I
PREFACE
The concept of local learning systems was introduced to me by my
Voltan colleagues at the Institute of National Education in Upper
Volta. They were interested in these systems as a vehicle for the
management of new knowledge in the rural community, and as a basis
to integrate the 'theory' of the formal systems of education with
the 'knowhow' of the nonformal and informal systems. Later, work¬
ing as a social analyst for the design of a USAID village water
project in Upper Volta, I was able to identify the 'local learning
system' that was responsible for traditional water technology, and
to some extent primary health care, in several rural villages that
I surveyed in the project area.
From this experience, it became obvious to me that the rural water
local learning systems were just a more specific example of the
general local learning system of the entire village or community
that we had been concerned with at the Institute. The next step,
of course, was to describe how this more specific system could
serve as a vehicle for the management of new knowledge in the com¬
munity, and if it did so, the impact on rural water supply projects
themselves. This then was the beginning impetus for this paper.
Several caveats to this work must be delineated. First, the paper
is written without specific reference to a geographical area. It
is possible to do this and still be very specific about design and
implementation problems because of the integration of local learning
systems with the technology and maintenance of rural water systems.
But it must be pointed out that local learning systems have only
been observed by the author in societies where there has been a
tradition of communal self help. This relationship seems to also
exist in the relevant literature. On the other hand, the societies
that have this tradition are found throughout the -world and in¬
cludes most of Africa, a good part of Central and South America
and portions of Asia.
The second caveat that the reader should be aware of is the mixture
of field observation and concept or theory building. Section three—
the issues of rural water supply and women—is ail based upon field
observation. Section four—the operational framework of the local
learning system—is a conceptual framework based upon field observa¬
tion, but it has not been field tested. Hopefully, that will be an
eventual outcome of this report.
About the Author
Paula Roark is a learning and community development specialist. As
a Fulbright-Hayes Exchange Professor in Upper Volta. West Africa,
ii
CONTENTS
Page
Preface ii
Summary iv
1. Introduction 1
1.1 The Problem 1
1.2 Community Participation: Recognizing the Need
is Different from Knowing How 3
1.3 Women as Community Participators 5
1.4 Local Learning Systems: A Possible Answer
2. AID Activity in Water Supply Projects 12
2.1 How is AID Involved and What has been Learned. .. 12
2.2 International Donor Activities and Research ... 14
2.3 AID Involvement in the CJ.N. Declared Water
Decade of 1981-90 16
3. The Software Issues of Rural Water Supply 18
3.1 Goals, Objectives and Expectations 13
3.2 Rural Water Supply and the Concerns of Women. . . 18
3.3 The Scope and Substance of Community Participation 27
4. Rural Water Supply and Local Learning Systems 36
4.1 The LLS Operational Framework 37
4.2 Utilization of the LLS Framework 42
5. Policy and Program Directions 50
5.1 Policy for AID 50
5.2 Program and Project Guidelines 51
6. Conclusion: AID Action Now 56
7. Bibliography 58
i
vSUCCESSFUL RURAL WATER SUPPLY PROJECTS
AND THE CONCERNS OF WOMEN
by
Paula Roark
September, 1980
This report was prepared for the Office of Women
in Development, United States Agency for Inter¬
national Development, AID/otr-147-80-53.
The views and interpretations in this publication
are those of the author and should not be
attributed to the Agency for International Dev
opment or to any individual acting it its behalf.
Distributed by:
Office of Women in Development
Agency for International Development
Room 3243 New State
Washington, D.C. 20523
she conducted original research concerning the integration of the
school system with the national development policies of Upper Volta
under the auspices of the Institute for National Education. For
AID, she was the social analyst on a design team for village water
supply in Upper Volta. Presently, she is working for Louis Berger
and Associates evaluating the community extension component of the
National Demonstration Water Project, a nationwide program to im¬
prove water and sanitation service delivery and increase rural
community development capabilities. She is also teaching community
development and community decision strategy classes in the Depart¬
ment of Family and Community Development, University of Maryland.
iii
SUMMARY
The high vulnerability of rural water supply projects to social and
behavioral factors has been well documented. The combination of
this documentation with the increased interest of both dc^nor or¬
ganizations and countries in the provision of basic human needs,
has changed the design and implementation priorities of rural water
supply projects.
One of the emergent major concerns is that of community participa¬
tion. Despite a variety of studies that describe a strong correla¬
tion between measured project success, both in terms of productivity
and social welfare, and effective community participation, there is
no agreed upon definition from which to proceed. The purpose of
this paper is to define "what" community participation is, "how"
it works in rural water supply projects, and "why" women must be
included for project success and continuing community controlled
growth and development. Local learning systems are the linkage
among these three areas of discussion.
