Successful community institutions in the global South, which are contributing to livelihoods’ improvement while conserving water and other natural resources, can sustainably build the resilience that policy makers at different tiers are seeking. This article assesses different models of community institutions in Nepal in governing water resources from various lenses, based on Ostrom’s and others’ design principles, including bricolage. Illustrated by three empirical cases, it analyses key features of community institutions in integrated water governance, their contributions to health, nutrition, food security, and environmental conservation, and ways for empowering these institutions as viable and sustainable solutions to address various livelihood challenges. However, inequalities along gender, caste, and ethnicity lines persist. We argue that the recently established local governments under the federal system in Nepal provide new opportunities for gender and social inclusion.

Boelens, R. (2008) The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules: Normalization and Resistance in Andean Water Control, unpublished PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands. <https://edepot.wur.nl/16320>

Carlisle, K. and Gruby, R. (2019) ‘Polycentric system of governance: a theoretical model for the commons’, Policy Studies Journal 47(4): 927–52. <https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12212>

Chambers, R. and Conway, G. (1991) Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century, IDS Discussion Paper 296, London: IDS. <https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/sustainable-rural-livelihoods-practical-concepts-for-the-21st-century/>

Chowns, E. (2015) ‘Is community management an efficient and effective model of public service delivery? Lessons from rural water supply sector in Malawi’, Public Administration and Development 35: 263–76. <https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1737>

Cleaver, F. (2002) ‘Reinventing institutions: bricolage and social embeddedness of natural resources management’, The European Journal of Development Research 14(2): 11–30. <https://doi.org/10.1080/714000425>

Cleaver, F. (2012) Development through Bricolage: Rethinking Institutions for Natural Resources Management, London and New York: Routledge. <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315094915>

Cleaver, F. and Toner, A. (2006) ‘The evolution of community water governance in Uchira, Tanzania: the implication of equality of access, sustainability and effectiveness’, Natural Resource Forum 30: 207–18. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2006.00115.x>

Clement, F., Pradhan, P. and van Koppen, B. (2019) ‘Understanding the non-institutionalisation of a socio-technical innovation: the case of multiple-use water systems (MUS) in Nepal’, Water International 44(4): 408–26. <https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2019.1600336>

Coward, W.E. Jr. 1986. State and locality in Asian irrigation development: The property factor. In: Nobe, K.C. and Sampath, R.K. (eds.) Irrigation management in developing countries: Current issues and approaches: Proceedings of an Invited Seminar Series sponsored by the International School for Agricultural and Resource Development (ISARD). Boulder, USA and London, UK: Westview Press. (Studies in Water and Policy Management. No. 8). <https:doi.org/10.4324/9780429038457>

Cox, M., Arnold, G. and Villamayor-Tomas, S. (2010) ‘A review of design principles for community-based natural resource management’, Ecology and Society 15(4): 38. <https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03704-150438>

Department for International Development (DFID) (1999) Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets, DFID, London. <https://www.ennonline.net/dfidsustainableliving>

Gartaula, H.N., Niehof, A. and Visser, L. (2010) ‘Feminisation of agriculture as an effect of male out-migration: unexpected outcomes from Jhapa District, Eastern Nepal’, International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review 5(2): 565–78. <https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v05i02/51588>

Gautam, M.S., Georgeou, N., Phillips, M., Pyakurel, U., Wali, N. and Clayton, E. (2018) Women and WASH in Nepal: Key Issues and Challenges, Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative, Western Sydney University. <https://doi.org/10.26183/5bc6a2e8c089c>

GC, R.K., Ranganathan, S. and Hall, R.P. (2019) ‘Does rural water system design matter? A study of productive use of water in rural Nepal’, Water 11: 1978. <https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101978>

GC, R.K. (2020) Exploring the Potential of Multiple Use Water Services for Smallholder Farmers in the Western Middle Hills of Nepal, PhD dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University Center, USA. <https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/101753/G.C._RK_D_2021.pdf>

Giordano, M., de Fraiture, C., Weight, E. and van der Bliek, J. (Eds.) (2012). Water for wealth and food security: Supporting farmer-driven investments in agricultural water management. Synthesis report of the AgWater Solutions Project. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). <https://doi.org/10.5337/2012.207>

