Reforming water governance structures

Abstract

Water governance can be defined as a system that makes water management more effective, accountable and participatory, thus strengthening the role of multiple stakeholders in institutional capacity bUilding, improving coordination, broadening participation and consolidating partnerships Uacobi, 2009). Water governance structures in some LAC have undergone reforms that implied not only re-orientation of policy priorities and approaches, but also the restructuring of institutional frameworks. This has led to the need for new intermediate institutions that enable a negotiated approach to water governance. Two issues hamper the capacity of institutions to improve and adjust to constantly changing conditions: the lack of proper evaluation of the quality of policies - often a consequence of lack of transparency and accountability that may favour some actors and their private interests over others; and the lack of adequate control over bureaucratic systems. Institutional reforms involved changes in the ‘rules of the game’, expressed by the coexistence of formal laws, informal norms and practices, and organizational structures, as well as strengthening institutional capacity.