In this paper community participation is defined as the learning
process as communities deal with change and development. This is
based upon Paulo Freire's definition of the learning process of
reflection/action/reflection through dialogue. Using this defini¬
tion, it becomes clear that participation is the essence of the
learning process, and control of the knowledge outcome of this learn¬
ing process is the reason for community participation. This defini¬
tion explains why it is so important to project success, and "what"
community participation is all about.
The importance of the role of women in this community participation
or learning process in rural water supply projects becomes apparent
through field observation. In these projects the short-term goal
of increased quantity and quality of water for the community is
dependent upon the community's willingness to use and maintain the
new water supply. Women as the traditional water carriers and wa¬
ter managers decide whether to use the water source and whether it
is worth the expenditure of effort to maintain or have it maintained.
The long-term goal of improved health of the family is dependent upon
changing community perceptions of the relationships between water borne
diseases and the surrounding environment. But water management prac¬
tices are deeply imbedded in the social fabric of the community, and
therefore cannot be affected by imported health education strategies.
Rather, change depends upon the utilization of the local learning
systems of the society. Women are most often the controllers and
iv
the purveyors in these systems. Because these are "local institu¬
tions" in which women have traditionally held power, they are a ve¬
hicle within which the inclusion of women as participators and lead¬
ers is appropriate.
There are two main emphases in the paper. The first is rural water
supply and the concerns of women. The center of this concern is
maintenance. The specific issues of water resource reliability,
access to the water source, and the trade-offs between quantity and
quality of water, describe the spectrum of issues with which wo¬
men are concerned and over which they have considerable power. Be¬
cause of the failure of many, if not most, rural water supply pro¬
jects to remain operative two to three years after installation,
these issues have become as important as the technical site construc¬
tion.
The second emphasis is the integration of technical and social as¬
pects of rural water supply design and implementation in order to
achieve greater project success. Description of an operational
framework, including the factors of technology, maintenance, local
learning systems, and community participation, is described in the
paper. This framework explains "how" community participation works
in rural water supply projects. It can functionally describe a cul¬
turally specific situation, through first, capitalizing on the gen¬
eralizations available from the conceptualization of learning as
a process, and secondly the generalizations available from focusing
on the subject area of rural water supply itself. The framework is
thereby able to explain and clarify to a greater extent how the lack
of integration, or the type of integration, for the software and
hardware components, affects success.
This operational framework has four components and is a generalized
conceptualization of the local learning system. The analysis com¬
ponent defines the difference between present technology of the
community and the proposed technology in terms of type and amount
of change. The definition component defines the learning process
in terms of community participation. This process is by its very
nature is community controlled and directed management of new know¬
ledge for the evolvement of new but shared community perceptions.
The information component is the basis for the community participa¬
tion techniques of problem posing and participatory research. The
knowledge outcome component is the basis for the community parti¬
cipation techniques of leadership and decision making strategies.
Utilization of the analysis component by project planners will allow
them to ascertain, using a proposed water technology as a reference
point, whether it is user perceived as either a service or develop¬
ment project. Service projects call only for the minimal partici¬
pation strategies of community leadership because there is no social
v
change involved and people have essentially given their consent.
Development projects call for the ma]or community participation
strategies of problem posing and participatory research that will
facilitate the community controlled process of value decisions
and resulting technology control. The type and amount of change
will indicate probability of success, and the type of community
participation techniques that will be needed in project implementa¬
tion.
The operational framework of the local learning system incorporates
the hardware technology with the software motivation of the com¬
munity into a design tool that indicates probabilities of success
for different technologies, and an implementation tool that guides
the type, amount, and direction of information through community
participation techniques. It continues to offer women the strength
of their traditional power, and offers to the community a design
and implementation technique that recognizes the inviolability of
their inherent control.
vi
Conscious that insufficient and unsafe drinking
water and the lack of sanitation facilities
together contribute to diseases that cause death
among the world's poor in developing countries,
Realizing that the major consequence for the 1.5
billion people who presently live under such con¬
ditions is a heavy burden of disease, increased
suffering and hardship, stunted growth and develop¬
ment, and diminished productivity,
Conscious that the majority of people living in
poverty must survive with less than 10 liters of
water per person per day, compared to modern west¬
ern consumption of 350 liters per day per person,
Mindful that the difficult job of procuring and
rationing water is the responsibility of women,
where, as water carriers and water managers, the
daily collection of household water claims more than
one third of the woman's work day.
excerpt, U.S. Delegation Draft Resolution
Mid-Decade International Conference of
Women, Copenhagen, 1980.
