John Pierce et al. " Common Pool Resources and the Transfer of Governance Technology: Water User Associations in Uzbekistan". Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, Vol.4, No.3 (2006): 287-301.

John Pierce et al. " Common Pool Resources and the Transfer of Governance Technology: Water User Associations in Uzbekistan". Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, Vol.4, No.3 (2006): 287-301.

• This article examines and evaluates the success of Uzbekistani initiatives to improve the quality and transparency of governance over common water resources in the form of locally based water user associations [WUAs] (288), organizations recently empowered with new decentralized powers by virtue of 2000 law devolving authority over water resources (289).
• For the purposes of this paper, the inculcation of good governance practices within WUAs is considered a form of technology transfer, representing the transfer of organizational and institutional technologies implicit in practices of good governance (289).
• This paper measures the success of technology transfer to Uzbekistani WUAs based on the level of egalitarian decision-making in the WUAs, the level of accountability to users, and the level of public participation and awareness of the WUAs (289).
• Two factors have been measured as variables potentially affects rates of successful technology transfer: levels of political trust, defined as social capital, among the population using the WUAs (289); and the economic, social, and political contexts in which the WUA has been developed (290).
• The hypothesis of social capital is fully explained, including source mine on concept, from page 290 to 291. The hypothesis of contextual growth is explained on page 291.
• The methods used by the study, including selections, achievement of low levels of bias, and variable selection to represent levels of trust and socio-economic context are explained in detail from page 292 to page 294.
• The study indicates that trust within a community has a direct bearing on the the success rate of technology transfer and good governance in the associated WUA. Trust within communities, occupation, ethnic groups, and generally all had a positive correlation with at least one measure of good governance, with general trust and ethnic trust being associated with positive increases in all measures of good governance (295-296).
• There are some correlations between contextual factors and the levels of trust within communities, but they are poorly related and work in unexpected ways. The strength of the surrounding economy seems to have a positive effect on trust within communities, but a negative effect on levels of general trust. Other connections fall below the p=0.01 mark, with occupation trust being entirely unaffected by socio-economic context (298).
• Measurements of social and economic contexts assigned variables to the state of the surrounding economy, the level of ethno-linguistic diversity, and the WUA's access to outside resources (296). A more developed economy related to more participatory governance, while diversity most strong correlated to increased accountability. Access to outside resources may have been a factor, but only at a p-level < 0.01, that same is true for the effect of all variables on the egalitarian nature of decision making (297).
• When both factors relating to socio-economic context and trust factors are included in the regression equation, it is clear that both context and trust are significant in determining the success of technology transfer. The most important factors are occupation trust, which greatly improves accountability, and a strong correlation between general rates of trust and egalitarianism in decision-making. Occupational trust and general trust both also have a strong correlation to the level of participation in WUA governance (298-299).
• This paper makes clear that higher levels of trust within communities, represented in the form of social capital, correlates to higher rates of success in the transfer of good governance technologies. This result indicates that decisions made in the implementation of good governance should attempt to be inclusive and foster positive trust within communities. The authors also suggest that good governance is better implemented alongside social and economic reforms which increase the strength of the local economy and foster communal trust (300).