Strengthening capacity building for decentralised watershed management

Project description

Title: Strengthening capacity building for decentralised watershed management (CBWS)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: India
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India
Overall term: 2006 to 2011

Fields in the state of Himachal Pradesh. © GIZ

Context

Because the options for expanding irrigated agriculture as the basis for national food security have been more or less exhausted, the Indian Government is now working to promote rain-fed agriculture. The main aspect of this endeavour is watershed management, including the rehabilitation of degraded water catchment areas. The measures carried out are in accordance with the government’s 2008 document, the Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects. The main challenges lie not in providing funds, but in enhancing the efficacy of the funds deployed. The GIZ programme provided successful support to the Indian Government by addressing these challenge in pilot states.

Objective

Large public investment programmes for watershed management have become more effective as a result of capacity building and networking measures involving central and state organisations.

Approach

To provide capacity building for decentralised watershed management, GIZ worked with the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation at the Ministry of Agriculture, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and the National Institute for Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) to establish consortiums. It was necessary to strengthen human resources because integrated watershed management is a multidimensional process that requires a multidisciplinary team. Working as part of a consortium allowed each partner to tap into extensive institutional resources, which included NGOs and government institutions. The consortium approach made it easy to identify resource persons and secure their availability to support the capacity building initiatives.

Results achieved so far

The project established and institutionalised consortiums of service providers for capacity building in three pilot state governments (Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Karnataka), in order to support the large centrally sponsored watershed management scheme.

Establishing effective consortiums improved the utilisation of resources and encouraged better service delivery through resource pooling, networking and adherence to quality standards for capacity development, in accordance with the Common Guidelines 2008.

The project also created a pool of resource persons in the pilot states who are able to train stakeholders in aspects of public private partnership, quality assurance and impact monitoring for large public investment programmes.

Examples of good practice from the project period and thereafter have been recorded and shared for wider replication. These examples can be found in the following documents.

  • Process documentation: ‘The consortium approach to capacity building in watershed management in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand: experiences and lessons learned’
  • Proposed National Capacity Development Strategy for watershed management
  • Watershed Management in India, a guidebook for practitioners – lessons from 22 watersheds in 11 states