Sixth Seminar Highlights

Highlights of the Sixth International Seminar on PIM

As the irrigation reform programs of countries across the globe are being planned, implemented, evaluated, and adjusted the question of which institutions are appropriate to support the participation of beneficiaries in the reform process is being asked by policy makers, researchers, beneficiaries, government officials, and donors alike. This year's International Seminar on Participatory Irrigation Management dealt with this very question.

The seminar was the best attended in INPIM's history thus far, with participants from Albania, Australia, Cambodia, China, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Vietnam. In total 172 participants originating from these 27 countries attended the seminar with approximately 50 participants from the Ministry of Water Resources. The seminar participants were a diverse group of professionals that are each engaged in irrigation management work from a wide variety of disciplines. They each represented a number of organizations, both public and private.

The theme of the seminar was "Institutional Options for User Participation." Sam Johnson III, Mark Svendsen, and Fernando Gonzalez authored the keynote paper on this topic, which was distributed prior to the seminar to all participants. During the seminar country case studies were presented on the experiences of Mexico, Australia, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Japan, the Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, USA, France, India, Sri Lanka, and Egypt. The seminar was inaugurated by the Minister of Water Resources of China, Mr. Zhai Houhui and attended by Ministry staff, local World Bank staff, and international participants. The seminar venue was the Shen Zhen Hotel in Beijing from 21th April to the 26th. On the 23rd and 24th, seminar participants were divided into three groups in which they went into the field with and visited Irrigation Districts in the Xijhou, Hunan, and Hebei provinces. Once in the field, participants learned firsthand about irrigation systems and interacted with farmers.

Participants were split into three groups, Group A visited Tien Shaan Irrigation District, Group B visited Zaohe Irrigation District, and Group C visited Shijing and Miyanhou Irrigation Districts. Upon returning from the field, the participants engaged in discussions on what they observed while in the field. This facilitated an exchange between the Chinese and the international participants that advanced the knowledge of both parties about the different institutional environments in their respective countries. A half-day site seeing trip to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs was also part of the seminar package.

The Sixth International Seminar was the latest in a series of International Seminars on Participatory Irrigation Management jointly sponsored by INPIM, the World Bank, and the Government of China (Ministry of Water Resources). The seminar, originally scheduled to be held in October 2001, had to be postponed to April 2002 in the wake of attacks on the United States and the following uncertainty in the Gulf Region.

The presentations made at the seminar are available for downloading at the INPIM website at http://www.inpim.org/News/Seminars/Sixth_International_Seminar/sixth_international_seminar.html. Also, this web page is currently being updated and will soon feature the papers authored by seminar presenters and participants. The seminar proceedings are currently being written. Once they are completed, they will be mailed to all seminar participants and placed on the INPIM website for downloading