Ethnic Minority Development Plan

The framework for ensuring extensive consultation and informed participation of local EMG during project implementation

3.1 Some social and cultural differences of EMG needing being considered for the community consultation framework

Through the key informant interviews, some social and cultural differences of EMG were found, which need to be considered for the community consultation framework:

• 
  Compared with Han nationality, Hui nationality has a better business sense. For example, in Xinlin village of Qingtongxia, most of Hui people raised cattle and sheep, which made them to earn more money.
  
• 
  Hui nationality has its own religion, and the religious organization played an important role in the community affairs. For example, the mosque management committee of Shi Lipu village in Yinchuan, which has 8 members, always coordinated or resolved some conflicts between the ethnic groups. It also can give some help on water management.
  
• 
  There is no obvious difference between Hui and Han in division of labor. Men are always charge of hard physical labor, and women take on most of the housework. Nowadays, more and more young and middle-aged men go out for work, women have to take on most of the farm work, such as cultivation and breed. And for the same reason, women have more chance to attend public activities, such as training, meeting, and etc. Relatively, women of Hui would not like to show their face in public. They do not like to attend public affairs, especially to be leaders, except several women with relatively high education.
  
• 
  Although there are social and cultural difference between Hui and Han, the relationships between them are quite good in the survey villages. There were no significant conflict or dispute happened in water use and the other affairs.
  

3.2 The framework for ensuring the consultation and participation of local EMG during project implementation

Based on the results of the community consultations above-presented, the framework should consist of the organization structure, regulations and norms, actual operation and supervision or M&E.

• 
  Organizational structures:
  
  • 
    WUA should be organized with the hydrological boundaries and, at the same time taking the administrative boundaries into account. The irrigation acreage and household number could accord with the requirement of SOCAD’s feasibility study.
    
  • 
    WUA needs to be organized into three layers – water users’ group, water users’ representative congress and WUA. The Group could take the sub-village as the unit. The Congress is the top power or decision making institute of WUA.
    
  • 
    The water users’ representatives could be elected with the ratio of one quota of people every 5 households. Among them, EMG representatives must be at least in the proportion to their population, and women should occupy 1/4 – 1/3. Women representative should take more proportion in the place where there are more men go outside for migration
    
  • 
    The number of WUA’s leaders should not exceed 3 – 5 people to reduce the operation costs, among whom EMG member must be included, and try the best to have woman member too. Ensure the operational costs be spent on the people who genuinely make the irrigation management.
    
• 
  Regulations and norms:
  
  • 
    The constitutions of WUA and Federation should stipulate the articles to ensure the above mentioned concerns with the inclusion and proportion of EMG and women in the water users’ representatives and WUA/Federation’s leaders, be implemented.
    
  • 
    The regulations should stipulate concretely to ensure the rights of EMG, women and youth to participate, be informed and benefited, for them to participate in the whole process of WUA mobilization, establishment, management and operation, supervision and M&E, and equally gain the benefit from WUA’s E&D.
    
• 
  Actual operation: PMO staff should apply the Participatory methods and tools to:
  
  • 
    Help the village/sub-village leaders to identify the stakeholders of the project, esp. including the EMG and communities/households with poor irrigation condition, the poor, women and youth, the leaders of EMG religions or organizations, e.g. the management committee of mosque, the elderly with high reputation, etc and to facilitate the EMG and women representatives to analyze the problems in irrigation water use and the countermeasures so as to understand the necessity of WUA E&D, to assess the positive and potential adverse impacts of the project, and their positive and possible negative roles/functions to the project, and analyze the countermeasures for playing the positive ones and eliminating or mitigating the negative ones.
    
  • 
    To make the baseline survey and set up the database, combined with the maps, figures and tables produced with PRA, for the project, and identify the qualitative and quantitative indicators for M&E.
    
  • 
    To facilitate the establishment and election process of the water users’ groups, water users’ representatives and WUAs, to ensure the constitution’s articles about the representation of EMG and women to the realized.
    
