Test Drive | Page 198

Chapter  11:  Recommendations     Chapter  11.    Recommendations   Key  message:     The  limited  outreach  of  the  government  regulatory  mechanisms,  the  distrust  and  avoidance  of  the   judicial   system   and   the   history   of   strong   local   management   in   Yemen   strongly   suggest   that   the   improvement   lies   in   strengthening   and   connecting   formal   and   informal   dispute   resolution   mechanisms  in  order  to  reduce  the  legal  pluralism.  Improved  water  conflict  prevention  and  water-­‐ related  dispute  resolution  mechanisms  require  significant  investments  in  the  overall  institutional   capacity,   thereby   safeguarding   the   needs   for   awareness   raising,   training,   transparency,   accountability  and  participation.   11.1    Introduction   The  new  regime  in  place  in  Yemen  is  heading  to  a  new  system  of  government,  likely  a  federal  state  system.   Through  the  National  Dialogue,  Yemen  has  started  the  process  of  formulating  a  new  constitution  based  on  six   regional  states.  This  will  change  the  relation  within  the  river  basins,  as  they  cross  regional  state  boundaries  and   should  be  a  reason  to  start  formulating  or  updating  water  rights  and  allocation  rules.  However,  at  the  same   time  there  is  a  risk  of  confusion  and  extended   “Water   risk   will   oblige   us   to   displace.   weakness   of   governmental   organizations,   resulting   in   further   fragmentation   and   Unless  we  have  long-­‐term  strategy”   parallelism.   The   previous   decades   saw   no   Participant  consultation  meeting,  Amman,  2014   structured   interaction   between   public   sector   and   water   users.   Formal   governmental   organizations   are   ineffective   and   implementation   of   projects   is   characterised   by   large   budgets,   e.g.,   for   subsidized   pumping,   but   with   only   very   meagre   support   for   better   water   resource   management,   watershed   protection,   recharge,   or   efficient   water   services.   The   new   political   landscape  may  offer  an  opportunity  to  strengthen  local  management  and  power  constellations.       In  the  table  below  (Table  11.1)  provides  summary  of  recommendations  in  priority  order.       Table  11.1:  Summary  of  recommendations  and  implementation  phase     Recommendations   Short   Mid-­‐ Long   term   term   term   1   Knowledge  exchange  on  water  system   X   X   X   2   Publicly  available  agro-­‐climatic  and  market  data     X   X   3   Alternative  cash  crops  to  replace  qat       X   4   Documentation  of  traditional  water  access  and  distribution  rules   X   X   X   5   Awareness  raising  on  legal  issues  and  responsible  authorities   X   X   X   6   Awareness  raising  on  relation  water  usage  and  conflict   X   X   X   7   Improve  connection  between  local  and  national  authorities         X   8   Document  local  agreements  on  conflict  resolution   X   X   X   9   Train  government  staff  in  legal  issues   X   X   X   10   Monitor  and  evaluate  conflict  resolution  practices   X   X   X   11   Implement  10  institutional  design  principles       X   The