Goodrich, C.G., Prakash, A. and Udas, P.B. (2019) ‘Gendered vulnerability and adaptation in Hindu-Kush Himalayas: research insights’, Environmental Development 31: 1–8. <https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENVDEV.2019.01.001>

Haapala, J., Rartanen, S-L., White, P., Keskinen, M. and Voris, O. (2016) ‘Facilitating bricolage through more organic institutional design? The case of water users association in rural Nepal’, The International Journal of the Commons 10(2): 1172–201. <https://doi.org/10.18352/IJC.688>

Hutchings, P., Chan, M.Y., Cuadrado, L., Ezbakhe, F., Mesa, B., Tamekawa, C. and Franceys, R. (2015) ‘A systematic review of success factors in the community management of rural water supplies over the past 30 years’, Water Policy 17(5): 963–83. <https://doi.org/10.2166/WP.2015.128>

Kajisa, K. (2019) ‘Role of community and government in irrigation management in emerging states: lessons from Japan, China and India’, in K. Otsuka and K. Sugihara (eds), Paths to Emerging States in Asia and Africa, Emerging States and International Policy Studies, Singapore: Springer: 273–292. <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3131-2_12>

Khadka, M., Joshi, D., Uprety, L., Shrestha, G. and Suhardiman, D. Manuscript n.d. Gender and Socially Inclusive WASH in Nepal: Moving Beyond ‘Engineering Fixes’.

Khadka, M., Karki, S., Karky, B., Kotru, R. and Darjee, K. (2014) ‘Gender equality challenges to the REDD+ Initiative in Nepal’, Journal of Mountain Research and Development 34(3): 197–207. <https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-13-00081.1>

Khadka, M. Uprety, L., Shrestha, G., Minh, T.T., Nepal, S., Raut, M. Dhungana S., Shahrin, S., Krupnik, T.J. and Schmitter, P. (2021) Understanding Barriers and Opportunities for Scaling Sustainable and Inclusive Farmer-led Irrigation Development in Nepal, The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), Kathmandu, Nepal. <https://repository.cimmyt.org/xmlui/handle/10883/21683?show=full>

Martiskainen, M. (2016) ‘The role of community leadership in the development of grassroot innovations’, Environmental Innovations and Societal Transition 22: 78–9. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2016.05.002>

Meinzen-Dick, R., Pradhan, P. and Zhang, W. (2021) Migration and Gender Dynamics of Irrigation Governance in Nepal, IFPRI Discussion Paper No. 02061, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. <https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/117110>

Merrey, D.J. and Cook, S. (2012) ‘Fostering institutional creativity at multiple levels: towards facilitated institutional bricolage’, Water Alternatives 5(1): 1–19. <https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/volume5/v5issue1/154-a5-1-1/file>

Nightingale, A.J. (2019) ‘Commoning for inclusion? Political communities, commons, exclusion, property and socio-natural becomings’, International Journal of the Commons 13(1): 16–35. <https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.927>

Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. <https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol32/iss2/6>

Ostrom, E. (1992) Crafting Institutions: Self-Governing Irrigation Systems, San Francisco: Institute of Contemporary Studies. <https://doi.org/10.1002/RRR.3450080314>

Ostrom, E. (1994) Neither Market nor State: Governance of Common Pool Resources in the 21 Century, IFPRI, Washington, DC.

Ostrom, E. (2005) Understanding Institutional Diversity, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

Ostrom, E. and Gardner, R. (1993) ‘Coping with asymmetries in the commons: self-governing irrigation systems can work’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 7(4): 93–112. <https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.7.4.93>

Ostrom, E., Lam, W.F., Pradhan, P. and Shivakoti, G. (2011) Improving Irrigation in Asia: Sustainable Performance of an Innovative Intervention in Nepal, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Panta, S. and Resurrección, B.P. (2014) ‘Gender and caste relations amidst a changing political situation in Nepal: insights from a farmer-managed irrigation system’, Gender Technology and Development 18: 219–47. <https://doi.org/10.1177/0971852414529482>

Pradhan, P. (1989) Patterns of Irrigation Organization in Nepal, A Comparative Study of 21 Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems, Colombo: International Irrigation Management Institute. <https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABF284.pdf>

Riccardi, T. (1977) ‘The Royal Edicts of King Rama Shah of Gorkha’, Kailash, a Journal of Himalayan Studies 5: 29–65.

