Water Politics and Governance

Water is central for ecosystems, human well-being and development. The relationship between society and water resources is critical and complex. This short course aims to provide an introduction to the complex social, political, economical and administrative dimensions of water governance, and with a particular emphasis on the institutional, political, and organizational dimensions. Different models of governance, its structures and institutions at multiple scales are discussed, as well as the different values and uses of water and the mainframes and debates from multiple perspectives.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The learning objectives are:

• To be able to identify and analyze the multidimensional challenges of governance of water resources.
• To understand the social, political, economical and administrative dimensions of water governance.
• To understand the multiple levels of water governance, and the role of actors and institutions within these multiple levels of governance.

ABOUT INSTRUCTOR

Jampel Dell’Angelo is an Associate Professor of Water Governance and Politics in the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is an environmental social scientist interested in the political economy of natural resources, in particular water. His research is on the multilevel dimensions of cooperation and conflict over freshwater resources. The focus of his research spans from socio-environmental dynamics of climate change adaption in community irrigation schemes of rural Kenya to global patterns of virtual water appropriation associated with transnational land investments.

CERTIFICATION

This course is part of the certificate programs ‘WE are Water Eduction (Myanmar)’ and ‘WE are Water Eduction (Indonesia)’.