Double-Edged Hydropolitics on the Nile - Center for Security Studies ...

Shaky ground: Ethiopian water policy making and Nile Basin cooperation
how the different actors with their diverging interests interact to formulate
and implement water policies.
Institutional aspects
The win-set depends on the influence of different actors on the design and
implementation of (water) policies, and on the institutional capacity of the
water sector to produce comprehensive and integrated policies. This section
highlights the institutional setting of the Ethiopian water sector and focuses
on the overlapping planning hierarchies, the influence of decentralized
stakeholders, inter-sectoral coordination challenges, the specific role of
donor agencies, and the participation of civil-society actors.
Overlapping planning processes at different institutions
Water development in Ethiopia is influenced by planning processes at the
national, sectoral, sub-national, and – potentially – sub-basin levels. The
first two realms are discussed in this section, the latter two below in the
‘decentralization’ section.
Water sector strategies are rooted in – and feed into – overarching
national development strategies. These are most prominently represented
by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP, see MoFED
2002; MoFED 2006; see also DAG 2007) formulated by the MoFED
in coordination with domestic stakeholders and international donors.
Further strategic guidance is provided by other governmental policy white
papers, e.g., the Food Security Strategy (MoFED 2002), internationally
promoted development targets, e.g., the UN Millennium Development
Goals (see MoFED 2005), or various strategy documents prepared by
donor agencies.
The PRSP process is an opportunity to better coordinate sectoral policies
and to adopt a holistic perspective on issues such as poverty alleviation
or integrated management of water resources. However, the fact that the
range of stakeholders effectively participating in the PRSP process is still
139