Opportunities and constraints: up-scaling floodplain management in Bangladesh

Natural resources management programmes in Bangladesh face many challenges and pressures. These include finding sustainable solutions to environmental degradation, food insecurity and poverty. What is best way to up-scale past successes?

Few natural resources projectsin Bangladesh have led to the successful spread of sustainable management. Thegovernment and donors are under pressure to improve the impact of projects. Up-scalingmeans increasing the area and number of people that benefit from successfuldevelopment projects.

Research funded by the UK Departmentfor International Development’s Natural Resources Systems Programme examines previousprojects and highlights lessons that may be useful in the future. The researchfocuses on the potential for ‘up-scaling’ projects, using floodplain managementas an example.

Most previous attempts atup-scaling focused on expansion and replication, where one project is used as amodel for projects in other areas. However, many people consider this a weak approachbecause it does not accommodate specific local issues. Critics argue thatdevelopment projects should move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Forprojects to be successful and sustainable, they must involve local communitiesand organisations in decision-making and management activities.

The research shows:

• Up-scalingstrategies must consider national, regional and local levels to be successful.
• Whilst cooperationat all three levels is important for successful up-scaling, local issues are oftenthe most significant in determining the success of a project.
• Important localissues include the presence of skilled local non-governmental organisations, thefinancial viability of relevant organisations and local community consensus andsupport for project activities.

For floodplain managementprojects, up-scaling guidelines should:

• include greaterintegration, knowledge sharing and communication between different managementinitiatives in an area
• focus on local participationand community-based management of resources
• include governmentsupport in the form of strong policy and agency cooperation
• document localprocesses and issues to ensure that opportunities and constraints are fullyunderstood, and that all project staff and future resource managementinstitutions can use them.