Suchergebnisse

Transboundary river basins cover 62 percent of Africa's total area and, with the exception of island states, every African country has at least one international river in its territory. Thus, transboundary water governance in Africa is central to any national or regional water strategy and any economic, poverty reduction, and environmental strategy. Despite the potential payoff from water cooperation, forging meaningful agreements for shared water management faces numerous challenges. Impediments to negotiated cooperation include differences in up- and downstream views on water rights and histories of water use; negotiating philosophies focused on the belief that water is a zero-sum game; geographic and political power differentials that conflict with basin-wide solutions; and uncertainty over basic water resources data that increase the perceived risks of cooperation. For cooperation to occur, riparian states, other stakeholders, and the facilitators of negotiation must be aware of the possible benefits of cooperation, whether benefit distribution will be shared, and what pathways are most likely to overcome potential barriers to negotiation. Economic theory and empirical analysis can play a productive role in providing the necessary information. This paper provides a review of the challenges to transboundary water cooperation, pathways for overcoming those challenges, and the role of economics in facilitating the discovery of those pathways. While it is written to focus on African transboundary waters, the report draws from broader transboundary water literature. Appendices include case studies on both game theory and hydro-economic analysis in transboundary cooperation for several river basins, including some from Africa. The limited studies that have quantified the gains from cooperation or costs of noncooperation show that the potential benefits are substantial. Recognizing the potential gains and costs for all parties provides a motivation for cooperation. The likelihood of cooperation around river basins is minimal if cooperation does not benefit the respective actors involved. In the final analysis, cooperation should be voluntary based on the self-interest of riparian states.

In Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele; Loulseged, Makonnen; Yilma, Aster Denekew (Comps.). Impact of irrigation on poverty and environment in Ethiopia: draft proceedings of the symposium and exhibition, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 27-29 November 2007. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). ; The regional government of Tigray has invested in millions of Birr to develop irrigation schemes as a strategy of poverty reduction. The study was based on a representative sample of 613 farm households (331 irrigators and 282 non-irrigators) drawn using three stage stratified sampling with probability proportional to size. The main aim of this paper is to study the impact of irrigation on household income, therefore, to contribute to the scant literature on irrigation-poverty reduction nexus in Ethiopia, which policy makers can use it as an input to make informed policy decisions in their future endeavors. We found that farming income is more important to irrigating households than to non-irrigating households, while off-farm income is negatively related with access to irrigation. We also found that irrigating households? average income is above the regional average, while non-irrigating households? average income is 50 percent less than the average income of irrigating households. Although there can be other factors, which may contribute to the difference in income, these results are in line with our expectation and supports the decision of the Tigray government to use irrigation as a poverty reduction tool. We have used a stochastic dominance analysis and found that the results are consistent. This result differs from a previous study by Pender et al. (2002), which argues that irrigation has less impact in agricultural yields than expected, reducing returns to investment in modern irrigation.

Sub-Saharan Africa urgently needs to accelerate the pace of agricultural growth to improve livelihoods, ensure food security, and keep droughts from turning into famines. However, this requires the region to increase smallholder irrigation faster than its current sluggish pace. In this respect, explosive growth since the 1970s in distributed farmer-led smallholder irrigation (FLSI) in China, South Asia, and elsewhere may offer Sub-Saharan Africa better guidance than state-led centralized large irrigation projects. Proactive policy support, prominence of market players, economies of scale and scope, village-level irrigation service markets, government incentives, and subsidies on motor pumps and boreholes have all triggered and fueled rapid expansion of motor pump–driven FLSI that made famines history and countries food-secure in Asia in a short span of a decade or two. With its ample shallow groundwater resources and sparse farming areas, Sub-Saharan Africa has immense potential to grow pump-driven FLSI quickly, cost-effectively, and without risking the environmental ill effects observed in Asia and elsewhere. A "big push" to FLSI will work better than an incremental trickle because high-volume-low-margin FLSI growth generates economies of scale and scope, which are essential. Interventions by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are useful for demonstration and piloting innovations, but market players are best placed to achieve scale. Finally, Sub-Saharan Africa can and needs to leapfrog and build its FLSI economy around solar irrigation pumps, which are destined to disrupt FLSI globally in the years to come.

