Your search found 5 records
1 Steinberg, P. F.; VanDeveer, S. D. 2012. Comparative environmental politics: theory, practice, and prospects. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press. 424p. (American and Comparative Environmental Policy)
Environmental policy ; Environmental conditions ; Politics ; Political parties ; Political institutions ; Non governmental organizations ; Governance ; Federalism ; History ; Climate change ; Greening ; Globalization ; Social mobility ; Water management ; Water supply ; Irrigation systems ; Forests ; Social sciences / Europe / Latin America / Egypt
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: 363.7 G000 STE Record No: H044934)
(0.32 MB)
2 Suhardiman, Diana; Bastakoti, Ram C.; Karki, Emma; Bharati, Luna. 2018. The politics of river basin planning and state transformation processes in Nepal. Geoforum, 89: 70-76. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.07.019]
River basin management ; Political aspects ; Bureaucracy ; Transformation ; Water resources ; Water management ; Water policy ; Water institutions ; Sectoral planning ; Federalism ; Decision making ; State intervention ; Government agencies / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048868)
Since the late 1990s, river basin planning has become a central idea in water resources management and a mainstream approach supported by international donors through their water programs globally. This article presents river basin planning as a function of power and contested arena of power struggles, where state actors create, sustain, and reproduce their bureaucratic power through the overall shaping of (imagined) bureaucratic territory. It argues that river basin planning is not an antidote to current ‘dysfunction’ in water resources management, rooted in overlapping jurisdictions, fragmented decision making, and bureaucratic competitions between various government agencies. On the contrary, it illustrates how river basin planning becomes a new ‘territorial frontier’, created and depicted by different government agencies as their envisioned operational boundary and as a means to sustain and increase their bureaucratic power and sectoral decision-making authority, amidst ongoing processes of federalism in Nepal.
3 Suhardiman, Diana; Karki, Emma; Bastakoti, Ram C. 2021. Putting power and politics central in Nepal’s water governance. Development Policy Review, 39(4):569-587. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12519]
Water governance ; Political systems ; Water resources ; Water management ; Development planning ; Bureaucracy ; Federalism ; Political parties ; Decision making ; Central government ; Stakeholders ; Government agencies ; Civil society organizations ; River basins ; Hydropower ; Development projects / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049871)
(0.59 MB)
Motivation: Power relations, and the politics shaping and reshaping them, are key to determining influence and outcomes in water governance. But current discourse on water governance tends to present decision-making as neutral and technical unaffected by political influences.
Purpose: Taking Nepal as a case, this article examines the close interlinkages between bureaucratic and political competition that indirectly influence decisions and outcomes on water governance, while placing this within the context of state transformation.
Approach and Methods: An in-depth case study examines the interactions of politicians and bureaucrats shaping decisions on water governance. It draws on semi-structured interviews and power-mapping to reveal insights from key stakeholders with decision-making power in national management of water resources.
Findings: Political competition drives the country’s development agenda and planning, resulting in fragmented development planning. It works in tandem with the prevailing bureaucratic competition in water resources management. It highlights the need to link the discourse and analysis water governance with processes of state transformation. The current fragmented development planning processes could serve as entry points for civil society groups and the wider society to convey their voice and exert their influence.
Policy implications: Following federalism, the political transfer of power and decision-making, to achieve political representation and social justice, rests with locally elected governing bodies. This coincides with the government’s push to manage water resources through river basin planning. There is a need for greater participation from the local governing bodies and understanding of politics and power shape water governance.
Purpose: Taking Nepal as a case, this article examines the close interlinkages between bureaucratic and political competition that indirectly influence decisions and outcomes on water governance, while placing this within the context of state transformation.
Approach and Methods: An in-depth case study examines the interactions of politicians and bureaucrats shaping decisions on water governance. It draws on semi-structured interviews and power-mapping to reveal insights from key stakeholders with decision-making power in national management of water resources.
