Institutional innovations and water management in Office du Niger (1910-1999) : the long failure and new success of a big irrigation scheme

Can economic liberalisation boost irrigation production and on which conditions? This report takes the case of the Mali ‘Office du Niger’ irrigation scheme, and analyses how it was transformed from a technical and financial failure to a modern success story.The gravity-fed Office du Niger irrigation scheme was created in 1932. Functioning below par, the restructuring of the Office du Niger focussed on both technical and institutional aspects, and took place over a period of nearly two decades. 1994 represented a turning point, when a management performance contract was established, redistributing responsibilities between farmers, the Office du Niger, and the State. This was all set within a rapidly changing context of economic liberalisation, currency devaluation, and the broader embracement of democratisation.Along with technical and physical infrastructure improvements, this institutional restructuring allowed the performance of Office du Niger to skyrocket. The question is raised: How, over the course of 20 years, can these changes be explained? The authors consider a number of factors important:the overall project framework: agricultural intensification through technical and economic incentives, improve efficiency by liberalisation of the sector, reform of institutional and responsibility arrangements within Office du Nigerthe availability of a technical packagethe creation of a favourable macro- and micro-economic climatethe implementation of important institutional reformslong-term donor coordinationclear political will.The Office du Niger case study highlights the fact that privatisation and institutional reform of irrigation systems are not rapid and simple processes. Although several of the enabling factors may be recreated at will, such as the promotion of lasting donor coordination, others were in this instance due to an unpredictable but favourable set of circumstances.