INTRODUCTION
The Problem
Within the past fifteen years the development of urban and rural
'water supply and sanitation systems has become a major priority in
third world countries. Donor organizations have attempted to help
meet this need with implementation of a variety of urban and some
rural water supply projects. Donor projects of the fifties and
sixties concerned themselves, for the most part, with increase of
clean "potable" made available to mainly urban communities through
utilization^of higher technologies such as house taps and community
standpipes. The costs of such ventures however, precluded the
"'"World Health Statistics Report, WHO, vol. 29, no. 10, Geneva, 1976.
2
See McJunkin (1969) for a historical summary of USAID activities in
rural water ana sanitation programs from the mid-forties to -he mid-
sixties .
2
possibility of any truly massive campaigns.
Even more disturbing however, was the obvious failure of the re¬
cipient communities of water supply projects to take responsibility
for pump or fountain maintenance. OECD statistics indicate that
35 percent to 50 percent of pump installations ^n developing coun¬
tries are inoperable three to five years later. Realization of
this state of affairs belatedly identified the concerns of local
maintenance capability, levels of service to be rendered by na¬
tional and regional government, community participation and com¬
munity control, and health education, as majo^ factors to be con¬
sidered in project design and implementation.
This past decade has also witnessed a major shift in development
priorities. During the 1950's and early 1960's water supply and
sanitation installation projects were given low priority because
they did not directly contribute to economic development. Revalua¬
tion of the importance of basic human needs brought about a new
prioritizing of development activities in the late sixties and
seventies.
A direct outgrowth of these new priorities is the U.N. Declaration
of 1981-90 as the "International Decade on Drinking Water and Sani¬
tation". The stated objective of the Decade is to meet the needs
of the 1.5 billion people in the developing countries that do not
have access to adequate supplies of safe water or adequate sanita¬
tion facilities. The goal of the Decade is to bring clean water
and sanitation to all peoples of the world by 1990. These goals
depend upon the priority given to them by the countries themselves,
and the increased external cooperation of international donor or¬
ganizations in support of national country action.
The Declaration of the Decade itself has created a positive con¬
gruence between the political realities that shape the financial
directions of international aid and the new perceptions of the fac¬
tors and strategies needed for project success. In essence, all of
the pieces of the puzzle are present: the people and groups involved
in project design and implementation have become sensitized to the
complexities of the problem; correct theoretical components have
been discussed; and the monetary and political resources have been
brought together under the aegis of the Decade.
"'"Imboden, Nicholas, 1977.
2
U.N. Water Conference, Mar del Plata, 1977.
3See Ian Burton's "Policy Directions for Rural Water Supply in De¬
veloping Countries", AID, 1979, pages 1-3.
3
However, it is now necessary to bring together the well understood
technical necessities with these more recently understood social
factors. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to better define
the relationship and interdependencies that exist between the
technical^and social or behavioral factors in rural water supply
projects. A critical factor in this relationship is community
participation. However, despite a variety of studies that describe
a strong correlation between measured project success, both in terms
of productivity and social welfare, and effective community parti¬
cipation, there is no agreed upon definition of 'participation'
from which to proceed.
Because of recent increasing interest in 'women in development1
and because women in third world countries serve in the roles of
water managers and family educators, 'community participation' has
been extended to specifically include 'women's voices. This inclu¬
sion of women has been looked upon by some as merely politically
expedient, while others have viewed it as necessary from an equity
standpoint. However, it is the basic premise of this paper that
the active help and support of 'women must be sought and gained in
order to achieve success in rural water supply projects.
The clarification of the relationship between the technical and be¬
havioral factors will be accomplished through defining "what" com¬
munity participation is, "how" it works in rural water supply pro¬
jects, and "why" women must be included for project success and
continuing community controlled growth and development.
Community Participation: Recognizing the Meed is Different from
Knowing How
The high vulnerability of water supply and sanitation projects to
social and behavioral factors in terms of maintenance and use has
been well documented. Saunders and Warford (1976) note the dis¬
tressing rate of water supply system failures in the field.
Feachem (1978) brought to our attention the fact that although
the relationship between water and disease is widely acknowledged,
strict water supply and sanitation projects did not often have the
See, for instance, the Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI)
study, Strategies for Small Farmer Development. T.I. Bennell, OECD
occasional paper #8, 1979; Rowland, OECD occasional paper #6, 1978.
