scholarly journals Governing river rehabilitation projects for transformative capacity development

Water Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Martel ◽  
Catherine Sutherland ◽  
Sylvia Hannan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Knowledge Construction ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Water Quantity ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
River Rehabilitation ◽  
Ecological Relationships ◽  
Development Processes

Abstract River rehabilitation projects are framed as water security interventions in South Africa. They aim to address water quality and water quantity issues, as well as to improve socio-ecological relationships. These projects acknowledge the value of capacity building and social learning in enhancing water security. However, they adopt different governance approaches and hence have different knowledge construction and capacity building outcomes. This paper employs a ‘governmentality’ framework to analyse the capacity development processes within three river rehabilitation projects in Durban, South Africa. The analysis revealed that the three projects with their different governmentalities produced different capacity development modalities which are utilised to sustain ‘the object of intervention’ in each river rehabilitation project. However, despite these differences, information as the currency of action; the context or site of learning; the importance of building state–citizen relationships; and the need for bridges or intermediaries, emerged as common elements which support capacity building and knowledge sharing across all three projects.

scholarly journals Gender responsiveness diagnostic of national monitoring and evaluation systems – methodological reflections

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madri S. Jansen van Rensburg ◽  
Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Diagnostic Study ◽  
Evaluation Systems ◽  
National Monitoring ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Gender

Background: This article reflects on the implementation of a diagnostic study carried out to understand the gender responsiveness of the national monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems of Benin, South Africa and Uganda. Carrying out the study found that the potential for integrating the cross-cutting systems of gender and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are strong. At the same time, it highlighted a range of challenges intersecting these two areas of work. This article explores these issues, which range from logistical to conceptual.Objectives: This article aims to share reflections from the gender diagnostic study to enable more appropriate capacity building in the field of gender responsiveness in national M&E systems. Developing more sophisticated tools to measure gender responsiveness in complex contexts is critical. A better understanding of how gender and national M&E systems intersect is important to understanding firstly how we can more accurately measure the gender responsiveness of existing systems and secondly how better to engender capacity development initiatives.Method: As part of the Twende Mbele programme, Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR) commissioned Africa Gender and Development Evaluator’s Network (AGDEN) to coordinate teams of researchers in Benin, Uganda, and South Africa to collaboratively develop the diagnostic tool, and then implement it by conducting a review of key documentation and to interview officials within the government wide monitoring and evaluation systems as well as the national gender machinery in each country.Results: The study found that the gender responsiveness of M&E systems across all three systems was unequal, but more importantly, it is important to do more work on how M&E and gender are conceptualised, to ensure this can be studied in a more meaningful way. To strengthen national monitoring and evaluation systems, gender responsiveness and equity must serve as a foundation for growth. However, intersection M&E with gender is complex, and riddled with gaps in capacity, conceptual differences, and challenges bringing together disparate and complex systems.Conclusion: A stronger understanding of the linkages between M&E and gender is an important starting place for bringing them together holistically.

scholarly journals Water security at local government level in South Africa: a qualitative interview-based analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. S17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Meissner ◽  
Nikki Funke ◽  
Karen Nortje ◽  
Inga Jacobs-Mata ◽  
Elliot Moyo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Qualitative Interview ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
Government Level

Enhancing Water Security through Restoration and Maintenance of Ecological Infrastructure:  Lessons From the uMngeni River Basin, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Jewitt ◽  
Catherine Sutherland ◽  
Sabine Stuart-Hill ◽  
Jim Taylor ◽  
Susan Risko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Ecological Infrastructure ◽  
Sustainable Water Supply

<p>The uMngeni River Basin supports over six million people, providing water to South Africa’s third largest regional economy. A critical question facing stakeholders is how to sustain and enhance water security in the catchment for its inhabitants. The role of Ecological Infrastructure (EI) (the South African term for a suite of Nature Based Solutions and Green Infrastructure projects) in enhancing and sustaining water and sanitation delivery in the catchment has been the focus of a project that has explored the conceptual and philosophical basis for investing in EI over the past five years.</p><p>The overall aim of this project was to identify where and how investment into the protection and/or restoration of EI can be made to produce long-term and sustainable returns in terms of water security assurance. In short, the project aimed to guide catchment managers when deciding “what to do” in the catchment to secure a more sustainable water supply, and where it should be done. This seemingly simple question encompasses complexity in time and space, and reveals the connections between different biophysical, social, political, economic and governance systems in the catchment.</p><p>Through the study, we highlight that there is an interdependent and co-constitutive relationship between EI, society, and water security. In particular, by working in spaces where EI investment is taking place, it is evident that socio-economic, environmental and political relations in the catchment play a critical role in making EI investment possible, or not possible.</p><p>The study inherently addresses aspects of water quantity and quality, economics, societal interactions, and the governance of natural resources. It highlights that ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water resources requires both transdisciplinary and detailed biophysical, economic, social and development studies of both formal and informal socio-ecological systems, and that investing in human resources capacity to support these studies, is critical. In contrast to many projects which have identified this complexity, here, we move beyond identification and actively explore and explain these interactions and have synthesised these into ten lessons based on these experiences and analyses.</p><ul><li>1 - People (human capital), the societies in which they live (societal capital), the constructed environment (built capital), and natural capital interact with, and shape each other</li> <li>2 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure enhances catchment water security</li> <li>3 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure or BuiIt/Grey infrastructure is not a binary choice</li> <li>4 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure is financially beneficial</li> <li>5 - Understanding history, legacy and path dependencies is critical to shift thinking</li> <li>6 - Understanding the governance system is fundamental</li> <li>7 - Meaningful participatory processes are the key to transformation</li> <li>8 - To be sustainable, investments in infrastructure need a concomitant investment in social and human capital</li> <li>9 - Social learning, building transdisciplinarity and transformation takes time and effort</li> <li>10 - Students provide new insights, bring energy and are multipliers</li> </ul>

