Officialising strategies: participatory processes and gender in Thailand's water resources sector
Resurreccion, B.P.; Real, M.J.; Pantana, P.
Development in Practice 14(4): 521-533
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0961-4524 DOI: 10.1080/09614520410001686115Document Number: 251693
This paper examines participatory processes in an Asian Development Bank (ADB) technical assistance package in Thailand's water resource sector. It analyses various levels of social interaction in the local community, in meso-level stakeholder consultations, and in opposition to ADB's environment programmes expressed by civil society organizations. While participatory approaches are employed to promote more bottom-up management regimes in water resources, this paper finds that local power and gender differences have been overlooked. Evolving institutions of resource governance are constituted by gender, reproducing gender inequalities such as regarding water intended for agricultural use as a 'male' resource. Finally, it is argued that understandings and practices of participation legitimize particular agendas in a politically polarized arena.