Seminar Announcement
National Interests and Transboundary Water Governance in the Mekong :
Engaging civil society?
by
Philip Hirsch
Australian Mekong Resource Centre
School of Geosciences
University of Sydney
Seminar hosted by
The Institute of Asian Studies
and
International Development Studies Program
Chulalongkorn University
Tuesday 19 September 2006
10:00 – 12:00
Saranites Conference Room, Chulalongkorn University
Background
The 4800 km long Mekong River is a shared resource. It is shared across the borders of six countries – China , Burma , Laos , Thailand , Cambodia , and Vietnam . It is shared between the more than 60 million people who live in the basin. It is shared between those who live in the Basin and others who draw on its resources, both virtually and physically. It is shared between different types of resource users – farmers, fishers, power producers and consumers, and many others. Each dimension of sharing represents, alternatively, an avenue for cooperation, for competition or for conflict, raising profound questions of how the river is shared and of whose it is to share – in other words, of governance.
What sort of institutional arrangements govern water in a transboundary basin? The Mekong is unusual in having a longstanding framework for cooperation through the Mekong River Commission and its precursor, the Mekong Committee. However, the legacy of MRC is one of cooperation between nation states with a largely developmentalist agenda, subject to considerable external influence. The MRC now aspires, or claims, to take an integrated approach to water resource management with stronger riparian ownership. However, it is faced by continuing governance constraints, challenges and choices.
The Seminar
This presentation outlines a report based on a study of governance and national interest in the Mekong River Basin . The study was carried out from an analytical and strategic perspective in collaboration between the Australian Mekong Resource Centre, at the University of Sydney , and Danida - the Danish government's overseas aid program that has provided more funding than any other donor to the Mekong River Commission.
The study considers national interest in two key dimensions. First, it looks at how basin-wide considerations continue to be subsidiary to country-specific considerations within the existing governance framework, and hence at the MRC's lack of “teeth” and regulatory authority. Second, the study looks critically at the representation of a singular national interest in water resource development and in MRC governance arrangements, when it is clear that competing interests in water within countries is really the key governance issue when it comes to “sharing the Mekong ”. This raises questions of societal exclusion or marginalization within existing governance arrangements, and it presents challenges both to civil society and to the mainstream institutions – notably MRC – in forging a more inclusive water governance.
This seminar seeks to be constructive in stimulating discussion of ways in which both the mainstream institutions and civil society organizations should and could work toward a more engaged governance of water in its transboundary context through existing or new institutions. Does or can the MRC serve as such a vehicle? Is there a need to galvanize civil society involvement through new initiatives such as a Mekong People's Council? Where does this leave river basin management vis-à-vis the GMS and other Mekong-wide programs? And so on.
Associate Professor Philip Hirsch, Director of the Australian Mekong Resource Centre at the University of Sydney , will present the study. The presentation will be followed by open discussion around key issues. The seminar will be held in Thai, with brief summaries in English if there are international participants.
All welcome.
The full report on National Interests and Transboundary Water Governance in the Mekong can be downloaded from the AMRC website, and there is also an Executive Summary:
ww.mekong.es.usyd.edu.au/projects/mekong_water_governance2.htm
