1.00-2.00 Friday 2 May 2014
Convening Space, Institute of Development Studies
All welcome

Speakers include:

• Andrew Tarimo (Sokoine University of Agriculture)
• Emmanuel Manzungu (University of Zimbabwe)
• Bill Derman (Noragric)
• Alex Bolding, (Wageningen University)
• Barbara Van Koppen (IWMI, South Africa)
• Synne Movik (NIVA)
• Alan Nicol (Global Water Initiative)

Since the early 1990s, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been the dominant paradigm in water resources management. IWRM adoption has led to water reform and the rewriting of national policies in many countries in southern Africa.

In this seminar we draw on findings from the project Flows and Practices: The Politics of IWRM in Africa to ask: Why has IWRM been so influential in southern Africa? How do abstract ideas of IWRM which evolved in global institutions cope with plural, overlapping and competing formal and informal legal and customary systems in southern Africa? Has IWRM succeeded in addressing issues concerning equity, class, race and gender and in reallocating water in an equitable way?  What does this mean for overall development and poverty reduction?

Presenters will address these questions by drawing on ongoing research in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania.