Rural communities often face problems of securing sustainable supply of water for drinking, domestic and agricultural uses, due to fluctuations in water availability, organizational problems maintaining collective networks, and weak connections with external actors. Using a water resilience lens, we present a participatory approach to develop an operational framework to characterize the resilience of rural water supply systems (RWSS) in communities in Northeast Brazil and Central Tunisia. An operational resilience framework was co-designed that incorporates the three key functions of a resilient RWSS, encompassing (1) the productive function: to provide water at all times, even in the case of shocks and stresses; (2) the internal regulation function: the community institutions enabling to organize water supply; and (3) the territorial integration function: the ways in which a community is integrated territorially. The operational framework gives practical content to the notion of rural water resilience by defining the features of water resilience for each function and by establishing the explanatory variables for these features at the intersection of scientific, practical, and local perspectives on rural water resilience. It provides an operational basis for building more resilient RWSSs and aims to increase the efficacy of development interventions in the field of rural water supply to build long lasting responses to shocks and stresses.

Groundwater resources are a crucial driver of development. Since the 1970s, the expansion of irrigated land on the margins of the existing ‘traditional’ oases has been encouraged by the Tunisian authorities to enhance local development. As a result, oases in Southern Tunisia are currently facing sustainability concerns. This situation requires alternative water management approaches, in which local actors collaborate and contribute to the design of new rules. To understand Tunisian oasis farmers’ perceptions of water rules and public organisations, in 2021, we conducted an online survey in Jemna, an oasis in the Kebili region in Southern Tunisia. The picture that emerged from the online survey is that farmers in extension areas have distinctive characteristics but also similarities with farmers in the traditional oasis. Both types of farmers mainly cultivate date palm (monoculture), and, like farmers in the extensions, many farmers in the traditional oasis have a private borehole. All farmers in the Jemna oasis clearly perceive the limited availability and poor quality of the groundwater resource. However, they do not believe these problems cause conflict among farmers. They consider that, to solve possible conflicts and to ensure better water management in the oasis, collaboration among farmers is more effective than changes to rules issued by existing organisations. These preliminary results, if confirmed, can have important policy implications, as the farmers’ perceptions of water rules and organisations, as well as farmers’ willingness to collaborate, are crucial for a possible new approach to water management in the oasis.

More and more literature and practice recommend involving the public at the early stages of the policy cycle, i.e. issue identification, definition of the policy objectives and policy design. Policy design involves, among others, identifying solutions, ideas or alternatives which may address the policy objectives. Three main arguments are often put forward to advocate for the involvement of stakeholders, or the public, in policy design: a "user-centered" argument (i.e. for the policy to better meet people's priorities), an innovation argument (i.e. to conceive new solutions) and a collective argument (i.e. to identify collective actions and better tackle environmental problems). However, in both research and practice these arguments have been challenged. Research has insufficiently generated evidence of the influence of large-scale participation in policy design on resulting proposed actions. The objective of this paper is to analyze whether a large-scale participatory process leads to action proposals that fit people's priorities and that are innovative and collective. It draws from a land management and rural development policy design experiment conducted in six vulnerable areas of Tunisia. 4,300 direct participants were involved and 11,583 action proposals were collected. Our results highlight the influence of the local circumstances on innovation and the interest towards collective actions. Our results also show that whether policy design is made individually or in group influences the outcomes. The results also suggest that appropriate facilitation can help fostering more collective and innovative actions. We conclude the paper by opening up the idea of hybridizing policy design methods with methods from political and agricultural sciences in order to better understand the drivers and rationalities behind participants' action proposals.

In many countries, the challenge of sustaining rural water supplies is entrusted to community organizations, which have difficulties in performing durably the operation, maintenance and cost recovery of rural water supply systems. This paper analyzes how rural communities struggle to ensure a sustainable access to water, while seeking close interaction with outside actors such as the State, NGOs, and politicians. The analysis is based on field observations, interviews and participatory workshops in four community-managed water supply systems in Brazil and Tunisia. To sustain the access to water, communities limit their dependance on community-managed water supply systems and diversify water sources for different uses; they adapt the technical and organizational dimensions of water supply systems through bricolage; and use political leverage to obtain financial and technical support. Understanding how communities adapt the infrastructure and the organization of rural water supply, in close interaction with external actors, may inspire water providers in designing more resilient water systems.

