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Item Open Access A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF THE WATER SECURITY CONCEPT IN CENTRAL ASIA(IOP Publishing, 2020-12-18) Xenarios, Stefanos; Assubayeva, Aliya; Xie, Lei; Sehring, Jenniver; Amirkhanov, Daulet; Sultanov, Alisher; Fazli, SiamacEngineering, economic, social sciences, geophysical, and integrated modeling studies have approached the assessment of water security in Central Asia (CA) in distinct ways. Different indicators and indexes have been introduced to assess the most vulnerable aspects of water use in this region. Until now, though, the suggested approaches are often represented in a fragmented manner, while the relevant indicators cannot fully attribute the vulnerability status of a country or on a regional level. This can result in diverging perceptions of the water security situation in policy dialogues, also affecting bilateral and multilateral relations among the countries in CA. In this study, we conduct a bibliometric review on the approaches and methods that directly or indirectly touch upon the water security perceptions in CA. We employ data mining techniques to explore trends in the conceptualization of water security in the region since the breakup of the Soviet Union by also identifying the water interests and priorities set by each country. The findings reveal that within the last decade, the water security-related studies have given much importance to technical and infrastructural means to protect human livelihoods against global environmental changes but also to foster economic growth. The water governance and management aspects are largely overlooked in favour of more techno-centric approaches. These findings are expected to clarify further the perception of the water security concept within CA by indicating the geophysical, institutional, and historical challenges that need to be met for a mutual understanding among the countries in the region.Item Open Access Agricultural water and energy management in Tajikistan: a new opportunity(Taylor & Francis, 2019-08-07) Xenarios, Stefanos; Laldjebaev, Murodbek; Shenhav, RonanAgricultural water use in Tajikistan is largely based on mechanized irrigation pumps. The farming community cannot afford the cost of the energy used for pumping, resulting in large debts to the service provider. We propose limiting pumping facilities for five years in exchange for energy export to neighbouring countries. The energy export could cover the annual pumping expenditures, pay off agricultural debt and partly rehabilitate the irrigation network. We suggest three scenarios with different pumping energy reductions, and the relevant technical parameters of the set-aside scheme are assessed.Item Open Access The Boundaries of Research in an Authoritarian State(SAGE Publications, 2019-09-16) Janenova, SaltanatThis article provides a reflective analysis of a local scholar on methodological challenges of conducting research in Kazakhstan — a post-Soviet, authoritarian, Central Asian country. It specifically addresses the problems of getting access to government officials and the quality of data, describes the strategies applied by the researcher to mitigate these obstacles, and discusses the impact of the political environment on decisions relating to the research design, ethical integrity, safety of participants and researchers, and publication dilemma. This article will be of interest both for researchers who are doing or planning to conduct research in Kazakhstan and Central Asia and those who are researching in nondemocratic contexts as methodological challenges of an authoritarian regime stretch beyond the geographical boundaries.Item Open Access Public accounts committees in the Pacific region(2013) Pelizzo, Riccardothe paper analyzes the organization, the powers, the functioning and the performance of Public Account Committees in the Pacific region. In doing so the paper highlights some of the factors have contributed to making PACs from the Pacific island states work effectivelyItem Open Access Public accounts committees in Eastern Africa: a comparative analysis(2014) Pelizzo, Riccardo; Kinyondo, AbelProperly functioning Public Accounts Committees (PACs) are essential for promoting good governance, preventing misallocation of resources and curbing corruption. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the organization, powers and the performance of East Africa’s PACs so as to understand what they do, what makes them work well and what could make them work better. The analysis reveals that the Tanzania’s PAC is the most active in the region because while it has fewer resources at its disposal than its Eastern African counterparts, it makes a more efficient use of the available resources as indicated by the fact that the Tanzanian Pac was able to carry out more oversight activities than the other PACs operating in the region in spite of having fewer resources. This evidence sustains the claim that legislators’ political will is the single most important determinant of effective oversight. On the basis of the evidence presented in the paper, we formulate two policy recommendations: that in order to secure a more effective PAC performance, international organizations should pay greater attention to ensuring that legislators have the will to be effective overseers and that the Tanzania’s PAC needs to be more adequately staffed and resourced.