Shrestha, A., Joshi, D. and Roth, D. (2020) ‘The hydro-social dynamics of exclusion and water insecurity of Dalits in peri-urban Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: fluid yet unchanging’, Contemporary South Asia 28: 320–35. <https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2020.1770200>

Sunam, R., Barney, K. and McCarthy, J.F. (2021) ‘Transnational labour migration and livelihoods in rural Asia: tracing patterns of agrarian and forest change’, Geoforum 118: 1–13. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.11.004>

Uehara, A. (2019) ‘Glass ceiling in the Himalayas: in Nepal, an uphill battle for gender parity’ [online], SWI swissinfo.ch, 25 September, Kathmandu <https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/glass-ceiling-in-the-himalayas_in-nepal--an-uphill-battle-for-gender-parity/45254260> [accessed 18 July 2022].

van Koppen, B., Mark, G. and John, B. (2007) Community-based Water Law and Water Resource Management Reform in Developing Countries, Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series 5, CABI Publishers, Wallingford, UK. <https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845933265.0001>

van Koppen, B., Raut, M., Rajouria, A., Khadka, M., Pradhan, P., GC, R.K., Colavito, L., O’Hara, C., Rautanen, S.L., Nepal, P.R. and Shrestha, P.K. (2022) Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Community-led Multiple-Use Water Services in Nepal, IWMI Working Paper 203, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka. <https://doi.org/10.5337/2022.200>

Whaley, L., MacAllister, D., Bonsor, H., Mwathunga, E., Banda, S., Katusiime, F., Tadesse, Y., Cleaver, F. and MacDonald, A. (2019) ‘Evidence, ideology, and the policy of community management in Africa’, Environmental Research Letters 14: 085013. <https://doi.org/10.1088/17748-9326/ab35be>

Whaley, L., Cleaver, F. and Mwathunga, E. (2021) ‘Flesh and bones: working with the grain to improve community management of water’, World Development 138: 105286. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105286>

White, P. and Haapala, J. (2018) ‘Water security and social inclusion: local governance within the newly established rural municipalities in Nepal’, New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy 5: 1–29. <https://doi.org/10.53037/na.v5i1.8>

Yates, J.S. (2011) ‘Limits to adopting to water variability in rural Nepal: gaps in community governance’, Waterlines 30(2): 106–21. <https://doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.2011.013>

Zwarteveen, M. and Meinzen-Dick, R. (2001) ‘Gender and property rights in the commons: examples of water rights in South Asia’, Agriculture and Human Values 18: 11. <https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007677317899>

Boelens, R. (2008) The Rules of the Game and the Game of the Rules: Normalization and Resistance in Andean Water Control, unpublished PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands. <https://edepot.wur.nl/16320>

Carlisle, K. and Gruby, R. (2019) ‘Polycentric system of governance: a theoretical model for the commons’, Policy Studies Journal 47(4): 927–52. <https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12212>

Chambers, R. and Conway, G. (1991) Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century, IDS Discussion Paper 296, London: IDS. <https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/sustainable-rural-livelihoods-practical-concepts-for-the-21st-century/>

Chowns, E. (2015) ‘Is community management an efficient and effective model of public service delivery? Lessons from rural water supply sector in Malawi’, Public Administration and Development 35: 263–76. <https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1737>

Cleaver, F. (2002) ‘Reinventing institutions: bricolage and social embeddedness of natural resources management’, The European Journal of Development Research 14(2): 11–30. <https://doi.org/10.1080/714000425>

Cleaver, F. (2012) Development through Bricolage: Rethinking Institutions for Natural Resources Management, London and New York: Routledge. <https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315094915>

Cleaver, F. and Toner, A. (2006) ‘The evolution of community water governance in Uchira, Tanzania: the implication of equality of access, sustainability and effectiveness’, Natural Resource Forum 30: 207–18. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2006.00115.x>

Clement, F., Pradhan, P. and van Koppen, B. (2019) ‘Understanding the non-institutionalisation of a socio-technical innovation: the case of multiple-use water systems (MUS) in Nepal’, Water International 44(4): 408–26. <https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2019.1600336>

Coward, W.E. Jr. 1986. State and locality in Asian irrigation development: The property factor. In: Nobe, K.C. and Sampath, R.K. (eds.) Irrigation management in developing countries: Current issues and approaches: Proceedings of an Invited Seminar Series sponsored by the International School for Agricultural and Resource Development (ISARD). Boulder, USA and London, UK: Westview Press. (Studies in Water and Policy Management. No. 8). <https:doi.org/10.4324/9780429038457>

