Community-based provision of development services in rural South Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Community-based provision of development services in rural South Africa
Authors:	Breier, Matthew Visser, Martine
Year:	2006
Periodical:	South African Journal of Economics
Volume:	74
Issue:	2
Pages:	301-314
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	community participation rural development water supply public services
Link:	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2006.00068.x/pdf
Abstract:	This paper presents a basic discussion of the participatory approach to rural development services. It introduces a two-stage public goods model with credible punishment to illustrate the effect of potential severance of social ties on free riding behaviour. The findings indicate that communities are best equipped to overcome the free rider problem when social capital is strong, there are appropriate social norms for cooperation, and individuals expect a sufficiently high proportion of other community members to contribute. These results provide valuable insights when applied to the case of rural development in South Africa. The experience of the Community Water Supply Programme is reviewed in light of the analysis. The paper's game-theoretic analysis suggests the need for a demand-responsive approach to projects. The fact that local projects have typically been supply-oriented rather than demand-responsive is a possible reason for project failure. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]