Browsing by Subject "Institutionelle Analyse"

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Challenges of sustainable wastewater management in Pakistan : a case study of Faisalabad
(2021) Jabeen, Saima; Birner, Regina
For several decades, achieving global development goals that reflect community needs has been the focus of development and conservation approaches; currently, special attention has been paid to water- and sanitation-related goals. Sustainable wastewater management, a target under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6, 6.3) has fostered a debate on its complex role in sustainable development. Exploring the gaps between the real situation and the proposed one regarding sustainable wastewater management (zero pollution) would guide the developing world towards the right steps for improvements in the water and sanitation sector. Gaps exist in the literature about sustainable wastewater management, particularly with reference to developing countries. Against this background, the aim of this study was to investigate the challenges in sustainable wastewater management in Pakistan, more specifically in Faisalabad. These challenges, which require the attention of policymakers in Pakistan, include the following: untreated dumping of wastewater (domestic or industrial); overexploitation of groundwater; lacking clean drinking water and sanitation facilities; a weak legal framework to prosecute polluters; governance challenges in administrative agencies; and public health concerns. The study was conducted in urban and peri-urban areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Faisalabad is located in a semiarid region and is facing water scarcity issues. Industrial development, particularly in the textile sector, and rapid urbanization within this region, are posing threats to groundwater sources (due to intensive pumping), surface water sources (due to untreated dumping of wastewater), human health, and the environment (due to untreated reuse of wastewater). While these problems are widely recognized, there are major knowledge gaps on how to address them so as to ensure a sustainable wastewater management. The case study examines four main aspects of wastewater management: the interaction of wastewater with human health and the environment, existing formal rules for wastewater management, the institutional framework that governs wastewater management, and future development schemes and policies for better management. The first objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of poor wastewater management on the community and natural resources (at the micro-level). For this purpose, wastewater-irrigated areas were selected. The second goal was to evaluate gaps in the legal framework of wastewater management in Faisalabad. Identifying the challenges in urban wastewater management in Faisalabad was the third objective. The last objective was to review the current and potential future policy interventions within the context of the study area. Applying a case study design, this in-depth study explored the role of all stakeholders (administrative departments, individuals, industrialist, wastewater irrigators, etc.) linked with wastewater management. A multiphase data collection approach using mixed methods was used for the in-depth investigation. A framework was developed, which enabled the researcher to evaluate the current state of wastewater management and to identify the gaps to achieve sustainable wastewater management. The first phase of data collection comprised a household survey and a chemical analysis of soil, irrigation water and groundwater across three categories of different sources of irrigation water: industrial wastewater, domestic wastewater, and canal water. Data was collected in the peri-urban areas of Faisalabad. The household survey data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, statistical comparative analysis, and econometric analysis techniques. For the review of the current legal framework, desk research was carried out with the aim to critically analyze regulations, based on secondary sources. The second phase of data collection incorporated qualitative data collection tools, specifically in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and a participatory mapping tool called net-mapping. These data collected from diverse stakeholders were evaluated using a content analysis approach to explore and identify the challenges in wastewater management. The institutional analysis was based on a conceptual framework, which was derived from the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework. In addition to institutional analysis, historical developments of institutions (historical institutionalism approach) and their governance failures (discourse analysis of newspaper articles) were also analyzed. Finally, on this basis, possible policies to improve the current situation of wastewater management in Faisalabad were derived. The review of secondary data of wastewater management in Faisalabad showed that only 20 percent of the wastewater generated in Faisalabad was treated. A single treatment plant treated only domestic wastewater. The study showed that mostfarmers preferred to apply untreated domestic wastewater because the treated wastewater was more saline and had less organic content as compared to untreated domestic wastewater. During the last decade, without any drastic change in demographics and industries in Faisalabad, the volume of generated wastewater doubled. Most industry plants dilute their effluents by adding saline groundwater to their effluents