Rethinking commons management in Sub-Saharan West Africa: public authority and participation in the agricultural water sector

Promoted for over three decades, participatory irrigation management (PIM) and its organizational upshot the water user association (WUA) have been framed as a solution to the irrigation sector problems. Based on a case study of small reservoirs in two countries of West Africa, Burkina Faso and Ghana, this article shows that the PIM/WUA model is based on narrow visions of the commons and participation and does not account for the de facto pluralism and institutional bricolage that characterize natural resources management. Attempts at institutional intervention should be based on better understanding social relationships and existing processes of decision making.