This book uses the concept of empowerment as a means to understand peacebuilding in Mozambique. In order to do this, it first traces the different discourses on ‘empowerment’ and proposes an analytical framework based on multiple levels of analysis and a dialectical view of power. Second, it examines how the process of state formation and, later, peacebuilding have shaped the spaces for local empowerment to occur in Mozambique. Finally, it offers a detailed analysis of a national policy called the District Development Fund (the ‘7 million’), designed in the context of decentralization and aimed at reducing poverty in this country. This case study helps reflecting on the long-term and derivative effects of peace both in institutional terms as well as at the level of the everyday. The holistic approach to empowerment offered in this book and its application in the case of Mozambique will be of interest to both academics as well as practitioners of peacebuilding and development.

Does participatory governance benefit the environment? The European Water Framework Directive (WFD), which came into force in 2000 with the aim of revolutionizing European water governance, mandates participatory river basin management planning across the European Union. The belief of European policymakers and the European Commission is that participation will deliver better policy outputs and implementation. This book examines a range of approaches to participatory river basin management planning, and considers whether and how participation impacted on the environmental standard of planning documents, quality of implementation, and social outcomes. It draws on evidence from WFD implementation in eight case studies from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom on the basis of a matched comparative case study design. The Directive sets common timeframes and procedural requirements, which provides a perfect test-bed and unique opportunity to study the effects of participation on implementation and outcomes in comparative perspective.