before dumping it to drains. Evidence showed that wastewater reuse and dumping of untreated wastewater in Faisalabad increased. The evidence indicates that, despite all efforts to resolve the problem, wastewater management (generation, collection, treatment, and reuse) in Faisalabad has deteriorated in recent years. The results from the household survey across three categories of water (industrial wastewater, domestic wastewater, and canal water) in Faisalabad confirmed the problematic use of untreated wastewater for irrigation and its impact on human health and the environment. Irrigation with domestic wastewater was associated with a higher income and therefore contributed to food security, which underlines the farmers preference for this type of water. On the contrary, industrial wastewater negatively affected farm households. Thus, the results showed that there is a demand to reuse wastewater in agriculture, which needs proper management to reduce the risks involved. It was concluded that policies required for each site will be different depending on the quality of the wastewater and local conditions of the sites. No single model is fit for all conditions. The review of the current legislation led to the identification of several gaps, which favored violators or rules and polluters. Although sustainable wastewater management had been addressed through scattered clauses in various pieces of formal legislation, rules were not comprehensively legislated or enforced. The study showed that the difficulty in timely testing disposed wastewater and the lengthy legal process made proper law enforcement practically impossible. Therefore, violators used these implementation gaps to avoid fines and punishments. Local awareness and presence of a local pressure groups at the time of legislation could have reduced gaps in legislation and in law enforcement. Using governance and evaluative criteria (derived from the IAD framework), social and governance challenges regarding wastewater management in Faisalabad were comprehensively assessed. Furthermore, the historical institutionalism approach helped to identify the in-built challenges of administrative institutions. The most important challenge identified in the study was the low capacity of implementing agencies due to human, technical, and financial limitations. Moreover, the urban planning of Faisalabad completely failed during the previous decades, which resulted in scattered industrial clusters throughout the residential areas. Such poor planning restricted proper management, treatment, and reuse of effluents. In addition, the institutional analysis showed that the public organizations and agencies had weak administrative linkages among each other. The study also indicated that a problematic institutional environment, including nepotism and interference in office affairs, influenced how the public organizations operated. It was concluded that a comprehensive strategy is needed for improved wastewater management, which needs to address simultaneously issues of institutional and technical feasibility, economics, social acceptability and environmental sustainability. Future studies could further explore such comprehensive strategies within the context of developing countries.
Comparison of institutional arrangements for inclusive dairy market development in India
(2019) Ravichandran, Thanammal; Birner, Regina
Future projections show that by 2025, the demand for dairy products in developing countries will increase by 25 percent due to population growth, urbanization and increased incomes. This increase in demand offers a unique opportunity for smallholder dairy farmers, who may achieve higher levels of income and well-being if they are able to increase their milk production. Currently, smallholder dairy producers in developing countries face severe constraints caused by low productivity, lack of market access and high transaction costs. Hence, investments in dairy production that aim to overcome these constraints can serve as a powerful tool for poverty reduction and rural development. Many donors have already invested in reducing poverty by stimulating growth of dairy sector, but the success of such development projects has been variable and largely dependent on local circumstances. India is a good example of the challenges faced by the promotion of dairy development. Remarkable growth in the dairy sector has been achieved by “Operation Flood”, a large-scale government-funded program to promote smallholder dairy production and market integration. However, growth in the dairy sector was not equally distributed among the different regions of India. Moreover, depending on the region, marginalized farmers, including female farmers, still face barriers to access technological innovations (e.g., breed improvement and better feeding practices) as well as access to institutions (e.g., credit and markets). Therefore, India presents a good case for a comparative study that aims to identify what types of institutional arrangements are most suitable to promote inclusive growth of the dairy sector, depending on local circumstances. Against this background, it is the main objective of this thesis to analyze institutional arrangements for inclusive dairy sector development and to explore the factors that influence or hinder inclusive growth, using India as a case study country. The focus is placed on institutional arrangements that have the potential to address governance challenges and gender inequality in dairy development. Data for this thesis was collected in three Indian states that differ with regard to the