Page 1 of 6 STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION and MEKONG RIVER COMMISSION Yasunobu Matoba Chief Executive Officer Mekong River Commission Secretariat Phnom Penh, Cambodia 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Mekong River Commission The Mekong River Commission (MRC) was established in April 1995, after the signing of the Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin by four lower Mekong basin riparian countries, namely, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam. Its origin goes back to 1957 when the Committee for Coordination of Investigation of the Lower Mekong Basin (the Mekong Committee or MC) was created by the same members under the aegis of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE or, known better today as ESCAP as it was renamed). During the period 1978-1995, without Cambodia, the Mekong Committee was known as the Interim Mekong Committee (IMC). MRC enjoys the status of an international institution, including entering into agreements and obligations with the donor or international community. Organizationally, it consists of three permanent bodies: Council (ministerial level policy-making body), Joint Committee (head department level policy-implementing body) and the Secretariat (technical and administrative arm headed by a Chief Executive Officer). The MRC member countries agree to cooperate in all fields of sustainable development, utilization, management and conservation of water and related resources of the Mekong River Basin, including but not limited to irrigation, hydropower, navigation, flood control, fisheries, timber floating and recreation and tourism, in a manner to optimize the multiple-use and mutual benefits of all the riparian countries and to minimize harmful effects that might result from natural occurrence and man-made activities. Same as its forerunner organization, the Mekong Committee, MRC has been carrying out every year a large number of projects and activities relating to the development and/or management of the Mekong water and water related resources, with technical and financial supports from donor community around the world. 1.2 Objectives of the paper As water is the central theme of the mandate and functions of MRC and in response to a sub-theme of this important Seminar, the author is presenting in this short paper an overview of stakeholder participation in the context of this international river basin organization. This paper focuses primarily on "how" can the various water users and other stakeholders of the Mekong River be involved in its work, throughout the project cycle and from both the historical perspectives (during the MC/IMC) and nowadays.
Page 2 of 6 2. SITUATIONS DURING THE MC/IMC PERIOD Generally, it may be said that the work of the MC/IMC during the period from 1957 to 1995, from planning, to implementation, was a "top-down" oriented. Involvement of public and public opinion in its work had been limited, particularly at the planning stage. Most of the planning exercises had, therefore, been completed/decided by the Committee Members (representatives at the head of the Department level) from the member countries, with a limited participation of relevant planning agencies and line-agencies dealing with water resources and/or water uses in the respective countries. Occasionally, project donor(s), as another key stakeholder, would be involved in the planning stage. Involvement of grass-roots level people had been limited and for most of the cases, it would be done during feasibility study and/or detailed design stages of a project. During these stages, socioeconomic and other related surveys would be conducted and the outcome reflecting views of the local stakeholders taken into consideration. Environmental impact studies had also been carried out for selected major structure projects to ensure that adverse effects could be identified and mitigation measures prepared. These practices could be considered adequate for the MC/IMC and there had been no major incident of any great dissatisfaction from the stakeholders and in particular, the grass-roots people on the many work that had been carried out and completed by this organization. 3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND THE MRC To the MRC, instead of "stakeholder participation", the terms "public participation" is normally used. After its establishment in 1995, issues related to public participation in the work of MRC gained increasingly interest from its stakeholders. To many of them (the stakeholders), to just follow the previous practices of the MC/IMC will not be adequate anymore for the MRC. It is considered a prerequisite for this organization to involve more intensively the public and public inputs in its work in order to realize the overall aim and vision of the Mekong, Agreement, i.e., sustainable development of the Mekong River Basin. The public inputs were expected to be required at all stages of the project cycle, e.g., planning/identification, formulation, implementation, etc. However, as this was a new requirement and it was a new area of exercise in which the MRC did not have either expertise or experience, a Study on Public Participation in the Context of the MRC was initiated by the MRC Secretariat in late 1996. In October 1997, with financial support from Sweden (Sida), a group of regional consultants was engaged to carry out the Study which was completed afterward in mid-1998. The Study, among other things, provided a set of basic concept related generally to public participation issues, important terminology to follow and principal guidelines for public participation in the context of the NMC. These policy-guideline paper was duly approved by the MRC Joint Committee in March 1999. Some of the relevant basic concept including the endorsed principle guidelines were drawn and presented hereunder, for benefits of the Seminar participants and interest readers. 