Choosing the community

Article derived from Supporting community management of rural water supplies:

The commitment of the community to a project is one of the first key for the success of the project. It is therefore useful to take a closer look at commitment, what it is, what you can do to help people develop and maintain it and how you can recognise it.

For communities to develop and sustain commitment the following is needed:

• a felt need for improved management of the water supply system and the service delivery;

• a proper flow of information, that helps people to make a cost-benefit analysis of working with you/your agency;

• to be listened at in case of worries and problems;

• the feeling that it is feasible to achieve the set objectives;

• the absence of heavy political rivalries.

Type of commitment

Commitment is often expressed in terms of people’s willingness to participate in meetings, to come to a consensus, to invest time or money in management of the system. In a heterogeneous community it is not very realistic to think that all people have the same level of commitment . Traditional, religious or political leaders can play an important role in creating commitment. This can either be extremely helpful and stimulating for management or hamper it.

However, a cross-check whether general people are indeed as committed (or not committed) as leaders say is often necessary. Social pressure may be such that people dare not state a negative opinion in the presence of the leader. Key-informants who are relative outsiders in a community may be good sources of information.

One pitfall is that only influential people are talked to; often men or those people who know how to express themselves. These people are usually not representative of a community. Women or poorer people may have more urgent needs and therefore be more committed. Better off people can show their commitment in money, whereas poor people can only do so by providing labour, and may not have the time to do so.

Whereas in some communities different levels of commitment may not be a problem, in others it will be important that people understand and respect these differences by discussing them openly. It is also crucial that whenever important information comes in or whenever important decisions are to be made the entire community gets involved. The collaboration between the community and a partner should be done on practical and clear basis , as for example a mutual contract, which describes the purpose of collaboration, the proposed process, the role of the various stakeholders (including yours and the community’s), the potential outcomes and working procedures. After a draft contract is drawn up, a broad consensus among community members will have to be sought before it is agreed.