Moral Economy Meets Social Enterprise Community-Based Green Energy Project in Rural Burundi

Abstract

Summary The development sector is constantly looking for new models to address the many challenges of the Global South in a sustainable way. The aim of this study is to investigate how the agrarian communities in rural Burundi accommodate the model of a social enterprise: a market-based community organization with a social mission. We conduct an explorative study of a pilot development intervention in rural Burundi. Nine participating village solidarity groups (child protection committees) have been equipped with energy generators. By selling energy, the groups become self-sustainable economic structures. The profits of the micro-enterprises support the villages’ orphans’ funds, used to equip the orphan children with uniforms and school supplies. Accordingly, the intervention assumes deep participation (project ownership) on the part of the community and also holds the promise of future economic sustainability (earned income). Using a mixed-method approach, we examine the perceptions, behaviors, and actions of the participating community members. Drawing on the theory of moral economy, we argue that subsistence communities in Burundi are governed by reciprocal and hierarchical relationships that may both enable and hinder social enterprise initiatives. Our results suggest that the social enterprise model may increase the sustainability prospects of the interventions but question its capacity to achieve transformational change.