Abstract
An approach is presented to address adequately the prevailing political and institutional constraints and opportunities of IWRM projects across different domains. The proposed means to achieve this is presented in ‘The IRS Handbook’ which provides an inductive, ‘bottom-up’ analytical framework and a methodological guide for utilisation plus an appendix of useful resources. The overall objective is to facilitate the embedding of these projects within specific socio-political contexts, rather than alongside or in conflict with existing institutional structures and practices. The IRS Handbook has four key elements. First, a four-stage analytical approach is presented (‘Water Storylines’, ‘Domains of Problems/Solutions’, ‘Political and Institutional Feasibility’ and ‘Ways Forward’). Second, it is two-speed in design: a Fast-track version has been designed to fit with planning or pilot stages of projects. The In-depth version is intended to be used in the main phase of a R+D project. Third, it is modular in form: in each stage key approaches in the literature are detailed and linked into the overall framework in a modular fashion with suggestions as to how research could be extended or supplemented in important areas. Fourth, the framework encourages iterative research, so that the researcher regularly tests and updates findings in what will normally be a changing institutional and political context. Overall, the IRS Handbook provides orientation for the best ways forward for most feasible solutions and an assessment of how less compatible solutions could be supported, including ways of adapting existing institutional arrangements.
The chapter summarizes the online document “The IRS Handbook. Analysing institutional and political contexts of water resources management projects” authored by Beveridge et al. (2012a) which is an outcome of the research project “Strengthening Integrated Water Resource Management through institutional analysis: an analytical tool and operative methodology for research projects and programmes (WaRM-In)”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 11/2010–07/2012. The cited online document is also available in German (Beveridge et al. 2012b).
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Monsees, J., Beveridge, R., Moss, T. (2016). Addressing Water Conflicts Through Context-Specific Institutional Analysis: A Handbook for Research Projects and Programmes. In: Borchardt, D., Bogardi, J., Ibisch, R. (eds) Integrated Water Resources Management: Concept, Research and Implementation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25071-7_11
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