Hydro-Political Assessment of Water Governance from the Top-down and Review of Literature on Local Level Institutions and Practices in the Volta Basin

Abstract

"So how can transboundary institutions be built, which address sub-Saharan Africas unique conditions? This project on African Models of Transboundary River Basin Governance hypothesizes that, through an indigenous African 'bottom-up' approach, starting from local traditions and social arrangements, it will be possible to create more resilient and successful transboundary water institutions than would otherwise be possible, while also giving greater voice to the poor, women and men alike, in the process. In order to tackle this problem, the project began with an assessment of the current institutional arrangements from a historical perspective. This is largely a literature review, using published and unpublished sources. The present Working Paper reports on the results of this historical hydro-political assessment of the Volta River Basin. The second phase of the project is currently (2005-2006) supporting groups of postgraduate students, who are doing detailed case study field work in rural areas, in order to identify potential local traditions and social arrangements that could possibly be built into the design of larger-scale river basins."