In Lenton, R.; Muller, M. (Eds.). Integrated water resources management in practice: better water management for development. London, UK: Earthscan; Stockholm, Sweden: Global Water Partnership ; In many parts of the world, improving rural livelihoods and income means transforming the way in which agricultural water is managed. Mali is a case in point. The Office du Niger formed in the 1930s as a centralized public enterprise to produce irrigated cotton and rice, has been significantly revamped since the 1990s. The result has been dramatic gains in rice production and farm incomes, and reductions in rural poverty. The case shows that changing agricultural water management requires a supportive macro-policy environment, and appropriate institutional changes and infrastructural investments. Equally important, it shows that those reforms may need to precede improvements in water management. Moreover, in aid-dependent low income countries reform cannot occur unless both government and donors concur on the need for change. Finally, the case drives home that improving water management is a continuing process; gains to date in economic efficiency and (to a lesser extent) equity in the Office du Niger now need to be matched by improvements in environmental sustainability.

The regional government of Tigray has invested millions of dollars to develop irrigation schemes as a strategy of poverty reduction. However, there has been limited attempt to analyze whether these investments have attained their stated objectives of poverty reduction and overall socio-economic enhancement. Therefore, we endeavor to: (1) evaluate the impacts of access to small-scale irrigation on farm household's income and poverty status, (2) contribute to the scant literature on irrigation and poverty reduction in Ethiopia, and (3) provide information for policy makers. We examine a representative sample of 613 farm households (331 irrigators and 282 non-irrigators) drawn using three-stage stratified sampling with Probability Proportional to Size. We find that the average income of non-irrigating households is less than that of the irrigating households by about 50%. The overall average income gain due to access to irrigation ranges from 4000 Birr to 4500 Birr per household per annum. We find also that farming income is more important to irrigating households than to non-irrigating households, and off-farm income is negatively related with access to irrigation.

The Niger River Basin covers 7.5% of the African continent, and is shared between nine riparian countries. The basin countries can be categorized into water resources producers, consumers, both producers and consumers, and minimum contributors and consumers. As in the case for most transboundary rivers, upstream and downstream conflicts emanating from the development and utilization of the Niger River are inevitable and are expected to be intense, particularly given the escalating demands for water from the many uses and users. The basin is divided into four major sections, namely Upper Niger, Inland Delta, Middle Niger, and Lower Niger. But these divisions, though useful, are too generic to provide a complete understanding of biophysical, hydrological and socioeconomic processes impinging on the basin's water resources, and to provide intervention recommendations. On average, the basin's population is two-thirds (64%) rural and a significant part of the northern zones of the basin is unpopulated. People in the basin are engaged in various livelihood strategies such as dry- and wet-season cropping systems, pastoral systems, crop-livestock systems, and fishing. The dry-season livelihood systems include fadama (lowland or inland valleys) farming, recession flood farming, agroforestry, irrigated rice farming and fishing. Wet-season livelihood systems center mostly on cereal cropping and transhumance. The major crops grown in the basin are yam, cassava, rice, groundnut, millet, sorghum, plantain, cocoa, maize, sugarcane, and cotton. Agriculture represents a large part of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Niger River Basin with crop production alone contributing 25-35% of the basin's GDP, while livestock and fishery contribute 10-15% and 1-4%, respectively. All countries of the Niger Basin suffer from chronic and acute poverty and are ranked 'poor' by most poverty indicators (Human Development Index [HDI]), child mortality, life expectancy, Social Vulnerability Index, etc.). Several structural (social and institutional) factors hold a large segment of the basin's population in the throes of poverty. Niger Basin's challenge is to break this vicious circle by using resources to generate sustainable growth that is favorable to the poor. Some of the prominent water-related challenges are degradation of land and water resources, climate change and variability, vulnerability to disasters, inefficiency and poor performance of agriculture (rain-fed and irrigation), competing demands between sectors and water users and inadequate investment in water infrastructure. At a wider level, inadequate public services, institutional and governance failure, high population growth and urbanization, poor macro-economic performance, and unemployment have also undermined the development of the basin. The severity of these challenges varies from location to location in the basin. The basin's development goals and objectives originate as a response to the development challenges and are articulated in various policy documents such as the Niger Basin Shared Vision (NBA PADD), poverty reduction strategy papers, United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), specifically the pillars 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The goals of the basin countries are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowerment of women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development. viii The specific development objectives of the basin countries are the following: • Increase income, generate jobs, improve living standards, and alleviate poverty, especially among the poorest section of the population while at the same time safeguarding the environment including the sustainable management of the Niger Basin water resources. • Improve access to health and education services, and increase life expectancy. • Achieve political stability, good governance and an appropriate institutional framework. • Improve the investment climate for private-sector development where infrastructure plays a decisive part. • Develop infrastructures and the productive sector to ensure better productivity of factors of production and economic growth. • Reduce food imports, boost agricultural exports through stabilization, intensification and expansion of agricultural production. To realize the basin's development goals and objectives the following water-centered intervention clusters needed to be synergistically pursued. • Ensuring right to secure access to water for the poor. • Developing new infrastructure. • Improving access to agricultural water management innovations. • Strengthening Niger Basin's water governance. • Upgrading rain-fed systems. • Reducing the vulnerability of poor people to climate shocks and other hazards. • Minimizing degradation of the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. • Diversifying livelihood strategies.

