Causes for Conflicts in Irrigation Systems in Nepal: Using the IAD Framework to Find the Weakest Link

Abstract

"For various and obvious reasons, it is important to understand what it is that makes common pool resource management systems function or fail. It is possible to target this question from two different directions. Either from the inside of the common pool resource management systems, looking at its different characteristics and deciding which are the most important ones, or from the outside, looking at which attributes of the environment are more harmful and analyse how and why this is so. In this paper I use the second way to tackle the problem and to develop a way of finding the weakest link of a common pool resource system. I do this by mapping the findings of an empirical study of cooperation in irrigation systems in Nepal onto the Institutional Analysis and Development framework used and developed at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. This way, I can get an understanding for not only which, but also why certain factors are more likely to have a negative effect on the functioning of these irrigation systems. Analysing the results of the exercise will hopefully provide a picture of what are the most vulnerable parts of the intricate fabric of a common pool resource management system."