4
impact expected of them in terms of health. All of this has served
to focus interest in community participation for water supply and
sanitation projects. Gilbert White and Anne U. White note: that
"although there have been only a few systematic studies of the
circumstances in which new projects have failed because of lack
of receptivity by the user community, the^literature is replete
with anecdotal evidence of these events". M.G. McGarry states
that "participation was the key to success in bringing piped water
to over 150,000 villagers in the water scarce category at a cost of
less than $3 per capita.^ David Donaldson reports that one of the
three fundamental concepts for water supply and sanitation projects
in the Americas is "strong and active community participation in
the development, construction, administration, and financing of
the local systems".3 Anne Whyte states that "the role of commun¬
ity participation in making RWS (rural water supply) schemes more
acceptable to local people, and thus more likely to be maintained
and used, has changed from being a luxury to a necessity—or from
a question mark to accepted dogma.'"1
The need for community participation in rural water supply is ob¬
vious, the acceptance at the policy level is apparent, but the con¬
cept itself remains abstract. In other words, we know what we
need, we accept that we need it, but the question of how to achieve
it has not been adequately addressed. In fact, the IRC's Partici¬
pation and Education in Community Water Supply and Sanitation Pro¬
grams: A Literature Review (1979)^ de-scribes a disturbing but true
phenomenon.
White, Anne U. and Gilbert F. White, "3ehavioral Factors in Se¬
lection of Technologies", Appropriate Technology in Water Supply
and Waste Disposal, ASCE, 1978, pp. 26-27.
2
As quoted in Ted Jackson, "Rural Sanitation Technology", Assign¬
ment Children, 45/46, Spring, 1979, p. 59.
Donaldson, David, "Rural Water Supply in Latin America", Assign¬
ment Children, 34, April-June, 1976, p. 49.
4
Whyte, Anne, "Appraisal Study on the Relevance, Need and Feasi¬
bility of an Action Plan on Extension and Community Participation
in Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries", Revised, September,
1979, ?. 3.
^WHO International Center for Community Water Supply, prepared by
Christine Van Wijk-Sijbesma, 1979. This is the most comprehensive
publication to date concerning community participation and water
supply projects.
5
In spite of all our general "knowledge" about com¬
munity participation, it is still unknown how to
effect it in practice. This has led to a situation
where the expression "community participation" is
used very frequently to indicate a wide range of
ideas and actions. In fact, it has become so fashion¬
able that many people are beginning to feel a certain
aversion to it.l
Participation as a working concept continues to remain imprecise
and inaccurate in terms of methodology and objective.
Those who have studied appropriate technology for
rural sanitation agree that such an approach re¬
quires community participation. However, the litera¬
ture indicates a lack of agreement about what kind of
participation, and about participation by whom and
for whom.^ (author's italics)
This inadequacy of analysis is due partially to the superficial ac-
cessability of the concept itself in democratically governed soci¬
eties—"oh yeah, sure, let's have a meeting and ask them if that's
what they want". It is also ascribable to the different ideological
bases from which development projects in general and rural water
supply projects in particular have grown.3
Women as Community Participators
Because of increasing interest of 'women in development' at all
levels, and because women in third world countries have been rec¬
ognized, albeit somewhat belatedly, as representing fifty percent
of the human resource bank, community participation has been ex¬
tended to specifically include women's voices. Because of their
roles as water carriers, water managers, and family health educa¬
tors, their role in water and sanitation projects has been increas¬
ingly recognized over the past five years.4
^"Ibid. , preface.
2
Jackson, op. cit. pp. 55-56.
3Ibid., p. 56.
4
For instance, see United Nations Water Conrarence, "Water, Women,
and Development", Mar del Plata, 1977; Elmendorf, Mary, "Women,
Water, and Waste: Beyond Access",1980; Whiting, M. and Krystall,
A., "The Impact of Rural Water Supply Projects on Women", Care,
Nairobi, mimeo, no date. It is interesting to note however, that
there is little else that deals with 'women and water' as a major
topic.
6
In terms of recognition, acceptance, and expectations, the history
of 'women in development' is very similar to that of 'community
participation'. First came the theoretical definition of the
situation, then acceptance as a need at the policy level. Ex¬
pectation that implementation would naturally follow the new
policy definitions brought about a certain hiatus of movement.
For instance, in an East African country, a European based con¬
sulting firm designed a rural water supply project with specific
inclusion of women in the implementation process. Women were
added to previously all male committees for the construction
and administration of the village water supply. During a later
evaluation phase, project staff members commented quite plaintively
on the lack of participation of women, eyen though their inclusion
had been provided for in project design.x
Provision at the policy and design level is not sufficient. A
1978 World Bank publication on the socio-cultural aspects of
water supply and sanitation recognizes this conundrum. It ob¬
served that the manner and method of identifying and recruiting
participating populations was responsible for the quality and
quantity of genuine participation.
Recognition of local institutions around which par¬
ticipation can be mobilized is essential if communi¬
ties are to genuinely participate in identifying re¬
sources and methods for project implementation.
