Abstract
SummaryReform of the rural water supply sector occurred widely in the 1990s, when many low‐income countries replaced state‐led service provision with decentralized community management in the hope of generating improved technical and financial performance. This article asks whether these expected benefits have materialized in practice, and whether community management has strengthened institutional capacity at local, district and national level. Findings from a mixed‐methods study in four districts of Malawi show that both technical and financial performance under community management is weak. Maintenance is rarely done, repairs are slow and sub‐standard, and user committees are unable to collect and save funds: Average savings are just 2% of expected levels. Despite these failures, community management has ‘worked’ for the state (and donors) as a means of offloading responsibility for public service provision. The article suggests elements of an alternative framework for rural water supply that would tackle the technical and financial failures of community management, and notes that efforts to promote ‘local ownership’ in development must be undertaken with care. © 2015 The Authors. Public Administration and Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
Reform of the rural water supply sector occurred widely in the 1990s, when many low-income countries replaced stateled centralized service provision with decentralized community management (Schouten and Moriarty, 2003)
Recent decades have seen significant increases in access to improved water sources, and the Millennium Development Goal target on water was declared met in 2010 (UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme, 2015a). Major inequalities persist both between and within countries: Only two-thirds of people in sub-Saharan Africa have access to clean water, and the figure is considerably lower in rural areas (Ibid.) a significant proportion of ‘improved’ water sources do not provide clean or safe water (UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme, 2011)
Community management has been the dominant framework for rural water supply in Malawi for the past two decades (GOM, 2005), and the assumption that it will lead to sustainability is deeply ingrained in the minds of government actors and development partners alike (Soublière and Cloutier, 2015)
Summary
Reform of the rural water supply sector occurred widely in the 1990s, when many low-income countries replaced stateled centralized service provision with decentralized community management (Schouten and Moriarty, 2003). In the context of renewed attention to local ownership in public sector reform, exemplified by the call for ‘doing development differently’ and its emphasis on locally driven problem definition (Doing Development Differently: The Manifesto), it seems timely to reflect on whether the anticipated benefits of community management have materialized. This article addresses this question using data from a mixed-methods study of community-managed rural water supply in Malawi. Through a series of conferences and communiques, including the 1990 Delhi Statement and the 1992 Dublin Principles, this approach rapidly came to dominate policy, practice and discourse in the rural water supply sector (Nicol et al, 2012)
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