It is becoming clear that the division of labor between state agencies and farmers in irrigation management needs to be reconsidered and reorganized. Indonesia's policy to turn over all irrigation systems smaller than 500 hectares to water users associations is one example of the shift toward giving farmers a stronger and more legitimate role in irrigation management.
This collection brings together papers dealing with various issues related to turning over irrigation systems to farmers. The turnover process involves a sequence of activities to prepare irrigation systems and water users associations for turnover. There were many choices and some hard decisions involved in developing the turnover process in Indonesia. The discussion of the reasons for these choices may be useful for those considering turnover activities elsewhere, not as an example to be simply imitated but as an illustration of some of the factors which deserve to be considered and learning processes for developing methods.
LP3ES played a somewhat unique role as a non-governmental organization acting as a consultant to help develop and institutionalize procedures for turnover, and this role is discussed in the paper on agency-NGO relations.
The question of requiring farmer contributions was one of the most debated topics among those involved in planning how to continue the turnover process. The paper included here was written as a contribution to this debate, to help show the extent to which farmer contributions were feasible and some methods which might be applied in the turnover project.
Indonesian government policy required the "development" of formal water users associations if turnover was to take place. However there was much diversity in the field and attempts to develop formal organizations often failed to take account of the strength of existing informal irrigation organization and the logic of the institutions farmers has already developed. It seems likely that an approach emphasizing "just enough organization" could lead to more efficient and effective government intervention in enabling local collective action in irrigation management.
One of the problems of evaluating a program such as turnover is the scarcity of information on the performance of existing small irrigation systems and the consequences of government intervention. Methods do exist for assessing intervention, particularly if different techniques such as rapid appraisal and case studies can be combined.
However, in the longer run the most important monitoring and evaluation is that done by farmers and agency implementing staff. The paper on participatory monitoring was developed to suggest some directions for strengthening participatory monitoring by water users associations and implementing staff in the Second Irrigation Subsector Project.
Turnover is one of a number of efforts to increase participation in irrigation development. Comparison of experiences in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand offers some more general conclusions about what progress has been made in improving participation and the directions for future development.
Several of the papers were written while I was working from October 1988 to June 1991 as institutional advisor to the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES) which was a consultant to the Indonesian Department of Public Works for the Program to Turn Over Small Irrigation Systems to Water Users Associations. LP3ES consulting activities were funded by the Ford Foundation, while turnover implementation was part of the Irrigation Subsector Program funded by a loan from the World Bank. The other papers were written in the following year where I had support to reflect and write on earlier experience, under a grant from the Ford Foundation to the Water Resources and Environment Institute of Khonkaen University.
For comments and other inquiries regarding these papers contact:. BryanBruns@BryanBruns.com
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