Committees locally selected according to custom
(not necessarily by a democratic vote) should be
involved in planning and organizing community par¬
ticipation. (author's italics)2
Community participation is a recognized factor in the success of
development projects. Women's contribution to their communities
have been recognized at international policy levels, and their
continuing contribution to their families, communities, and na¬
tion, through active participation in development programs is now
a recognized need and asset. However, if women are to success¬
fully participate in their own community and national development,
and thereby strengthen that process, their participation must be
based upon their traditional strength and power as defined in
their own cultures rather than an artificial tokenism expressly
created for them from the outside.
^Field communication, M. Dulansey.
2
Elmendorf, Mary, and Patricia Buckles, Socio-Cultural Aspects of
Water Supply and Excreta Disposal. The World Bank, September,
1978. This is the most comprehensive publication to date concerning
social and technical factors of project planning and implementation.
7
Local Learning Systems: A Possible Answer
In this paper participation is defined as the learning process
as communities deal with change and development. This is based
upon Paulo Freire's definition of the learning process of reflec¬
tion/action/reflection through dialogue.1 Using this definition,
it becomes clear that participation is the essence of the learning
process, and control of the knowledge outcome of this learning
process is the reason for community participation. This defini¬
tion explains why it is so important to project success, and
"what" community participation is all about.
The importance of the role of women in this community participa¬
tion or learning process in rural water supply projects becomes
apparent through field observation. In these projects the short-
term goal of increased quantity and quality of water for the com¬
munity, is dependent upon the community's willingness to use and
maintain the new water supply. Women as the traditional water
carriers and water managers play a powerful role in this situa¬
tion, although it often goes unnoticed and unremarked by Westerners
because of its indirectness. They decide whether to use the water
source and whether it is worth the expenditure of effort to main¬
tain or have it maintained.
The long-term goal of improved health of the family is dependent
upon changing community perceptions of the relationships between
water-borne diseases and the surrounding environment. But water
mediates other profound and sensitive issues within the community
that include those of social and religious significance. Thus,
the needed changes in community perceptions cannot be effected by
imported health education strategies, but rather must depend upon
the utilization of the indigenous and local learning systems of the
society. Women are most often the controller and purveyors in
these systems. Because these are "local institutions" in which
women have traditionally held power, they are a vehicle within
which the inclusion of women as participators and even leaders
is not artificial, but instead builds upon the traditional strength
of women in the community.2
Local learning systems provide a common denominator for the enu¬
merated factors that contribute to project success. Community
participation is the learning process that takes place in local
learning systems; technology use and maintenance is a function of
decisions made in the traditional water technology local learning
systems; health care perceptions and attitudes is a function of
the knowledge transmission in the community health local learning
^Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Seabury Press, 1970.
2
See Kulakow's "Mobilizing Rural Community Resources for Support and
Development of Local Learning Systems in Developing Countries" for a
description of how traditional communities are using this resource.
a
system; the inclusion of women as purveyors, teachers, leaders
in local learning systems is an accepted role for women in almost
any culture.
Therefore, a generalized conceptualization of the local learning
systems that are present in every community is discussed and
described in this paper as an operational framework that will
integrate the technical factors of technology and water supply
maintenance, with the social factors of community participation,
motivation, and learning. This generalized conceptualization is
actually a description of the components and process that any
local learning system of water technology and management, or
health, completes as it defines, decides, and possibly incorporates,
new information or new technologies.
The specific local learning systems of every community is where
knowledge formation and transmission, through dialogue and com¬
munity participation take place culminating in learning, change,
and development. Local learning systems is not anew definition, a
new technique, nor is it an explanation of a new phenomena. These
local learning systems have always existed in every community for
the transmission of current knowledge and the management of new
knowledge. These were the culturally specific informal education
and cultural transmission systems identified by early anthropolo¬
gists .
The management of new knowledge, or at least outside requests to
manage new knowledge has increased tremendously for most local
learning systems and they have sometimes changed because of this
pressure. Today, a specific local learning system may incorporate
only the traditional informal system of education, or it may in¬
corporate some nonformal systems. In some instances a community
local learning system may also incorporate certain aspects o^
formal education systems that meet specific community needs." But
specific local learning systems remain, for all intents and pur-
^"See for instance, Fortes, 1938; Herskovitz, 1938; Mead, 1930, 1941.
2
Formal Education: The highly institutionalized, chronologically
graded and hierarchically structured "education system" spanning
lower primary school and the upper reaches of the university;
Nonformal Education: Any organized, systematic educational activity
carried on outside the framework of the formal system to provide
selected types of learning to particular subgroups in the popula¬
tion, adults as well as children;
Informal Education: The lifelong process by which every person ac¬
quires and accumulates knowledge, skills, attitudes and insights
from daily experience and exposure to the environment. (Coombs
and Ahmed, 1974, p. 8)
9
poses, culture specific.
