How governance affects participation: Insights from water resources planning projects in Colombia and Peru
This brief explores how the design of water resources governance systems in Colombia and Peru affect stakeholder participation, drawing on insights from SEI projects in both countries. It is based on SEI’s experience in supporting water resource planning and climate change adaptation processes in both countries, using an approach we call Robust Decision Support (RDS), which combines technical modelling with stakeholder engagement.
It begins by providing an overview of the reforms in both countries, then explains how the RDS process was implemented in each country and how governance structures affected stakeholder participation. SEI’s experience suggests that even thoughtfully designed governance approaches may not fully lend themselves to effective, science-informed water policy development and implementation. Thus, approaches need to be adapted to better fit with specific governance systems.