Providing safe drinking water and basic sanitation to citizens is one of the major challenges facing the African Governments. The issues of access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation is well articulated and prioritized in the various national, continental, and international policy documents, strategy papers, declarations, and conventions. And yet it is not clear if the provision of sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation has been given the requisite financial and other support by the SSA policy makers and donors. The principal objective of this paper is to compare countries' performance in the water and sanitation sector and analyze how effectively they used the development aid received for the Water and Sanitation sector (WSS). Much has been written on Development Aid Effectiveness, but the focus of attention has often been on how the donors operate, and how the recipients use the money. In this context, the paper utilised an innovative standardized measurement framework known as-the Watsan Index of Development Effectiveness (WIDE) - which compares drivers of progress with results achieved, and ranks African countries by the level of outcome obtained per unit of available input. In particular, how effectively they used the development aid received for the water and sanitation sector. The WIDE is made up of two composite information layers, the Resources (input drivers such as aid received, GDP, water resources, and governance level), and the Progress Outcomes (access to water, access to sanitation, and progress in the two). We also performed econometric analyses to explore the linkages between interventions designed to promote development, and the outcomes from that development process, in the water and sanitation sector. These analyses were further validated by presentation of the WSS sector situation of four case study countries namely, Kenya, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Uganda.

The underlying causes of rural poverty are many in Ethiopia, however, the persistent fluctuation in the amount and distribution of rainfall is considered as a major contributing factor. Cognizant of this reality the successive Ethiopian governments, NGOs and farmers have made considerable investments in small-scale irrigation systems. This paper analyzes the efficacy of these investments in reducing poverty based on data obtained from a survey of 1024 farmers drawn from four major regional states of Ethiopia. The Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty indices were used to compare the incidence, depth and severity of poverty among groups of farmers defined by relevant policy variables including access to irrigation. Logistic regression model was fitted to explore the correlates of rural poverty. The main conclusion of the study is that poverty is affected more by the intensity of irrigation use than mere access to irrigation and there seem to be an economy of scale in the poverty-irrigation nexus.

In Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele; Loulseged, Makonnen; Yilma, Aster Denekew (Comps.). Impact of irrigation on poverty and environment in Ethiopia: draft proceedings of the symposium and exhibition, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 27-29 November 2007. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI) ; Ethiopia is an agrarian society in a land of drought and floods. Agricultural production, which is the source of livelihood for eight out of ten Ethiopians, is extremely vulnerable to climatic conditions. The causes of rural poverty are many including wide fluctuations in agricultural production as a result of drought, ineffective and inefficient agricultural marketing system, under developed transport and communication networks, underdeveloped production technologies, limited access of rural households to support services, environmental degradation and lack of participation by rural poor people in decisions that affect their livelihoods. However, the persistent fluctuation in the amount and distribution of rainfall is considered as a major factor in rural poverty. Cognizant of this reality the successive Ethiopian governments and farmers have made investments in small scale irrigation schemes. This paper aims to assess the efficacy of these investments in reducing poverty based on data obtained from a survey of 1024 farmers drawn from four major regional states of Ethiopia. The Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty measures were used to compare the incidence, depth and severity of poverty among groups of farmers defined by relevant policy variables including access to irrigation. In order to explore the correlates of rural poverty and their quantitative significance, logistic regression model was estimated. The main conclusion of the study is that the incidence, depth and severity of poverty is affected more by the intensity of irrigation use (as measured by the size of irrigated area) than mere access to irrigation. Alternatively, there seems to be an economy of scale in the poverty irrigation relationship.

