This article explores how irrigation management transfer policies
were implemented in Mali, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. In
Mali and Mozambique, where the irrigation bureaucracy controlled
one large irrigation system, state agencies retained control over
irrigation management despite reduced state funding. In Malawi
and Zimbabwe, where the state irrigation systems and the irrigation
bureaucracy were smaller, users have taken over irrigation management,
but are having trouble sustaining irrigated agriculture. We
show how irrigation management transfer policies were shaped by
the interplay between international donors, macro-economic
dynamics, national politics and the interactions with (and the nature
of) irrigation infrastructure, bureaucracies and organized users.

KEYWORDS
Water policy; irrigation
management transfer; policy
implementation; water
politics; sub-Saharan Africa