A generalized conceptualization of local learning systems is
still possible however, and can functionally describe a culturally
specific situation. It does so by capitalizing on the generali¬
zations available from focusing on the subject and issue area of
rural water supply itself, and secondly by capitalizing on the
generalisations available from the description of learning as a
process.
In terms of the 'learning as a process' generalizations, this
conceptualization, or "Local Learning System Operational Frame¬
work" is bas^d upon the theoretical work of Paulo Freire and
Ivan Illich. The Western or westernized school system is Illich's
focus. He contends that the lack of creativity therein is due to
a tendency to "confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement
with education, a diploma with^competence, and fluency with the
ability to say something new".
Paulo Freire, on the other hand, concentrates on the informal
education system of a village that is often characterized by
decreasing cohesion and inability to deal positively with the
increasing rate of change caused by the intrusive and powerful
nature of modern technology.
To help the peasant break away from the traditional
fatalism and feelings of powerlessness, Freire empha¬
sizes reflective thinking as the crux of the edu¬
cational program. He then introduces the concept of
praxis (reflection/action/reflection) as man's
real function: men and women are not objects to be
manipulated but are active, creative subjects with
the capacity to examine critically, interact with,
and transform their worlds.
Both Illich and Freire are critical of the ability of informal or
For an overview of the people who have contributed to the theory
of 'learning as a process', see Lyra Srinivasan's Perspectives
on Nonformal Adult Learning, 1977. For a discussion of how the
theory is relevant and should be implemented see Faure, et al,
Learning to Be, 1972.
2
Freire, Paulo. 1970, op. cit., and Education for Critical Con¬
sciousness , 1973. Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society?? 1971.
3As quoted in Sri.nivasan, 1977, op. cit., p. 2.
4
Ibid., p. 4.
10
formal systems of education to deal positively with change. This
criticism is aimed at both ends of the societal spectrum—from the
highly differentiated heterogenous technological societies to the
homogenous, cohesive, 'folk village'. The theories of learning
as process, or reflection/action/reflection through dialogue,
provides a basis for explanation of how change and learning
interact to produce development.
The development of new technologies and its introduction to third
world countries has made it even more necessary to understand
these interactions and inter-relationships. Denis Goulet char¬
acterizes new technology as the "two edged sword" that is both
"bearer and destroyer of values" for those communities where the
local system of education and learning is still wholistic in
approach.
How can groups experiencing modern technology for
the first time quickly create a new synthesis of
meaning and practical norms when advanced countries
themselves, after two centuries of familiarity with
techniques, have proved incapable of devising a
wisdom to match their sciences...
Societies initiating themselves to modern technology
lack the long familiarity with science and tech¬
nology which might enable them to make a new syn¬
thesis between these and their ancient wisdoms. And
they have no realistic hope of preserving unity in
their world of values by uncritically assimilating
, new techniques. Therefore, they are condemned to
social disruption unless they can successfully in¬
volve their entire populace in decisions regarding
tolerable value sacrifices to be made in accepting
proposed change.
A community's ability to "involve their entire populace" places
the emphasis on community participation as a learning process.
The Local Learning System Operational Framework is discussed as
Several AID commissioned reports directly or indirectly deal with
this Interaction. They include: Non-Formal Education and the Struc¬
ture of Culture, Michigan State University Program of Studies in
Non-Formal Education, 1973; Axinn, George, Non-Formal Education
and Rural Development, Michigan State University, 1976; Axinn,
George, Toward a Study of Interaction in Non-formal Education, no
date,
2
Goulet, Denis. The Uncertain Promise: Value Conflicts in Tech¬
nology Transfer, 1977, p. 22.
11
a 'possible answer' because it is an integrator of the social and
technical aspects of rural water supply projects, and focuses on
the interaction of learning, change, needed for adoption, steady
use, and continuing maintenance of new water supplies.
Use of this framework as an integrator of the technical and social
factors will clarify their interdependence in project design
and implementation, and the importance of community participation
for project success. The issues involved in the integration of
social and technical aspects of rural water supply, and the im¬
portant role of women are discussed in Section Three. The the¬
oretical implications and practical application of the LL3 Frame¬
work are discussed in Section Four. In Section Two present AID
activities in rural water supply are outlined, and in Section
Five, policy and program directions that will bring about further
success in the positive integration of the social and technical
factors of rural water supply are discussed.
If local learning systems can be utilized in the manner suggested
in this paper, it obviously has a larger applicability than just
rural water and sanitation development. However, because the
relationships between certain groups of people, i.e. women, and
certain tasks are directly observable, and these in turn are
directly related to certain bodies of knowledge concerning water
and health known to exist at the village level, a limited and
concrete inquiry is created.
