Polycentric Governance and Irrigation Reform in Kenya

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Baldwin, Elizabeth; Washington-Ottombre, Camille; Dell'Angelo, Jampel; Cole, Daniel; Evans, Tom
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; Smith College
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12160
• 发表日期: 2016
• 关键词: water governance; GOVERNMENT; management; complexity; commons; county

摘要

In Kenya, as in many developing countries, centralized control over water resources was implemented to improve agricultural productivity. By the 1980s, however, Kenya's postindependence policies of bureaucratic control were in disarray, and conflicts over water use were common. More recently, Kenya has embarked on a series of reforms that create a polycentric approach to water governance, in which decision making about water resources is shared among multiple, overlapping local, regional, and national authorities. Drawing on archival and field research, we examine these reforms in their historic context and argue that whereas centralized control was poorly adapted to the Kenyan context, polycentric governance is better suited to Kenya's variable social and ecological conditions and the available resources of its administrative agencies.