Assessment of Institutional Capacity in Participatory Water Management:Case of Payvand Cooperative of Aqqala County

The present study was formulated in order to determine institutional capacity in participatory water management in Peyvand Cooperative in Aqqala. A survey method was adopted and data collection was carried out by using questionnaire. Target population included 102 experts and authorities in this initiative and data gathered based on a census. The validity and reliability of the questionnaires in terms of importance and status quo of institutional capacity were confirmed through experts’ opinions and Cronbach’s alpha, respectively. Institutional capacity was measured in 6 attributes and 62 items. The results obtained from components ranking revealed that the component “human capital”, “norms”, “provision of resources”, “management capacity”, “institutional integrity”, and “knowledge development and learning” were more important in participatory water management, respectively. Moreover, the results obtained from paired t-test indicated that the average of all components of institutional capacity during design and administration of participatory water management project in real setting is below the expected value. Furthermore, the results of one-sample t-test showed that the average of all the components is >3, which means the components of institutional capacity are in favorable level in administration of participatory water management project. The results acquired from the effect of institutional capacity on institutional effectiveness via multiple regression showed that six components of institutional capacity have positive and significant effect on institutional effectiveness. It is noteworthy that the component “management capacity” had the highest effect.