But in a more general sense, it is hoped that this discussion will
contribute to a clearer definition of the relationship between
learning and development, and the role that both women arfc men play.
According to Kenneth Boulding it is the key element.
The recognition that development, even economic
development is essentially a knowledge process has
been slowly penetrating the minds of economists, but
we are still too much obsessed by mechanical models,
capital income ratios, and even input-output tables,
to the neglect of the study of the learning process
which is the real key to development.
Boulding, Kenneth. "The Economics of Knowledge and the Knowledge
of Economics", Collected Papers, 1971, p. 372.
12
AID ACTIVITY IN WATER SUPPLY PROJECTS
How is AID Involved and What Has Been Learned
In 1978 potable water activities of the Agency was chosen as one
of five evaluation topics in which all AID/W bureaus would co¬
operate. Under consideration were major commitments and expend¬
itures to assist potable water development during the 1980's.
The expressed reasons for the evaluation effort was so that "those
designing new efforts can learn as much as possible from the sig¬
nificant number of failures and the interesting successes in the
field".
A part of this effort was an evaluation of AID files. The result¬
ing publication, Patterns in Potable Water Projects, revealed num¬
bers and statistics of general interest.2 However, little informa¬
tion proved to be available concerning the issues of maintenance,
community use, or socio-economic and health data. Of the 91 pro¬
jects that were planned, active, or completed between 1960 and
1978, only 15 had specific evaluation studies completed.-5
Analyses, literature surveys, and seminars concerning water supply
projects took place in various bureaus during 1978-80. These
activities did not produce a body of applicable knowledge relevant
to the needs of project designers in the field. But it did pro¬
duce a most important consensus of what are the important issues,
and where Agency involvement is most appropriate. There is a basic
commitment#to:1) expanded rural water development; 2) more careful
evaluation; 3) greater emphasis on software components; 4) and a
greater emphasis on health education components.4
The draft Agency Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Paper states:
AID will support comprehensive water supply and sani¬
tation programs for the rural poor in developing coun¬
tries. In urban and fringe areas, capital intensive
and high technology water supply and waste treatment
"'"Dworkin, D. AID Airgram, "Potable Water: Results of AID Workshop",
1978, p. 1.
2
Patterns in Potable Water Projects: An Analysis of AID"s Automated
Data, prepared by Practical Concepts Incorporated, 1978.
3Ibid., p. 1.
4
Draft Agency Water Supply and Sanitation Policy paper, March 1980.
13
will usually be left to other donors; in urban and
fringe areas, AID will as a rule concentrate on the
software components of water supply and sanitation
programs.^
Interest in evaluation studies seem to have different emphases,
depending upon whether the people involved are project oriented
or policy oriented. Policy people have placed the emphasis on
development of overall evaluation methodologies, while project
oriented people are interested in 'does it work?, or doesn't it?'
Integrating these two specific concerns will hopefully bring about
more careful and explicit evaluation around the question, 'does
the system work, and is it maintained five years after installa¬
tion, or after project support has been withdrawn?' This is an
obvious success criterion, but one £hat in the past has not been
applied, especially in rural areas.
Expanded commitment to the software component of greater community
involvement and participation, although strengthened by equity
concerns, women in development, and basic human needs policy efforts,
is finally based upon the quest for success. The statement that
support and maintenance of community water supplies, especially in
rural areas, is not a technical question, but rather a social de¬
cision made by the community, has gathered increasing support
by all groups concerned with community water supply. Increasing
emphasis on the actual implementation of 'software components'
is therefore expected.
There is then consensus, direction, and strategies. Rural water
supply projects at the PP level often contain both evaluation and
community involvement strategies. For project evaluation, workable
implementation methodologies have begun to be developed. For
community involvement however^ there are few, if any, recognized
implementation methodologies. The literature and project design
papers are filled with statements that conclude that local partici¬
pation must be real rather than theoretical, and the margins are
replete with pencilled in comments of "how".
"'"Draft Water Supply and Sanitation Policy paper, op. cit. , p. 12.
2
Burton, Ian, 1979, op. cit., pp. 18-19.
^Ibid., pp. 14-19.
4
See Self, Social Analysis of Rural Potable Water Programs (1979)
for a description of the role of village participation on motiva¬
tion for project maintenance and a summarization of factors favor¬
able to community participation, pp. 7-9.
