William

Abstract

Decentralization and increased stakeholder involvement have been major elements of water sector reform as ways to promote sustainable and integrated resource management particularly of river basins. Based on an analytical framework for relating decentralization and stakeholder involvement to improved river basin management, this paper infers several hypotheses about factors associated with greater or lesser likelihood of success of the decentralization process using data from 83 river basins worldwide. The results suggest that physical, political, economic, financial, and institutional characteristics of the basin do affect the process and the level of performance of the decentralization. In particular, the presence of water scarcity may be a stimulus to reform, uniting the stakeholders in the basin and leading to better performance; organized user groups push for the initiation of decentralization reforms but may be associated with costs to the process and difficulty of achieving decentralization; the existence of dispute resolution mechanisms supports stakeholder involvement and improves decentralization performance; where stakeholders accepted greater financial responsibility, complying with tariffs and contributing to the budget for basin management, the decentralization process and performance measures increased; basins with higher percentages of their budgets from external governmental sources benefited from better stability and support and it shows in the performance of the decentralization process.

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  • Dinar, Ariel & Kemper, Karin & Blomquist, William & Diez, Michele & Sine, Gisele & Fru, William, 2005. "Decentralization of river basin management : a global analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3637, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3637
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. van den Brink, René & van der Laan, Gerard & Moes, Nigel, 2012. "Fair agreements for sharing international rivers with multiple springs and externalities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 388-403.
    2. Alessandra Sgobbi & Gregorio Fraviga, 2006. "Governance and Water Management: Progress and Tools in Mediterranean Countries," Working Papers 2006.151, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Pande, Saket & van den Boom, Bart & Savenije, Hubert H.G. & Gosain, Ashvani K., 2011. "Water valuation at basin scale with application to western India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2416-2428.
    4. Dinar, Ariel & Kemper, Karin & Blomquist, William & Kurukulasuriya, Pradeep, 2007. "Whitewater: Decentralization of river basin water resource management," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 851-867.
    5. Dinar, Ariel & Kemper, Karin & Blomquist, William & Kurukulasuriya, Pradeep, 2006. "The Process and Performance of Decentralization of River Basin Resource Management: A Global Analysis," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21093, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Abers, Rebecca Neaera, 2007. "Organizing for Governance: Building Collaboration in Brazilian River Basins," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1450-1463, August.
    7. Sgobbi, Alessandra & Fraviga, Gregorio, 2006. "Governance and Water Management: Progress and Tools in Mediterranean Countries," Natural Resources Management Working Papers 12136, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).

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