Consultative Council
The Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project is well known in the country and due to this, the expectations of the population in the project area are high. The time has come to enter into structured dialogue with the farmers. Evidently the
farmers are most interested to learn about practical matters, such as the boundaries of the areas for irrigation, how to become a beneficiary and their rights and obligations.
The information will first have to concentrate on the project's global parameters, the sequence of activities, farmers' organisation and the time frame. As far as the latter is concerned an early start may cause a degree of disappointment due
to the protracted process of development. On the other hand a thorough discussion on likely developments, such as a run on prospective irrigation land, cannot start soon enough in order to guide the process. Bearing in mind that the joint
appraisal of LUSIP is scheduled for September/October 2000, it is proposed to form the Consultative Council (CC) prior to the appraisal. However, the first activities of the CC should start after appraisal when the donors' outcome will be
evident.
It is proposed to initiate the formation of a farmers' association as soon as the project financing has been agreed upon in principle. The lead ministry would charge the Technical Committee and Steering Committee to design proposals as to the
launching of the Consultative Council. These proposals would be circulated among the different stakeholders of LUSIP for comments and approval. On the basis of the comments, the Steering Committee would form and establish the CC at the last
Steering Committee prior to project appraisal scheduled for September/October 2000.
Obviously the number of prospective beneficiaries necessitates thinking in terms of an association with sufficient social and geographic spread. In the view of the large number of LUSIP stakeholders from different background and partly with
different interests, the activities of the Consultative Council need to be undertaken with care. To achieve this, it is proposed that the Technical Committee will have an advisory and coordinating role on the Council. The Consultative Council
will be phased out with the establishment of the Water Users Assembly.
In view of the high number of individual beneficiaries, it will be impossible to involve the whole farmer community into an intensive dialogue. Although it must certainly be assured that all homesteads are informed about the major issues
involved in project preparation, implementation and operation, detailed discussions will have to be conducted within a smaller forum in representation of the different chieftaincies and communities concerned.
Composition
The Council shall consist of representatives from the different ministries involved and local (traditional) leaders from the chieftaincies and Tinkhundla's overlapping with the potential command area. From the transformation and marketing
sector, representatives of the Sugar Association, Ubombo Sugar, and Vunisa Ginnery should be invited. In addition, traditional leaders and local extension service staff may propose (male and female) farmers who are respected by their peers
because of leadership qualities and innovative capacity. With on-going project implementation, farmer representation will more and more be taken over by elected representatives of water user groups.
Mandate
The Council will not take decisions. It is assumed that decision-making from the Government side will be made by the LUSIP Steering Committee. On the water user side, decisions have to be made by individual water user groups, the Assembly of
representatives of water user groups and their Board. However, since the project will be implemented in phases with water user groups being created over a period of several years, Assembly and Board will only be operational at a later stage of
project implementation. Therefore, the Consultative Council will be created as an intermediate body which helps among others to:
- Channel information to the potential beneficiaries;
- Promote the idea of the project and carry out activities in order to gain public support;
- Schedule meetings at local level on topics proposed by Government or farmers;
- Receive comments on concepts for project implementation and scheme operation prepared by Government;
- Understand alternative concepts developed by individual farmers or groups of farmers;
- Assess fields of potential conflicts;
- Prepare draft declaration of intentions to be signed between water user groups and government concerning rights and obligations of water user groups in project implementation and scheme operation;
- Sensitise participants for environmental issues;
- Solve conflicts arising over the use of land and/or water;
- Deal with any other topic requiring dialogue between Government and farmers.
Meetings of the Consultative Council shall take place in the project area and have to be public. |
