States can do much to tap community- level energies and resources for development, if they seek to interact more synergistically with local communities. The broader spin-off is the creation of a developmental society and polity. Using case studies from Asia and Latin America, the authors illustrate how:

A major development challenge facing us today is How can poor developing countries make their institutional settings more conducive to growth and poverty reduction?

This has been shown to be key to better development outcomes. Studies have illustrated how development outcomes are shaped by the nature of formal and informal institutions, as well as by the type of political regimes and administrative organization.

However, these analyses tend to focus more on the comparative dynamics of these systems, and less on the more challenging question of how to move from dysfunctional institutional settings to those with greater development effectiveness.

This research focuses on a subset of issues related to improving service delivery at community level, and more broadly to helping achieve a transition to better-functioning institutional settings.

The research begins with a brief analysis of the challenges of fighting “local capture”, especially in very hierarchical settings. It continues by illustrating some key obstacles to effective local service delivery and how they can be averted, drawing on Wade’s (1982, 1997) comparison of the South Korean and Indian canal irrigation agencies. This is followed by discussion of some country case studies of efforts to redesign local agencies’ incentives and increase community participation in service delivery.

These cases were selected because they offer examples of successful and sustainable governance reform for community-driven development, under quite different circumstances. The authors then draw out some of the generalisable lessons from these case studies, indicating reasons for success or failure.

There are several encouraging points that emerge from these case studies.

First, these powerful institutional changes do not necessarily take long to generate.

Second, they can be achieved in a diversity of settings:

Third, there are strong political payoffs in terms of legitimacy and popular support for those who support such developmental action.

Development Research Group, World Bank
Monica Das Gupta

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/01/2003

Monica Das Gupta, Helene Grandvoinnet

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Citizens' participation