4. DEFINITION OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE CONTEXT OF MRC 4.1. Stakeholders As a starting point, the terms "stakeholder" has been defined and in this connection, the MRC has adopted also a universal and broad definition of stakeholder as follows: "Any person or group of institution that has an interest in an activity, project or program of the NIRC. This includes both intended beneficiaries and intermediaries, those positively affected, and those involved and/or those who are generally excluded from the decision-making process." The definition is necessarily broad due to: the magnitude and complexity of some MRC projects or programs such as the Mekong Basin Development Plan; the large and diverse population of people who live in the Basin (some 60 million);
Page 3 of 6 the diverse range of political and economic systems which exist in the Basin; and the link between ecosystem processes in the Basin and regional and global issues. Stakeholders, in the context of MRC, can be categorized in five main types: 1. directly affected people (who live in a project area and would directly experience its impacts, whether positive or negative); 2. indirectly affected people (who live nearby or use resources from the project area); 3. public sector agencies (ministries, provincial or local government, government mandated mass organizations); 4. private developers (private companies with a direct investment in the project) and their subcontractors and financiers; and 5. others (donors, NGOs with a stake in the project, external advisors, the business sector). Furthermore, stakeholders in the context of MRC operations can include those who live in countries outside the territory of the Basin. This is because the implications of MRC programs and projects often extend beyond national or Basin boundaries. As this is a broad concept, MRC stakeholders will be further clarified at the initial stage of each project, by means of stakeholder analysis which will be carried out to define key and other stakeholders and their respective levels of participation** 4.2 Public Participation Public participation in the context of the MRC is defined as follows: "A process through which key stakeholders gain influence and take part in decision making in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of MRC programs and projects." However, as the scope of MRC operations currently cover four riparian countries, there is still a need to adapt the definition described slightly to suit the different practices therein. It should be noted that the MRC operates both at the localised project level and at a quadrilateral deliberative level and in view of the complex situation, there is a requirement for well-planned and targeted strategies for public participation. According to this definition, however, it may be understood that public participation occurs throughout the lifecycle of its projects or programs. 4.3. Level/Stage of Public Participation Public participation, as a process, goes through four stages of activities, namely, information gathering, information dissemination, consultation and participation that culminate in some level of decision making power. These stages can occur simultaneously but when starting off a new program of public participation, there will be a need to start with at least the first two stages (in sequence) before a higher level of engagement with stakeholders can be successful. These stages can be briefly described in the following: i) Information Gathering The first stage of public involvement is to understand the issues and stakeholders that affect - and are affected by - a particular project or program. Important types of information are social, cultural, economic and political. This understanding will help in doing a stakeholder analysis to determine the key stakeholders. An effective way to achieve this is however, to undertake information gathering in conjunction with the second stage, information dissemination described below. ii) Information Dissemination At this stage, information is provided to all stakeholders. Dissemination can take a variety of forms and aims at providing information that is understood and useful to the stakeholders. Thus, the knowledge that the key stakeholders gained in the first stage will be used to design the information methods and materials. The next stage can not be reasonably achieved if stakeholders are not adequately informed about the project and its
