Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development 248 March 2005 Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the Knowledge and Learning Center on behalf of the Region. The views expressed in Findings are those of the author/s and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group. Three Drivers of Effective Implementation: The Story of the South African River Health Program "... nothing is more powerful than a great idea. And nothing is more deadly than its poor execution." (Taylor, 1994) No matter how sound the from being a good technical underlying principles or techni- design to becoming an opera- cal design, the intended merit of tional practice. The RHP was any policy or program can only be initiated through an identified realized once and if it is effec- information need and seed- tively implemented. Implementa- funding by the country's Depart- tion can be described as putting ment of Water Affairs and For- into practice, executing, achiev- estry. Over a period of nine years ing, or accomplishing. Because of (1994 to 2003), the RHP has the universal difficulty and even grown from a mere idea into a elusiveness experienced with national operation. This is putting new ideas into practice, especially significant consider- the implementation challenge ing that adoption and implemen- continues to fascinate scholars tation of the RHP is largely and frustrate practitioners. voluntary and that program Political transformation in implementation is taking place South Africa has resulted in a in an environment characterized comprehensive revision of by limited financial resources, a policies and the introduction of a multitude of competing social and multitude of new programs over economic priorities and general the past ten years. Quite rightly, scarcity of appropriately skilled the emphasis is now shifting people. from developing new policy and The RHP was designed to legislation to delivering on the measure, assess and report on ground. With effective implemen- the ecological state of rivers in tation considered a national South Africa. It is a screening- imperative, it is opportune to level monitoring program that extract lessons from existing operates around a low sampling implementation successes and frequency and a relatively low perhaps also from those initia- resolution of sites scattered Findings tives that are less successful. semi-randomly across river The South African River Health basins. Biological (fish, aquatic Program (RHP) is an environmen- invertebrates, and riparian tal monitoring and reporting vegetation) and habitat (in- program that has been successful stream and riparian) indices are in the sense that it progressed used to assess the condition or health of river reaches. The leaders". they had influence in govern- program's assessment approach In the context of the RHP, a criti- ment, the academia, and conser- is based on the concept of biologi- cal number of contagious leaders vation agencies. Their direct cal integrity, whereby ecological was probably the most significant communication and visible modification is expressed relative factor contributing to the success support were key to motivating to a near-natural benchmark. of the initiative. These contagious key groupings to get involved and A diversity of implementation leaders are characterized by: allocate priority time and re- models has emerged among · Deep philosophical and theoreti- sources to the RHP. adopters of the RHP distributed cal understanding of their mes- across the country ­ some seem- sages; not only in terms of "what" Flexible governance through ingly successful and others less shared ownership needs to be done, but also "why" so. Reflecting on the successes it is important. When human and financial and failures of the RHP provides · Shaping an enduring vision and resources are at a premium, an opportunity to learn about the core purpose that capture networking (reaching out and elements that are necessary for people's imagination and mobi- getting in touch with others) and new ideas to mature into sus- lize resources. collaboration (to work in combina- tainable programs. Although · Radiating enthusiasm, commit- tion with others) become key many factors played a role in ment and ownership regarding success factors in bridging stimulating adoption, growth and the vision and core purpose. capability/capacity gaps and dispersal of the RHP, three · An ability to balance vision with achieving demanding goals. The elements in particular appear to action; while it is important to institutional plan for the RHP be critical drivers in developing provide direction at the strategic involves coordination of design, and maintaining the capacity level, it is equally important to development and standardization required for implementation of maintain focus and give effect to (concepts, methods, processes) at this monitoring program. These that vision through advances at a national level, with operational are: the operational level. and implementation activities to · "Contagious leaders" · Instigating strategic (and face-to- largely take place at the provin- · Flexible governance through face) conversations with stake- cial and watershed levels. shared ownership holders to develop a shared un- The most critical constraint · Creative packaging and dissemi- derstanding of the objectives and that had to be overcome was to nation of key messages challenges. capacitate the RHP at the opera- · Regular reflection to allow adap- tional levels. The provincial scale tation of strategies and methods was selected for deploying the Contagious leaders to ensure relevance in a chang- program, primarily due to the ing world. presence of agencies with rel- In his book The Tipping Point, · An inclusive style of leadership evant expertise and equipment Malcolm Gladwell writes that through which they empower and that operate at these levels. ideas, products, messages and create opportunities for others to During a consultative planning behaviors spread just like vi- become equal partners in the meeting held in 1996, Provincial ruses. If a virus finds appropriate initiative. Champions were elected to act as carriers and connects with hubs for implementation activi- sufficient recipients, it becomes Contagious leaders are by no ties in each of South Africa's an epidemic. If we would like to means abundant in any commu- nine provinces. Since no single see our programs spread like nity and the RHP was exception- organization in any province epidemics, the most important ally fortunate for having at- could claim to have all the tech- investment that we can make is tracted, either through serendip- nical expertise required for to find and support the natural ity or solicitation, both a critical effective implementation of the carriers of our "virus". Gladwell number and a diverse distribu- RHP, it was up to the Champions calls these people the "contagious tion of these leaders. Collectively, to establish inter-organizational a reason for joining the provin- ecological state of rivers. The implementation teams. cial network. establishment of CMAs in South Provinces that participate · Organizational endorsement: Africa is foreseen to take place successfully in the RHP usually Either before or after joining systematically over the next two evolve through three distinct the provincial network, indi- decades. maturation phases, starting with vidual members would request individual enthusiasm, progress- approval from their organiza- Creative packaging and dissemi- ing to informal networking, and nation of key messages tions to get involved in RHP ending with organizational activities. Their case is The RHP leadership was not