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NGOs as Strategic Actors in the Promotion of Sustainable Dam Development

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Evolution of Dam Policies

Abstract

Considering the heterogeneity of actors and strategies employed in transnational advocacy networks, as well as the modern governance debate where some activists express their concern about the power shift away from government towards the private sector, this chapter explores the various strategies non-governmental organisations (NGOs) use to persuade private actors to promote sustainable dam development and considers why some NGOs choose to adopt a more or less collaborative attitude towards the dam industry. It analyses the strategies of two international NGOs in a recent industry-driven, multi-stakeholder dialogue, the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Forum (HSAF), and their positions on its outcome, the 2010 International Hydropower Association’s Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol. The analysis suggests that ideological differences might account for the choice of more or less collaborative approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Atzl (2012) in this book for a discussion on chosen pathways and techniques in the anti-Ilisu Dam campaign.

  2. 2.

    Loosely defined as “actors working internationally on an issue, who are bound together by shared values, a common discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services” (Keck and Sikkink 1998, p. 2).

  3. 3.

    See also MartĂ­nez-Alier (2002) on the change of discourse in various environmental movements.

  4. 4.

    The IHA describes itself as a non-profit, unincorporated (i.e. voluntary) and mutual association of its members, who are both individuals and organizations active in the hydropower sector or a related field. Its head office is located in London, United Kingdom, see http://www.hydropower.org/about-iha/; http://www.hydropower.org/about-iha/current-members.html for a full list of its current corporate members and sponsors. Accessed 04 October 2012.

  5. 5.

    See http://www.hydropower.org/sustainable_hydropower/hsaf_Hydropower_Sustainability_Assessment_Protocol.html for the purpose and use of the Protocol. Accessed 04 October 2012.

  6. 6.

    See http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/organization/. Accessed 23 August 2012.

  7. 7.

    The other two pillars are Water Stewardship and Habitat Protection.

  8. 8.

    See Islam et al. (2013, p. 130) for a recent discussion on whether mutually advantageous results are possible in water negotiations, given that the various stakeholders involved defend competing interests. The authors highlight the limits to and the importance of shifting from “competitive, zero-sum thinking to cooperative efforts to create values”.

  9. 9.

    Jointly with the Asian Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement, the French Global Environment Facility and the Inter-American Development Bank.

  10. 10.

    The WWC, founded in 1996, is an international multi-stakeholder network of more than 300 member organizations, ranging from government organizations, corporations, NGOs, academic institutions and think tanks to (international) financial institutions actively engaged in the water sector. It is known for organizing the World Water Forum, an international forum that has taken place every 3 years since 1997, on the last occasion in Marseilles in 2012. For more information on the WWC, see http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/. Accessed 23 August 2012.

  11. 11.

    The Early State Section does not contain any scoring statements, however, since it merely provides guidance (IHA 2010a).

  12. 12.

    For further details, see http://www.hydrosustainability.org/Governance.aspx (accessed on 13 March 2013).

  13. 13.

    He also said, however, that the WWF was not pleased that basin-scale hydropower planning was not adequately covered by the protocol, but rather mainstreamed, because a stand-alone page—that is basin-scale hydropower planning treated as a separate topic—might have triggered China’s resignation from the forum.

  14. 14.

    Although its representative recognized important advances in the new protocol, Oxfam decided to monitor the process from an external vantage point and to help communities to understand the Protocol and its application (interview with Michael Simon).

  15. 15.

    The protocol’s scoring method was initially criticized and regarded as a problem during the first and second consultation phases (see IHA Association 2009). During the second consultation phase, various stakeholders considered the subjective and qualitative nature of the scoring and the wording of scores to be a basic flaw (see IHA 2010b).

  16. 16.

    See Civil Society Declaration at the 6th World Water Forum, Marseilles 2012, http://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/civil-society-declaration-at-6th-world-water-forum-marseille-2012-4278. Accessed 02 October 2012.

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  1. German Development Institute (DIE), Bonn, Germany

    Sara Eichert

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  1. Sara Eichert
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Correspondence to Sara Eichert .

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  1. Environmental Policy and Natural Resources Management, Deutsches Institut fĂĽr Entwicklungspolitik, Bonn, Germany

    Waltina Scheumann

  2. School of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Oliver Hensengerth

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Eichert, S. (2014). NGOs as Strategic Actors in the Promotion of Sustainable Dam Development. In: Scheumann, W., Hensengerth, O. (eds) Evolution of Dam Policies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23403-3_6

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