scholarly journals Capacity Building as Accelerator for Improving Autonomous Region Recently Knows as (DOB): Case Study in Seluma Distrcit Bengkulu Province, Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Titi Darmi ◽  
M. Si Sri Suwitri ◽  
Yuwanto ◽  
Sundarso
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Organization Performance ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
Analysis Process ◽  
Building Program ◽  
Government Institution

The research aims to explore how capacity development of local government institution in Seluma district as the coordinator of Autonomous Region Recently known as DOB. This research background is lack capacity of government institution in Seluma district is improved poverty range amount 21,22%, the IPM lack, social environment isn’t conducive, government management index lowly. This case indicates incapacity of DOB management organizer while this capacity building program is a strategy that can be implemented by local government in order DOB can be realize. Improving organization performance should be implemented institution capacity building continuity either on institution internal capacity or institution external capacity. The research method through qualitative approach then the technique of data collection applies primary and secondary data. The data is taken from documentary, observation, deep interview and FGD. The determination of sample/informant with sampling purposive. The data analysis process by conducting the data reduction, display data, decision making and verification data. Research results showed unoptimal effort, strengthening the capacity development of DOB Organization has not been done in a good, well-planned and structured. The solution, it takes the commitment of the leadership of both the highest level of Regent followed by level below it.

scholarly journals Seawater desalination as an option to alleviate water scarcity in South Africa: the need for a strategic approach to planning and environmental decision-making

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. O. Schreiner ◽  
R. C. van Ballegooyen ◽  
W. Osman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Bulk Water ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Seawater Reverse Osmosis ◽  
National Water

In the last decade, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has come to be seen by policy-makers as a novel technology that will significantly advance water security in South African coastal regions. Water purveyors, from the private sector, local/district municipalities and provincial authorities, are undertaking studies to explore the feasibility of SWRO to meet growing demand and relieve mounting pressure on current bulk water supply infrastructure. With this in mind, it is suggested that national strategic planning should be introduced to present the opportunities and constraints of the desalination option within the national water and energy policy. In absence of this, piece-meal decisions will be made at local authority levels and the construction of SWRO plants will be determined by regional circumstances (e.g. drought) as opposed to national water policy agenda. This paper explores the value of such a strategy by considering the drivers of SWRO in South Africa, the risk of unplanned large-scale SWRO implementation (with a focus on environmental impacts) and the initial steps that could be taken toward a Strategic Environmental Assessment for SWRO in South Africa.

scholarly journals Modelling multiple threats to water security in the Peruvian Amazon using the WaterWorld policy support system

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. J. van Soesbergen ◽  
M. Mulligan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Water Quantity ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
Gas Extraction ◽  
Peruvian Amazon ◽  
Rural Urban Migration

Abstract. This paper describes the application of WaterWorld (www.policysupport.org/waterworld) to the Peruvian Amazon, an area that is increasingly under pressure from deforestation and water pollution as a result of population growth, rural-to-urban migration and oil and gas extraction, potentially impacting both water quantity and water quality. By applying single and combined plausible scenarios of climate change, deforestation around existing and planned roads, population growth and rural–urban migration, mining and oil and gas exploitation, we explore the potential combined impacts of these multiple changes on water resources in the Peruvian Amazon.

scholarly journals The joy of sharing knowledge: But what if there is no knowledge to share? A critical reflection on human capacity building in Africa

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
Johannes J Britz
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Human Capacity ◽  
The Brain

This article focuses on the current trends and initiatives in human capacity building in Africa. It takes as it starting point that human capacity development is essential for Africa to become an information and know-ledge society and therefore an equal partner in the global sharing of knowledge. Four knowledge areas are identified and discussed. These are education, research and development, brain drain and information and documentation drain. The paper concludes that there is a clear understanding in Africa that its future lies with education and that most African leaders have a strong political will to invest in human capacity building on the continent. It is also clear that much has been done, particularly primary education. Africa will most defi-nitely benefit from this in the long run. Problem areas remain however. These are in the needed growth of research and development and how to address the brain and information drain phenomena.

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