Invitation to the Fifth International Seminar on Participatory Irrigation Management:

Implementing Management Transfer: Lessons from Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad, India, 14-21 December 1999

Dear INPIM member:

INPIM's Fifth International Seminar on PIM, jointly organized by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Global INPIM and IndiaNPIM, will be held in the Krishna Oberoi Hotel in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, from December 14-21, 1999.

At the July 1998 Bali Seminar, many members indicated that INPIM's next international seminar should focus on the viability of WUAs and on monitoring. Specifically, how can governments help WUAs become viable and how can governments determine whether or not viability has been attained? These questions are crucial, both when the reform is being implemented and afterwards. But can anyone say just how we should go about it?

The complexity of core issues such as WUA viability and monitoring demonstrates once again that, while the notion of PIM may be relatively simple and easy to grasp, it is difficult to implement. It is often noted that irrigation systems should become financially viable, irrigation officers should be made accountable to farmers, governments should take on a role as regulator and abandon their role of prime mover. However, few have specifically addressed HOW one should accomplish these critical steps in successful transfer.

Implementation presupposes monitoring and feedback. To find out more about these three and how to link them, INPIM has gratefully accepted an offer by the Government of India to share the experience of Andhra Pradesh. This state in south India enacted a law in April 1997 that enabled its government to transfer to farmers' organizations full authority over the management of its 4.8 million hectares of command area. In July 1997, the government started the first phase of this transfer by creating over 10,000 WUAs. These associations are now in charge of the tertiary commands and the irrigation engineers and water guards, once answerable to the Department of Irrigation, are now answerable to the chairpersons of the Farmers' Organizations. In some districts, secondary commands have been brought under farmer authority as well. The final objective is to bring the primary system under farmer control also.

At INPIM's Fifth International Seminar, the leaders of this reform will communicate how they designed the pilots, learned key lessons from them, drafted the enabling law, gathered political support (the law passed without any opposing vote) and funded the reform. They will detail the feedback and monitoring part of their reform: how feedback from the farmers and technicians in the field was solicited; how that feedback (from 10,000 chairpersons) is organized every six months and kept separate from feedback from WUA board members; and how the outcomes of monitoring were used to reshape the reform process.

A program for the Seminar has been designed which focuses on how the government of Andhra Pradesh implements its reform (both administratively and politically) and how it organizes and uses its monitoring and feedback. The program is outlined below.

12/14 Registration, reception and welcome dinner

12/15 Opening ceremony, key note addresses and a working groups session (country groups)

12/16 Setting and adapting the legal, administrative and funding frameworks, and work in country

12/17 Establishing the new relationship between farmers and government officials on the ground: organizing and monitoring

12/18 Field visits to farmers' organizations in small groups

12/19 Work in country groups, feedback and debate in the plenary session

12/20 Methods for Agency Monitoring and for Self-Monitoring by WUAs, General Assembly of INPIM

12/21 Closing ceremony

Seminar fee, payment and travel

INPIM offers a pre-arranged package including food, lodging, local transportation and field visits at US$1050. Kindly make your check payable to INPIM. Participants may also transfer the amount directly to INPIM's Account at CRESTAR Bank, 1925 K Street NW, Washington, DC, 20006-1105. The account number is 206 652 674. Participants should specify their names and mention `Fifth International Seminar'. They should also mention CRESTAR's Swift code with the American Banking Association (ABA) which is 054 000 522. The fee will be reduced for Indian and other participants making their own lodging arrangements. Indian participants should contact IndiaNPIM for more information and payment.

Participants will be responsible for making their own travel arrangements. This is quite feasible since Hyderabad is the destination of many international flights from both Europe and Asia.

Further information

For more information on the Seminar, participants from outside India should contact INPIM.