Government supported watershed development projects in India underwent a paradigm shift in 1994 with the advent of guidelines for the Watershed Development Programme as well as a number of pathbreaking guidelines that introduced innovative protocols that placed a strong emphasis on community participation. Development funds were directly transferred to the bank accounts of local committees for the first time and focus was placed on participatory and comprehensive action plans, partnerships between voluntary organisations and state governments, and special budgetary provisions for training and community organisations.
The paper titled 'A reflection on policy formulation processes - A case study of watershed management projects in Andhra Pradesh', informs that there were many challenges in making these guidelines a reality with the role of the central government largely being limited to setting the vision and objectives, defining the strategy, providing financial resources and guidance, and the state governments expected to follow these guidelines, place effective implementation mechanisms and ensure that the expected end results were achieved.
The paper describes the impact of these changes on the implementation of watershed development projects in Andhra Pradesh and the lessons learnt in the process. It presents the reflections of two individuals who went through the process of contextualising national policies for local conditions and witnessed the 'ups and downs' of this process.
The paper argues that some key statements from the State Strategic Plan of Andhra Pradesh clearly indicate that the agenda of watershed management projects is long term and is not over. However, future watershed development projects in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have to find themselves in the midst of changing global equations, changing technology, climate change related issues, deteriorating soil fertility, diminishing forest covers, depleting groundwater and demographic changes such as increasing urbanisation, increasing disparity between rich and poor, conflicting agriculture and land use policies etc.
Based on the achievements thus far, the future course of action needs to be defined. In this context, the lessons learned from the past on “policy formulation processes” include:
The policy formulation processes in Andhra Pradesh in the context of watershed development projects have been largely guided by principles of partnership and collaboration among several like minded partners including government officials, civil society organisations, people’s representatives/ governments and other agencies/ individuals. The processes that contributed to this were owned and nurtured by several actors.
The paper ends by arguing that these efforts need to be continued in the interest of society. Though all these initiatives are not systematically institutionalised, there is a loose cohesion in this process. These efforts can have the potential to produce meaningful results under new and relevant policy and practices in the context of watershed management projects in the country.
Please download a copy of the paper below.