endorsement. strengthened if they can show content with only generating and · Individual enthusiasm: In most examples of what the program making available river health instances, Provincial Champi- produces and demonstrate how information. They set them- ons started off armed only with this relates to their organiza- selves the goal of changing the enthusiasm for the task ahead. tional mandates. Organizations behavior of the recipients of the The primary reason why they would then consider whether information. To achieve this goal, have agreed to champion their and to what degree they would they had to rethink the formats provincial initiative is because endorse the program. Endorse- used for packaging information they care about rivers and ment may be in the form of as well as the strategies used for believe that the RHP would help incorporating RHP objectives as disseminating information. them to generate the informa- part of the job description of a Three dominant themes emerged tion that would contribute to staff members(s) and/or their from efforts to improve the sound river management. organizational business plan. effectiveness and efficiency of Their lobbying for team mem- The predominantly bottom-up communicating river health bers was based on the need for (emergent governance) approach messages. certain basic skills as well as described above resulted in a rich · Reduce the complexity of for having the representation of diversity of organization and scientific messages: In an era key organizations in the prov- agency combinations that consti- of pervasive information over- ince. tuted the various provincial load, there is a major demand · Informal networking: The true implementation teams. This for products that are credible value of networking and col- "let's-see-what-emerges" ap- yet simple. The RHP has made laboration probably lies in the proach was complemented by a significant advances in simpli- formation of informal arrange- top-down (stewarding or custodial fying the "front end" for commu- ments and relationships. In government) approach where, for nicating river health while this regard, the RHP was par- example, the national Depart- retaining the rigor of the ticularly successful. Individuals ment of Water Affairs and For- biological assessment process would join the informal network estry would extend an official in the background. As an of RHP practitioners based on invitation to heads of key provin- example, a river health classifi- their perception of the value cial agencies to become involved. cation scheme has been devel- that the initiative holds for The largely voluntary basis on oped where the categories are them and their organizations. which adoption has taken place simply referred to as natural, True to their operational to date will likely shift to man- good, fair and poor. When environment, "joining" is dated accountabilities when and communicating to decision- associated with participation in where Catchment Management makers, a map showing the river surveys rather than Agencies (CMAs) come into river of interest with color- registration or attendance of being. These agencies are likely coded icons that indicate the meetings. The ability to collec- to have the delegated mandates ­ relative health of the river at tively accomplish something form national government ­ and monitoring stations would that cannot be accomplished statutory powers to coordinate typically receive more attention separately is commonly cited as monitoring and reporting on the than scientific explanations, report. This step requires lenge of sustainable implementa- technical diagrams and multiple iterations of draft tion and relevance is not over. It graphs. versions between editors and is suggested that the three · Develop a flagship communi- knowledge contributors to drivers focused on in this article cation product: A significant ensure that context-specific should receive continued nurtur- contributor to the popularity knowledge has been captured ing in order to leverage limited and visibility of the RHP can be correctly. The outcome is a resources. Much of the program's ascribed to the development of report that provides much more success is due to the contribu- the State-of-Rivers (SoR) context than could be derived tions of individuals. The loss of a reporting concept. These from purely using collected and provincial champion or a national reports or posters comprise interpreted data. As examples, task leader may render the semi-standardized formats for observations regarding the program vulnerable in a particu- the packaging of river health recovery of a hippopotamus lar area and succession of par- information. The SoR products population subsequent to a ticularly the contagious leaders always portray a distinct RHP severe drought that occurred a needs to be fostered. Similarly, brand yet reflect dynamic decade prior to the river survey the program flourished during an development over time. Com- in question; the occurrence of era of following a flexible gover- monly, the same results are rare bat species and fish owls nance approach, where informal packaged in various formats in a particular riparian forest; institutional arrangements and distributed via multiple and the exceptional abundance semi-spontaneously "bubbled up" media. As an example, the of crocodiles in a particular from a distributed network of recent RHP exercise on the river reach are all bits of stakeholders. As the program river of the Free State Prov- information that were not found matures, the effectiveness of its ince produced on-line and hard in a database but that surfaced likely future governance model of copy versions of a glossy report, during knowledge-sharing more formal institutional ar- posters in the three main sessions. It was felt that such rangements and mandated languages of the province, as tacit knowledge has the poten- accountabilities remains to be well as a poster with no text for tial to significantly increase seen. Similarly, the program people who cannot read ­ all of reader interest and the contex- cannot afford to become compla- which essentially convey the tual orientation provided by SoR cent about the successes of its same message. reports. SoR initiative, and ongoing · Uncover and utilize tacit Even a flagship product can have development is required to knowledge: In compiling SoR the desired impact only if it maintain scientific credibility products, a decision was made reaches its intended audience. It while at the same time cater to use the knowledge that was found that distribution of effectively to ever-evolving resides with scientists, water reports by mail often did not stakeholder preferences. resource managers, farmers result in the desired impact. and members from local com- Personalization of report dissemi- This article by Dirk J. Roux, CSIR munities to complement nation is the ideal, where at Environmentek, South Africa is formally collected data and least key recipients receive a based on a more detailed chapter by derived information. The hand-delivered report with a brief the author entitled From Monitor- reporting teams learned many contextual explanation or presen- ing Design to Operational Pro- lessons regarding interpreting tation. gram: Facilitating the Transition the highly personal tacit under Resource-limited Condi- knowledge that was shared tions that was published in: among the stakeholder groups Conclusion Wiersma, G. B. (Editor). Environmen- and for capturing this in tal Monitoring. CRC Press, Boca The RHP has had many victories explicit form -- that is, the Raton, pp 631-648, 2004. (ISBN: 1- to celebrate. However, the chal- conversion from mind to 56670-641-6)