This paper examines the water dimensions of recent large-scale land acquisitions for biofuel production in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Northern regions of Ghana. Using secondary sources of data complemented by individual and group interviews, the paper reveals an almost universal lack of consideration of the implications of large-scale land deals for crop water requirements, the ecological functions of freshwater ecosystems and water rights of local smallholder farmers and other users. It documents the factors responsible for this apparent oversight including the multiplicity of land and water governance systems, sharp sectoral boundaries between land and water policies, property rights and institutions, outdated statutes, poorly resourced and ineffective regulatory agencies, and unequal power relations in land acquisition deals. The paper shows that due to a lack of an approach that jointly considers land and water management policies and institutions in acceding to large-scale land deals, the benefits derived by local people were insufficient to cover the involuntary permanent loss of their water rights and livelihoods and the risks posed to ecosystem services. Options for establishing alternative institutional arrangements that will allow water availability, use and management as well as social and environmental standards to be factored, ex ante, into large-scale land deals are explored.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Ethiopia's economy, contributing more than 40% to GDP and providing a livelihood to about 80% of the population. Agriculture is dominated by smallholders growing predominantly rainfed cereals, making economic performance dependent on rainfall availability. This study used the stochastic frontier production function to analyse the productivity and technical efficiency of 4 different agricultural production systems in Ethiopia; namely, irrigated seasonal farms on traditional irrigation systems, irrigated seasonal farms on modern communal irrigation systems, rainfed seasonal farms for farmers who have access to irrigation and rainfed seasonal farms for farmers who do not have access to irrigation. Simple random samples of farmers were selected from lists of farmers. The sample of farmers constituted 122 from the traditional irrigated sites, 281 from the modern communal irrigated sites and 350 from the control rainfed sites of farmers without access to irrigation. For those farmers, from both traditional and modern communal irrigation, who also had access to rainfed farms, their rainfed farms were included in the sample of rainfed with access to irrigation. This sample constituted 434 farmers. The marginal productivity of land on modern communal irrigation systems shows that this is the smallholder irrigation option that should be developed by the Government of Ethiopia. However, the marginal productivity of land in the 'rainfed without access to irrigation' category is higher than that of the traditional irrigated system. Thus additional developed land should be put under 'rainfed without access to irrigation' before it is put under traditional irrigation; otherwise it should be developed into modern communal irrigation. The average technical efficiency for the modern irrigated system was estimated to be about 71%, whereas this was estimated to be 78% for the 'rainfed without access to irrigation' system. There are potential gains to be realised in improving efficiency in these two systems.

West Africa's rice imports currently satisfy 70% of the soaring local demand, worsening the food vulnerability of an increasingly urbanized population. Despite considerable rice-growing potential, lack of water control systems, access to improved seeds, agrochemicals and appropriate mechanization have resulted in modest production growth rates, unable to alter the region's dependency on imported rice. Governments aim to boost production with import duties and input subsidies. However, questions remain as to whether these policies enable the rice sector to respond to changing consumers preferences for high grade rice and to contribute to national economic growth. We present the results from a Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) on rice production in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger and under three water management systems: irrigation (public scheme), supplemented rain-fed (rainfall aided by autonomously-sourced water supplies) and purely rain-fed. Our results show that policy interventions in these West African countries (i.e., input subsidies and import taxes) did not significantly enhance the profitability of rice production to farmers due to the effect of market failures (limited capital access and non-competitive market for rice) and the low quality of local milled rice. The PAM results point strongly to the importance of improving rice quality and yields through more efficient water management and post-harvest handling/processing and targeted breeding to match consumers' preferences.

The government of Ethiopia has invested in groundwater development for smallholder irrigation in the Raya Valley and Kobo Valley, north-eastern Ethiopia, where the hydrogeological potential is large but not fully developed. A cost-benefit analysis shows that investment in deep groundwater irrigation development is viable at a 9.5% discount rate in 75% of the wells. Assuming full cost recovery of capital investment, the annual payment rates (annuity) that irrigation users should pay over the wells' service life (25 years) were estimated. It is recommended that future investment be based on cost sharing rather than full cost recovery to facilitate uptake and address financial realities.

As part of their irrigation strategy, the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Malawi are actively promoting the use of treadle pumps in smallholder irrigation. The positive impact of treadle pumps on food security and poverty reduction in Malawi and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa is well documented. However, few studies have analysed the adoption dynamics and dissemination approaches of treadle pumps. This study uses a logit model to analyse the factors influencing treadle pump adoption among a stratified random sample of 100 adopters and 100 non-adopters in two districts in Malawi. The results indicate that relatively well-off farmers have a significantly higher probability of adopting the treadle pumps than poor farmers. This raises questions about dissemination approaches and targeting, because treadle pumps are typically geared towards poor smallholders. The study further indicates differences between male and female adopters. Female adopters are more likely to pay for subsidized treadle pumps in cash. Male adopters mostly acquire their pumps through a loan. Women tend to spend the additional income on food for the household while men tend to spend it mostly on non-food items. It is therefore likely that treadle pump adoption by women will positively impact on household food security, though it also adds to women's workload.