Water Governance and Institutions

Good Governance brings enhanced transparency in decision-making, fair processes for participation, and subsidiarity—the devolution of decision-making powers to the most appropriate level. Specifically, good water governance is about creating the space in which objectives for its use can be defined in a way that is informed and legitimate. Management is then about meeting those objectives as defined, given hydrologic input, and evaluated by specific resource outcomes. Good governance does not guarantee good resource outcomes. Natural variation and underlying hydrology play a foundational role in the range of water resource outcomes possible, as well as do socio-economic and cultural factors outside of water systems that nevertheless constrain the scope for governance.