Institutional design, politics and performance of river basin organisations

The founding of river basin organisations (RBOs) is an important prescription in modern water resources management. The core idea is that institutions for managing water resources need to fit the scale at which many water problems manifest themselves, which is the scale of a hydrological (sub-) basin. As was explained in the introductory Chapter 1 in this volume, the foundation of RBOs may be conceived as a shift in governance from the nation state to other jurisdictional levels, independent agencies, markets and/or to civil society. One of our objectives in collecting 11 in-depth case studies of the institutional design and performance of RBOs was to better understand these shifts in governance in river basin management. In addition, we wanted to learn more about the relationship between the institutional design and performance of RBOs, and to formulate recommendations for those who are involved in processes of RBO formation or reform