Cox, M., Arnold, G. and Villamayor-Tomas, S. (2010) ‘A review of design principles for community-based natural resource management’, Ecology and Society 15(4): 38. <https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03704-150438>

Department for International Development (DFID) (1999) Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets, DFID, London. <https://www.ennonline.net/dfidsustainableliving>

Gartaula, H.N., Niehof, A. and Visser, L. (2010) ‘Feminisation of agriculture as an effect of male out-migration: unexpected outcomes from Jhapa District, Eastern Nepal’, International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review 5(2): 565–78. <https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v05i02/51588>

Gautam, M.S., Georgeou, N., Phillips, M., Pyakurel, U., Wali, N. and Clayton, E. (2018) Women and WASH in Nepal: Key Issues and Challenges, Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative, Western Sydney University. <https://doi.org/10.26183/5bc6a2e8c089c>

GC, R.K., Ranganathan, S. and Hall, R.P. (2019) ‘Does rural water system design matter? A study of productive use of water in rural Nepal’, Water 11: 1978. <https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101978>

GC, R.K. (2020) Exploring the Potential of Multiple Use Water Services for Smallholder Farmers in the Western Middle Hills of Nepal, PhD dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University Center, USA. <https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/101753/G.C._RK_D_2021.pdf>

Giordano, M., de Fraiture, C., Weight, E. and van der Bliek, J. (Eds.) (2012). Water for wealth and food security: Supporting farmer-driven investments in agricultural water management. Synthesis report of the AgWater Solutions Project. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). <https://doi.org/10.5337/2012.207>

Goodrich, C.G., Prakash, A. and Udas, P.B. (2019) ‘Gendered vulnerability and adaptation in Hindu-Kush Himalayas: research insights’, Environmental Development 31: 1–8. <https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENVDEV.2019.01.001>

Haapala, J., Rartanen, S-L., White, P., Keskinen, M. and Voris, O. (2016) ‘Facilitating bricolage through more organic institutional design? The case of water users association in rural Nepal’, The International Journal of the Commons 10(2): 1172–201. <https://doi.org/10.18352/IJC.688>

Hutchings, P., Chan, M.Y., Cuadrado, L., Ezbakhe, F., Mesa, B., Tamekawa, C. and Franceys, R. (2015) ‘A systematic review of success factors in the community management of rural water supplies over the past 30 years’, Water Policy 17(5): 963–83. <https://doi.org/10.2166/WP.2015.128>

Kajisa, K. (2019) ‘Role of community and government in irrigation management in emerging states: lessons from Japan, China and India’, in K. Otsuka and K. Sugihara (eds), Paths to Emerging States in Asia and Africa, Emerging States and International Policy Studies, Singapore: Springer: 273–292. <https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3131-2_12>

Khadka, M., Joshi, D., Uprety, L., Shrestha, G. and Suhardiman, D. Manuscript n.d. Gender and Socially Inclusive WASH in Nepal: Moving Beyond ‘Engineering Fixes’.

Khadka, M., Karki, S., Karky, B., Kotru, R. and Darjee, K. (2014) ‘Gender equality challenges to the REDD+ Initiative in Nepal’, Journal of Mountain Research and Development 34(3): 197–207. <https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-13-00081.1>

Khadka, M. Uprety, L., Shrestha, G., Minh, T.T., Nepal, S., Raut, M. Dhungana S., Shahrin, S., Krupnik, T.J. and Schmitter, P. (2021) Understanding Barriers and Opportunities for Scaling Sustainable and Inclusive Farmer-led Irrigation Development in Nepal, The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), Kathmandu, Nepal. <https://repository.cimmyt.org/xmlui/handle/10883/21683?show=full>

Martiskainen, M. (2016) ‘The role of community leadership in the development of grassroot innovations’, Environmental Innovations and Societal Transition 22: 78–9. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2016.05.002>

Meinzen-Dick, R., Pradhan, P. and Zhang, W. (2021) Migration and Gender Dynamics of Irrigation Governance in Nepal, IFPRI Discussion Paper No. 02061, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC. <https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/117110>

