Capacity for Participatory Institutional Analysis

Contemporary delta and water management requires coordination and collective action among multiple stakeholders. Coordination and collective action, in turn, require functioning institutions. These institutions provide the formal and informal rules for the interaction among stakeholders. Understanding how institutions constrain or enable more sustainable solutions thus becomes a key part in a more sustainable management of delta areas. In the UDW-1 Shifting Grounds project, an approach for participatory institutional analyses has been developed and tested, as a basis for smart interventions in institutional designs. Part of this approach was the participatory development of problem-specific models for institutional analysis and the use of game-based workshops to share such institutional understanding. The proposed “UDW capacity activity” project will build capacity for the use of this approach with various organizations, mostly in the southwest delta and Khulna-Jessore regions in Bangladesh. We will develop and deliver a hands-on intensive training for participants from various organizations. As part of this training, the participants develop initial models and game designs for their own problems. Different local organizations have already signalled their interest and potential problems have been pre-identified. These include the functioning of Water Management Associations for polder management, Tidal River Management, wastewater treatment and re-use, and the preservation of water ponds in the urban areas of Khulna. However, the actual selection depends on the participants in this capacity building activity. Experts from the Netherlands (TU Delft and Deltares), will deliver the training together with their Bangladeshi counterparts from JJS and Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, with support from Both ENDS. A small research component is foreseen, in learning from the delivery of the training and in supporting travel costs to enable support in game designs from a TU Delft MSc thesis research.