Page 4 of 6 implications. iii) Consultation This stage goes one step beyond dissemination and creates an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss and negotiate their needs and preferences. It is here that ideas from stakeholders can start to affect project design. This step is crucial in the sense that it sets the rules and creates the opportunities by which stakeholders can influence a final decision (the final stage). A participatory structure would seek to eliminate, or at least reduce, the barriers to entry for the key stakeholders. iv) Participation The final stage is participation where stakeholders are able to directly contribute their ideas and preferences. In other words, they take part in decision making. It is during this stage that projects, policies and everyday resource decisions are put into practice, and costs and benefits are allocated. It is important to stress that the output of this stage will almost always be political in the sense that stakeholders will almost always possess different preferences about the distribution of costs and benefits. 4.4. Tools of Public Participation There are numerous tools of public participation, some of which are elaborated and self contained such as Participatory Rural Appraisal and others which are more simple, e.g., using leaflets to disseminate information about a proposed project. Some tools may be applied in more than one level, for example, community meetings can be useful in all the levels. The choice of tools to be used depends on factors such as budget and time available, the nature of the stakeholders, the size and impacts of the project and so on. The following are examples of the tools that will be used appropriately by the MRC. For Gathering Information: questionnaire or informal surveys community meeting (small to large) focus groups interviews with key people in the community, etc. For Disseminating Information: access to information through information policies information center either in the impact zone or in a location accessible to stakeholders press releases, press conferences or newspaper inserts interviews with journalists internet sites, etc. For Consultation: technical hearing community meeting (small to large) consultation papers community organizers/advocates, etc.
Page 5 of 6 For Participation: community meeting (small to large) planning and project review meetings advisory panels steering committee representation, etc. 5. GUIDELLINES FOR APPLICATION The following is a set of guidelines on public participation for the MRC, including National Mekong Committees (NMCs, focal points of the MRC Secretariat in the member countries), taking into account the needs and concerns of the countries. These guidelines were refined and adopted particularly by the Joint Committee of the MRC. However, they should not be taken as the final word and they will almost certainly need to be revised as public participation activities of MRC and NMC personnel increase over time. The principles and guidelines of public participation include the following (not presented in order of importance): Public participation is a normal and essential process in MRC and NMC activities. The ultimate goal of public participation is to allow key stakeholders to take part in decisionmaking processes. Key stakeholders are those who, based on the stakeholder analysis, are most affected/vulnerable and those who are considered to possess the most influence on project implementation. Public participation enhances the ability of the MRC and NMCs to meet the sustainable development objectives of the 1995 Agreement. The MRC and NMCs should ensure an adequate capacity to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate the public participation process. Building capacity for public participation by the MRC and NMCs is a step-by-step process and the approach should be sensitive to country variables. Individual public participation exercises should be managed within the constraints of programme or project budgets. Public participation should be a transparent process that is understandable to most, if not all, stakeholders. The public participation process should start as early as possible in project or programme cycles - preferably in the formulation stage and be evident throughout the cycle. Stakeholder analysis should be one of the first activities to be carried out in the planning phase of a public participation exercise. A continuous improvement approach should be built into the public participation process. Hence, the public participation process should be strategic and flexible. 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Page 6 of 6 Stakeholder participation in the work of the MC/IMC, the forerunner of the MRC is not totally a new thing but, a full-scale public participation in the work of the MRC is still very much at its initial stage. With the policy guidelines already in place, it can be expected that the MRC which is the only international river basin organization in the region, will be able to ensure a gradual increase in public input to its work. To achieve sustainable development for the Mekong River Basin in the long run, an adequate public input in its programs and projects will have to be guaranteed and in this connection, the MRC will need to carry out also many other things to strengthen its current technical capacity and to secure all the necessary resources for the purpose. As far as stakeholder participation is concerned, however, through the stakeholder analysis, the MRC stakeholders will be assured of having their roles to play in the various stages of its projects and programs. * A paper being presented at the Regional Seminar on Institutional Options for River Basin Management, organized by the World Bank Institute, Manila, the Philippines, 21-25 June 1999. ** For more details on the stakeholder analysis, readers may refer to the VRC Document entitled Public Participation in the Context of the MRC, April 1999 (MKG/R 99021).