  • 
    Together with water conservancy agencies, to help WUAs and federations to formulate the regulations of irrigation management, engineering management, financial management, etc., make planning of water demand and supply and engineering maintenance and improvement, esp. to ensure the rights of EMG communities and households to equally benefit from irrigation water use, and to express their problems, difficulties and rational requirement in/of the water use, sub-canal improvement and sharing of water fees, etc., to make the concrete reactions and establish the corresponding communication and respondence mechanisms, and to resolve the possible conflicts among WUAs or water users’ groups.
    
  • 
    To help WUAs or federations and water supply institutes to set up the equal partnership, and the fair, open and transparent mechanisms for water fee pricing and sharing.
    
  • 
    To make training and capacity building for the male and female water users, their representatives and WUA leaders, esp. to strengthen the WUA leaders and relevant persons’ abilities of team work and communication, and awareness on EMG equity and pro-poor, etc.
    
• 
  4. Supervision and M&E:
  
  • 
    Elect the supervision director board at the same time as the election of WUA leaders. If there is the supervision institute such as the democratic financial management team in the village, the team members should be included into the board, and the supervision regulations should be formulated accordingly.
    
  • 
    At the end of each year or combined with the project implementation cycle, periodically conduct the Participatory M&E to the project, having the beneficiaries, esp. the EMG communities/households and women representatives to be involved and compare the M&E indicators with baseline data and information.
    

5. 
   The action plan of measures to ensure that local EMG receive social and economic benefits in WUA E&D.
   

• 
  Conduct the training to the counterpart staff of PMO and relevant line agencies on the Participatory approach and methodologies and the awareness on EMG and gender.
  
• 
  Carry out the fieldwork in the project townships and villages with PRA methods, to identify the residence or location of EMG communities and households as well as their representatives to participate in the situation and problem analyses for the irrigation water use in the villages/sub-villages, and express their difficulties, requirements and the appropriate solutions they considered, to have them and the other water users aware on the necessities of WUA’s E&D.
  
• 
  According to the hydrological boundaries and the ones of village/sub-villages, organize water users’ groups, elect the heads of the groups and users’ representatives; through community consultation, draft the constitution and regulations, convene the representative congress, elect WUA leaders, and approve the constitution and regulations. All the relevant countermeasures should be identified as culturally appropriate and taken during the whole process to ensure the EMG communities/households’ participation in, and benefit from, the E&D of WUA.
  
• 
  Make planning and implementation of the irrigation sub-canal and device improvement.
  
• 
  Hold the consultation and negotiation with water supply institutes and poverty alleviation agency help resolve water fee problem of the poor households
  
• 
  Hold the consultation and negotiation with water supply institutes on water fee pricing and supply services.
  

5. 
   Action plan to avoid or alleviate the negative impacts of project activities.
   

• 
  Constitution and institution of WUA
  
• 
  Set up the institution of appeal and response, that is to help WUA reflect problems to related sectors (problem of water fee reflect to water supply sector, problem of irrigation sub-canal improvement to irrigation sector and problem of water fee delay from poor households to poverty alleviation). And the constitution should stipulate WUA has the responsibility to reflect water problem to superior sectors.
  

5. 
   The costs estimated for the measures and actions designed in the EMDP, in consideration of combination with the project activities
   

The costs include the following areas and need SOCAD and POCAD to allocate the funds according to the budget of the project:

• 
  Training of the counterpart staff of PMO and relevant line agencies, project townships and villages/WUAs and water users.
  
• 
  The costs of the fieldwork by the counterpart staff of PMO and relevant line agencies, project township governments.
  

8． Feed back and complaint mechanism of local minority ethnic groups and the M&E mechanism (mentioned in previous chapters) of implementation of ethnic groups development plan

9．Selection of project target groups

• 
  Project coordination meeting will be held through farmers association, village group and ethnic temple management association where willingness tables will be issued before project activities are defined based on farmers’ will.
  
• 
  Project areas and conditions for implementation will be finalized based on farmers will and impacts of climate change.
  
• 
  Project target groups will be defined based on farmers’ willingness in line with requirements for project implementation.
  
• 
  Micro-adjustment will be conducted over the defined target groups published during village assembly based on rational comments input by villagers.