Getting things done: bureaucratic and entrepreneurial approaches to the practice of participatory water management reforms in Brazil and India

Based on field investigations of initiatives to increase stakeholder participation in water management in Brazil and India, this paper provides insights into the practice of water sector reforms. Looking at the pace of reforms across both countries, we find that the process of creating institutions to facilitate stakeholder participation is proceeding rapidly but greater attention is required on administrative reforms and capacity building. We find that the supply and demand of participation opportunities is often mismatched, and that participation reforms in the water sector may follow two very different paths: the bureaucratic and the entrepreneurial.