cover image: Governance Drivers of Rural Water Sustainability : Collaboration in Frontline Service Delivery (English)

20.500.12592/4jnhnj

Governance Drivers of Rural Water Sustainability : Collaboration in Frontline Service Delivery (English)

7 Oct 2021

This paper contributes to a long-standing debate in development practice: Under what conditions can externally established participatory groups engage in the collective management of services beyond the life of a project? Using 10 years of panel data on water point functionality from Indonesia's rural water program, the Program for Community-Based Water Supply and Sanitation, the paper explores the determinants of subnational variation in infrastructure sustainability. It then investigates positive and negative deviance cases to answer why some communities have successfully engaged in system management despite being located in difficult conditions as per quantitative findings and vice versa. The findings show that differences in the implementation of community participation, driven by local social relations between frontline service providers, that is, village authorities and water user groups, explain sustainable management. This initial condition of state-society relations influences how the project is initiated, kicking off negative or positive reinforcing pathways, leading to community collective action or exit. The paper concludes that the relationships between frontline government representatives and community actors are an important and underexamined aspect of the ability of external projects to generate successful community-led management of public goods.
rural water supply water resource management management of resources water system natural resource management theory of change improved water quality social and gender project design and implementation sustainable service delivery operation and management operations and maintenance access to technology lack of demand impact of competition community water supply village head sources of fund lack of interest national monitoring and evaluation system time and resource success and failure provision of resource public sector reform water user group word of mouth continuity of service public goods provision cost of repair capacity building of community management of water participatory water management management of service quality of participation form of governance alternative water source local public good water treatment system buying water water user organization bad water quality rural water program household connection fee use of meters community water group attitude toward community

Authors

Thapa,Dikshya, Farid,Muhammad Noor, Prevost,Christophe

Disclosure Date
2021/10/07
Disclosure Status
Disclosed
Doc Name
Governance Drivers of Rural Water Sustainability : Collaboration in Frontline Service Delivery
Originating Unit
Water East Asia & Pacific Region (SEAW1)
Published in
United States of America
Series Name
Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 9798;
Total Volume(s)
1
Unit Owning
Off of Sr VP Dev Econ/Chief Econ (DECVP)
Version Type
Final
Volume No
1

Files