Pénuries d’eau, inondations violentes, ruissellements intenses : face aux changements globaux, les territoires évoluent vers des trajectoires parfois en rupture avec celles du passé. Des informations fiables sont nécessaires pour le renouvellement des connaissances et la définition des politiques de prévention et de remédiation. Comment diversifier et multiplier les relais de terrain ? Les observations participatives, ne relevant plus uniquement de l’implication de professionnels, mais aussi de celle de citoyens novices, peuvent y contribuer.

Les facilitateurs territoriaux ont généralement pour mission de faciliter le dialogue entre différents types d’acteurs (agriculteurs, élus, administration…) en vue du développement d’un territoire. Cet article décrit un dispositif pilote qui a formé et accompagné des agents de l’administration agricole tunisienne, chargés d’appui au développement rural, dans l’apprentissage et la mise en œuvre de leur nouveau métier en vue d’une planification territoriale concertée dans six zones rurales tunisiennes.

En Tunisie, des politiques récentes cherchent à mettre en place une participation effective des populations rurales à la formulation de plans territoriaux de développement intégrant des dimensions économiques, sociales et environnementales. Le programme PACTE expérimente une démarche pilote pour mettre en œuvre cette participation dans six zones rurales, grâce à la constitution de comités de territoire. Pour préparer le travail de chaque comité, des habitants ont participé à la réalisation d’un diagnostic de leur territoire pour identifier les principaux enjeux de développement. Ensuite, ils ont formulé des propositions d’action pour répondre à ces enjeux, verbalement lors d’ateliers et, en dehors des ateliers, en utilisant des fiches mises à leur disposition puis collectées. L’article analyse les actions proposées par des habitants d’une zone d’intervention située dans le gouvernorat du Kef. L’analyse porte sur : i) les finalités de ces actions, à savoir dans quelle mesure ces actions répondent aux enjeux identifiés ; et 2) les caractéristiques de ces actions, notamment leur dimension individuelle ou collective et leur degré d’innovation. L’analyse est basée sur les comptes rendus des ateliers, les fiches de propositions d’actions collectées, et des entretiens auprès de membres d’institutions publiques de développement. Les actions proposées par les habitants couvrent l’essentiel des enjeux identifiés au cours des ateliers. Parmi les fiches remplies, ces habitants donnent la priorité à des actions individuelles et génératrices de revenu et, en particulier, à des activités qu’ils pratiquent déjà. Lors des ateliers, les participants ont envisagé des actions plus diverses, parfois innovantes, et plus souvent de nature collective. L’analyse proposée ici a permis d’identifier des opportunités pour la production de connaissances communes entre les futurs membres des comités de territoire, et entre eux et les membres des institutions publiques de développement. Le projet PACTE constitue une expérience innovante de mise en œuvre d’une démarche participative à grande échelle pour le diagnostic territorial et la formulation de proposition d’action en zone rurale au Maghreb. La réflexion sur les méthodes et moyens à utiliser pour permettre cette participation est un chantier sur lequel il sera important de continuer à avancer dans les années à venir.

This chapter focuses on the operational aspects of conducting an economic valuation study of the benefits of river restoration projects. It first introduces the various objectives of a valuation study and presents the advantages and difficulties of adopting an ecosystem services approach as a basis for economic valuation of river restoration project benefits. The main phases of a valuation study are then described. Specific points of attention are underlined: how to identify and characterize the population concerned by the restoration project? How should the proposed restoration scenarios be defined for valuation purposes? The chapter provides a rapid overview of the different monetary valuation methods available with a specific focus on methods adapted to the valuation of the nonmarket benefits of restoration. It then discusses the criteria for choosing the most adapted method (type of ecosystems services, types of values, data requirements, needed expertise, scope of valuation exercise, and required accuracy of value estimates). Finally, some recommendations are given concerning the communication of results of valuation studies to stakeholders and the general public.