Findings: Political competition drives the country’s development agenda and planning, resulting in fragmented development planning. It works in tandem with the prevailing bureaucratic competition in water resources management. It highlights the need to link the discourse and analysis water governance with processes of state transformation. The current fragmented development planning processes could serve as entry points for civil society groups and the wider society to convey their voice and exert their influence.
Policy implications: Following federalism, the political transfer of power and decision-making, to achieve political representation and social justice, rests with locally elected governing bodies. This coincides with the government’s push to manage water resources through river basin planning. There is a need for greater participation from the local governing bodies and understanding of politics and power shape water governance.
4 Buchy, Marlene; Shakya, Shristi. 2023. Understanding the gap between the gender equality and social inclusion policy and implementation in the energy sector: the case of Nepal. Energy for Sustainable Development, 76:101297. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2023.101297]
Energy policies ; Gender equality ; Social inclusion ; Decision making ; Women ; Institutions ; Political aspects ; Federalism ; Bureaucracy ; Government / Nepal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052226)
(0.40 MB)
Social norms are often put forward to explain resistance to gender equality and social inclusion (GESI), and women continue to be largely absent from decision-making positions in the energy sector worldwide. However, there is limited research on the institutional mechanisms of policy-making and implementation at different scales within a federal system. Using Nepal as a case study, this paper explores why, despite commitments, progress toward GESI objectives in the energy sector has been slow. Based on a review of energy policies, and interviews at federal, provincial and local government spheres, this paper focuses on the institutional and policy processes at play within the energy sector and between the three spheres of the federal system (the national, provincial and local). It examines the extent to which these processes undermine the implementation of inclusion policy. Understanding the broader institutional processes helps to identify different types of bottlenecks compromising progress in GESI: those which are linked to deficient policy regimes which cannot be addressed solely through additional GESI-focused interventions, and those which can be characterized as resistant to GESI-related issues. The aim of this research is also to understand why Nepal’s public energy institutions, despite a constitutional commitment to gender equality and non-discrimination based on caste, class, ethnicity and religion, seem so reluctant to mainstream GESI within its policies and practice. The paper concludes that GESI implementation in the energy sector suffers from limited human resources, a narrow conceptual framing and delays in policy development and implementation within different spheres of the federal system. Moreover, shortcomings related to GESI policy-making and implementation should be considered within the broader context of federalism. Therefore, to support GESI policy implementation, bureaucratic as well as local-level ownership of the concept and its relevance for sustainable development must be developed and strengthened.
5 Khadka, Manohara; Joshi, Deepa; Uprety, Labisha; Shrestha, Gitta. 2023. Gender and socially inclusive WASH in Nepal: moving beyond “technical fixes”. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 5:1181734. [doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2023.1181734]
Water, sanitation and hygiene ; Gender equality ; Social inclusion ; Women ; Caste systems ; Ethnicity ; Political aspects ; Federalism ; Institutions ; Local government ; Policies ; Governance ; Decision making ; Rural areas / Nepal / Sarlahi / Dailekh
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052237)
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fhumd.2023.1181734/pdf?isPublishedV2=False
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052237.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052237.pdf
(1.03 MB) (1.03 MB)
The enactment of a new Constitution in 2015 in Nepal marked a shift to a representative system of federal governance. Earlier in 2002, the country’s Tenth Five Year Plan had committed to a core focus on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in national policies and governance. How do these two strategic shifts in policy align in the case of WASH projects in rural Nepal? Applying a feminist political lens, we review the implementation of WASH initiatives in two rural districts to show that deep-rooted intersectional complexities of caste, class, and gender prevent inclusive WASH outcomes. Our findings show that the policy framing for gender equitable and socially inclusive outcomes have not impacted the WASH sector, where interventions continue as essentially technical interventions. While there has been significant increase in the number of women representatives in local governance structures since 2017, systemic, informal power relationship by caste, ethnicity and gender entrenched across institutional structures and cultures persist and continue to shape unequal gender-power dynamics. This is yet another example that shows that transformative change requires more than just affirmative policies.
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