overall governance conditions: Telangana, which enjoys favorable governance conditions, Bihar, which can be classified as intermediate, and Uttarakhand, a state with rather unfavorable governance conditions. The thesis is composed of five chapters. Following an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 explores the governance challenges that different institutional arrangements of dairy marketing pose for inclusive growth. Chapter 3 focuses on the barriers faced by women to participate in institutional arrangements for dairy marketing and to access and control the income derived from dairy production. Chapter 4 presents a case study of the MilkIT project, an internationally funded project that used the institutional arrangement of the “Innovation Platform” to promote dairy development. Chapter 5 discusses the overall findings of the thesis in a comparative perspective and identifies the success factors, which influence inclusive growth of the dairy sector. The final chapter also presents policy recommendations for inclusive dairy development. The institutional arrangements for dairy marketing that were examined in Bihar and Telangana include different types of dairy cooperatives (with mixed membership and women-only membership), a private dairy company and informal marketing arrangements. A qualitative research approach using Grounded Theory was applied to identify the factors that influence participation of women and marginalized groups in different institutional arrangements. The researcher stayed for two weeks in each of the selected villages and collected data using participant observation as well as other research tools: semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and the application of Net-Map, a participatory mapping technique. In Uttarakhand, data from a baseline household survey and focus group discussions conducted for the MilkIT project were compared with a post-intervention household survey to assess the impact of Innovation Platforms on institutional and technological innovations. Furthermore, the documentation of meetings held in the context of the Innovation Platforms was analyzed. The findings of the study underline that gender inequality and governance challenges are major constraints to achieving inclusive growth, which require context-specific interventions. In Telangana, dairy cooperatives that have only women as members proved to be an appropriate institutional arrangement for inclusive dairy development. These women-only cooperatives performed better than cooperatives with mixed membership. The study showed that women and lower caste producers were often not able to participate in cooperatives with mixed membership, and those who participated had limited access to leadership roles and training opportunities. The results for Bihar were rather different, which underlines the need for a context-specific approach. Women-only cooperatives allowed females and low-caste members to participate, but all leadership roles were occupied by men who dominated the management of those cooperatives. As in Telangana, the mixed dairy cooperative in Bihar were not fully inclusive, but those women and low caste members who were able to join benefitted relatively more from access to inputs and training as was the case in Telangana. Exclusion of women and marginalized groups was particularly evident in the case of a private dairy company in Telangana, which mainly focused on marketing of milk and did not engage in services for productivity enhancement. Informal dairy market arrangements were found to be easily accessible for women and marginalized groups, but they did not facilitate access to inputs and services either. The Innovation Platform approach was found to be effective in facilitating market access and promoting technical innovations. By design and in practice, women were given a chance to participate in this approach not only by attending meetings but also by participating in decision-making. The study demonstrates that both the institutional set-up and the prevailing governance processes are key aspects of institutional arrangements for inclusive dairy development. Success factors include decentralized governance structures; low state interference; participation of women not only at the village level, but also higher levels of the cooperative arrangement (union or federation level); democratic practices, especially transparency, in the election of leaders; and involvement of all types of members in decision making. Effectiveness and inclusiveness in the provision of economic services also mattered, most notably with regard to input supply and support services to all members. The type of institutional arrangements required to realize these success factors may differ across regions, as the comparison of Telangana and Bihar shows. Overall, the study suggests that performing a context-specific social and gender analysis is essential for the design of formal institutional arrangements for dairy markets, a finding that likely applies to all agricultural markets. The study clearly shows that creating organizations with women-only membership is not a sufficient condition to promote inclusive agricultural development. What matters is women’s participation in leadership position of agricultural marketing organizations (which may require quotas), capacity building, networking through self-help groups and extension services that are accessible to women. The study also shows that innovative institutional arrangements, such as Innovation Platforms, also have a promising potential to foster inclusive agricultural development.