The need for collective action to manage shared water resources is clear. Field experiments are increasingly used to measure collective action and test theories about behavior regarding common pool resources. This research tests whether experimental games can also be used to strengthen water management in India and Colombia. It will compare results of games to observed levels of collective action, and identify factors affecting the level of current cooperation as well as outcomes for the resource, then test whether the games and subsequent community discussions strengthen cooperation for water management. Documenting the methods and working with a large NGO will increase capacity to strengthen collective action at the local level.

This is an ongoing project funded and coordinated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), through their program on Water, Land and Ecosystems in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity (CSID) at Arizona State University (ASU), the Indian NGO Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), and the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). The goal of the project is to test whether field experiments on common resource decisions lead to measurable behavioral changes in groundwater use.