Paper short abstract:

This paper asks whether the dam resurgence involves greater benefit sharing with affected local communities using two case-study dams in Rwanda. Whilst differing from other African dams, these cases demonstrate that when designed on-high by experts, such schemes miss development opportunities

Paper long abstract:

Focusing on the practises of resurgence-era dam building, this paper examines attempts at reform and asks specifically whether these have initiated greater benefit sharing with affected local communities. The paper begins by overviewing benefit-sharing practises in the African dam resurgence. Evidence from across the continent, but particularly in the more illiberal developmentalist states, suggests replication of past dam-building practises that entail negative effects for affected communities and the narrow capture of benefits: Frequently built in the name of national interest, a dam's electricity tends to serve core urban areas and the elites who can afford it. However, cases from Rwanda suggest a different conclusion, demonstrating two instances of dams with explicit local benefit-sharing initiatives. The first case is on the Rwanda-Tanzania border, the Rusumo Falls Dam, financed by the World Bank. The dam in many ways appears to be a best-practise exemplar and includes specific longer-term local-development and livelihood-restoration programmes. The second Nyabarongo dam, financed by the Indian ExIm Bank, involves a health centre and locally-shared electricity. However, closer analysis of both cases reveals the depoliticising assumptions involved in an expert-centric decision-making process that excludes local understandings of developmental needs, misunderstands project impacts and overlooks geographical and social inequalities. Conclusions demonstrate missed opportunities to aid development through benefit sharing and argues that the case studies illustrate persistence and change in the dam resurgence. This paper is based on extensive thesis research, with primary fieldwork carried out between 2014-2017 and qualitative analysis involving elite interviews and participatory methods with affected communities.

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