Exit the State: Decentralization and the Need for Local Social, Political, and Economic Considerations in Water Resource Allocation in Madagascar and Kenya1

1. An earlier version of this paper was submitted as an unpublished report to the UNDP Human Development Report Office in support of the Human Development Report 2006.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the iconoclasticism of water as a plentiful resource and the near universalization of decentralizing institutions to manage it. The authors explore two agro‐pastoral regions — Ambovombe District (Madagascar) and Tana River District (Kenya) — and consider institutional change, particularly the disengaging state, the lack of fiscal and administrative support throughout decentralization, community responses, and informal private markets. This paper concludes that decentralization holds the potential to increase accountability of the resource management process, improve governance and leadership accountability, and maximize the resource in a sustainable fashion. However, what we are seeing instead through the process of decentralization are the states exiting from the water governance process too rapidly and without concern for the culturally embedded social and economic norms, and the growing gap between new institutions and the needs, desires, and capacity of participants in the new systems.

Keywords:

• Africa
• Madagascar
• Kenya
• Water
• Decentralization
• Governance

Notes

1. An earlier version of this paper was submitted as an unpublished report to the UNDP Human Development Report Office in support of the Human Development Report 2006.

2. The fieldwork for this study was conducted in Madagascar by Richard Marcus in 2001/02, 2004, and 2005 with the generous support of Yale University and The University of Alabama in Huntsville, and conducted in Kenya by Richard Marcus and Joseph Onjala in 2005, 2006 and 2007 with the support of The University of Alabama in Huntsville and California State University, Long Beach. The research question came out of an earlier southern Madagascar study of environmental institutions by Richard Marcus. In winter 2001, Richard conducted focus groups and local interviews in both Androy and Anosy communities, following which the question was framed. Research in 2004 included local interviews with Ambovombe mayors, the district officer, and local water officials, interviews with ministry officials and donors in Antananarivo, and 12 focus groups in Ambovombe‐Androy. Research in 2005 included a survey (n = 521) of households (random, stratified by commune and fokontany), and focus groups in all but two communes. Access challenges, combined with the reticence of local leadership, required the removal of two of the 17 communes from the survey. The fiscal data were collected by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Ministry of Decentralization, and the World Bank, so they include all communes. Research in Kenya was conducted in 2005 and 2006. The research in 2005 included interviews in Nairobi with each new water sector director, ministry officials, and the Arid Lands Department of the president's office. In Tana River District, interviews were conducted with the District Officer, District Water Officer, District Statistician, Arid Lands office, Bura and Hola Irrigation Project Directorates, local non‐governmental organizations, and local leaders. Focus groups were conducted in 11 communities in Bura, Galole, and Madogo, ensuring coverage of both Pokomo and Orma communities. In 2006 a new round of interviews in Nairobi led to an update of the changes. A humanitarian crisis created by unusually heavy rains forestalled the intended community survey, to be conducted in 2007. A number of organizations in Madagascar and Kenya have been instrumental in this work. Of particular note are Azafady and Objectif Sud in Madagascar, and the African Research and Resource Forum and the University of Nairobi Institute for Development Studies in Kenya.

3. Unless otherwise indicated, all Madagascar statistics come from a survey conducted by R. R. Marcus in May‐June 2005. The survey was a random sample of the district with 521 respondents stratified by commune and fokontany. A parallel Kenya survey was conducted by R. R. Marcus and J. Onjala in July‐August 2007.