Merrey, D.J. and Cook, S. (2012) ‘Fostering institutional creativity at multiple levels: towards facilitated institutional bricolage’, Water Alternatives 5(1): 1–19. <https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/volume5/v5issue1/154-a5-1-1/file>

Nightingale, A.J. (2019) ‘Commoning for inclusion? Political communities, commons, exclusion, property and socio-natural becomings’, International Journal of the Commons 13(1): 16–35. <https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.927>

Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. <https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol32/iss2/6>

Ostrom, E. (1992) Crafting Institutions: Self-Governing Irrigation Systems, San Francisco: Institute of Contemporary Studies. <https://doi.org/10.1002/RRR.3450080314>

Ostrom, E. (1994) Neither Market nor State: Governance of Common Pool Resources in the 21 Century, IFPRI, Washington, DC.

Ostrom, E. (2005) Understanding Institutional Diversity, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

Ostrom, E. and Gardner, R. (1993) ‘Coping with asymmetries in the commons: self-governing irrigation systems can work’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 7(4): 93–112. <https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.7.4.93>

Ostrom, E., Lam, W.F., Pradhan, P. and Shivakoti, G. (2011) Improving Irrigation in Asia: Sustainable Performance of an Innovative Intervention in Nepal, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Panta, S. and Resurrección, B.P. (2014) ‘Gender and caste relations amidst a changing political situation in Nepal: insights from a farmer-managed irrigation system’, Gender Technology and Development 18: 219–47. <https://doi.org/10.1177/0971852414529482>

Pradhan, P. (1989) Patterns of Irrigation Organization in Nepal, A Comparative Study of 21 Farmer Managed Irrigation Systems, Colombo: International Irrigation Management Institute. <https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABF284.pdf>

Riccardi, T. (1977) ‘The Royal Edicts of King Rama Shah of Gorkha’, Kailash, a Journal of Himalayan Studies 5: 29–65.

Shrestha, A., Joshi, D. and Roth, D. (2020) ‘The hydro-social dynamics of exclusion and water insecurity of Dalits in peri-urban Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: fluid yet unchanging’, Contemporary South Asia 28: 320–35. <https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2020.1770200>

Sunam, R., Barney, K. and McCarthy, J.F. (2021) ‘Transnational labour migration and livelihoods in rural Asia: tracing patterns of agrarian and forest change’, Geoforum 118: 1–13. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.11.004>

Uehara, A. (2019) ‘Glass ceiling in the Himalayas: in Nepal, an uphill battle for gender parity’ [online], SWI swissinfo.ch, 25 September, Kathmandu <https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/glass-ceiling-in-the-himalayas_in-nepal--an-uphill-battle-for-gender-parity/45254260> [accessed 18 July 2022].

van Koppen, B., Mark, G. and John, B. (2007) Community-based Water Law and Water Resource Management Reform in Developing Countries, Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series 5, CABI Publishers, Wallingford, UK. <https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845933265.0001>

van Koppen, B., Raut, M., Rajouria, A., Khadka, M., Pradhan, P., GC, R.K., Colavito, L., O’Hara, C., Rautanen, S.L., Nepal, P.R. and Shrestha, P.K. (2022) Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Community-led Multiple-Use Water Services in Nepal, IWMI Working Paper 203, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka. <https://doi.org/10.5337/2022.200>

Whaley, L., MacAllister, D., Bonsor, H., Mwathunga, E., Banda, S., Katusiime, F., Tadesse, Y., Cleaver, F. and MacDonald, A. (2019) ‘Evidence, ideology, and the policy of community management in Africa’, Environmental Research Letters 14: 085013. <https://doi.org/10.1088/17748-9326/ab35be>

Whaley, L., Cleaver, F. and Mwathunga, E. (2021) ‘Flesh and bones: working with the grain to improve community management of water’, World Development 138: 105286. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105286>

White, P. and Haapala, J. (2018) ‘Water security and social inclusion: local governance within the newly established rural municipalities in Nepal’, New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy 5: 1–29. <https://doi.org/10.53037/na.v5i1.8>

Yates, J.S. (2011) ‘Limits to adopting to water variability in rural Nepal: gaps in community governance’, Waterlines 30(2): 106–21. <https://doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.2011.013>

Zwarteveen, M. and Meinzen-Dick, R. (2001) ‘Gender and property rights in the commons: examples of water rights in South Asia’, Agriculture and Human Values 18: 11. <https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007677317899>