14
International Donor Activities and Research
Because of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
Decade there has been increased activity and research by all inter¬
national donor organizations. The activities of the Decade are
guided by a steering committee of seven different U.N. agencies
and is chaired by the UNDP.l Fifty countries have already prepared
national strategy reports for the Decade and have forwarded them to
the U.N. and UNDP coordinator Peter Bourne. The U.N. estimates
that $92 billion will be needed on a global basis to meet the water
supply goals by 1990, and another $40 billion will be needed to
meet the stated goals of sanitation. The developing countries
themselves will have to supply 70 percent of these funds, with 30
percent of the funds coming from international donor agencies.
The World Bank has given high priority to the Decade. In 1979, nine
percent of the Bank's total program was for water and sanitation,
and it is projected that the Bank will maintain the funding for the
water and sanitation program at $1 billion per year throughout the
Decade. It is interesting to note that funding for water and sani¬
tation programs from 1963 to 1978 totalled $1 billion at the Bank,
while in 1978-79 funding also totaled $1 billion, a good measurement
of the Bank's priorities.
In other U.N. agencies, the WHO Director has indicated full support
for the Decade and sees it as an integral part of "Health for all
by the Year 2000". UNICEF is currently spending 25 percent of its
budget on water and sanitation projects, and in research and project
implementation is emphasizing a "software orientation".
In research activities, interest has coalesced around four major
issues. They include: 1) evaluation; 2) community participation;
3) health; and 4) appropriate technology. There ar^ presently
seven studies either ongoing or recently completed. The OECD
project concerned with research experience in rural drinking water
projects, the IRC/Ross Institute project on methods for evaluation
Information concerning the U.N. agency activity was received from
Ambassador John McDonald, then U.S. coordinator for the Decade,
and Dr. John Kalmerbatten, Director of the World Bank's Energy,
Water and Telecommunications Department.
2
See Anne Whyte (1979) op. cit. for a complete analysis and descrip¬
tion of these seven research projects.
3
"Planning and Design of Rural Drinking Water Projects: a research
framework to analyze experience with rural drinking water schemes",
Nicolas Imboden, Sept. 1977. This is an excellent starting point
for anyone wishing to review RWS evaluation methodology.
of village water ^upply, and the UNICEF field evaluations of water
schemes in India, primarily focus on evaluation methodologies. A
UNICEF/WHO joint committee on health policy focuses o^ water supply
and sanitation as a component of primary health care. The World
Bank, study of rural water supply in eight developing countries is
described as a generalized 'observation investigation', and focuses
on affordable appropriate technologies through an eclectic research
design.
Although all of these studies consider community participation an
element to be considered, the World Bank study is the only one
in which substantive research has been carried out. It includes
publications enquiring into the correct social techniques that
stimulate community participation at the field level,5 ancj defini¬
tion and analysis of 'social information' needed at the project
design level to ensure valid community participation
The seventh study and the only one to focus specifically on community
participation is the International Reference Center (IRC) project on
extension and community participation in water supply and sanita¬
tion. 7 The xrc project is designed to accomplish three objectives.
"Evaluation for Village Water Supply Planning", Carincross, S.,
Carruthers, I., Feachem, R., Curtis, D.C., and Bradley, D., 1978
draft.
2
Phase I (1974-76) overview of UNICEF assisted projects in RWS
in India starting with Tamil Nadu project. Phase II is designed to
study issues concerning community acceptance and participation,
and impact on health.
"^"Water Supply and Sanitation Components of Primary Health Care".
Consultant draft report submitted to Meeting of Temporary Advisors,
WHO, Geneva, June, 1978.
4
"Eight Case Studies of Rural and Urban Fringe Areas in Latin America",
May 1979. This paper is only one of a series issued by the Energy,
Water, and Telecommunications Department. The entire series is
one of the most comprehensive efforts to date.
^Elmendorf and Buckles, 1978, op. cit.
°"Social and Behavioral Aspects of Water Supply and Waste Disposal
Project Work", June, 1979. In terms of AID project design it is
also interesting to review Perrett's, "Social Analysis and Project
Design in the Agency for International Development", 1978, for social
analysis guidelines.
"^Whyte, Anne, 1979 op. cit.
16
It includes review of current work and programs; developing guide¬
lines, based on community participation, for improved extension
and formulation of an action plan for furthering international
efforts in this field.
The literature review prepared by for the IRC, Participation and
Education in Community Water Supply and Sanitation Programs, was
completed in March of 1979 and gathers together all of the literature
in this inter-disciplinary field. The body of the book offers a
review of the existing literature, thereby reviewing to some ex¬
tent, relevant field experience, while the introduction puts to¬
gether a synthesis review. It thus accomplishes the first IRC
objective.
Continuing work towards the second objective includes development of
a set of guidelines for extension workers in community participa¬
tion, which was developed in conjunction with the 'slow sand
filtration project'. Written by Alistair White and revised by
Hermione Lovel, the report provides an overview and checklists
for extension workers, but tends to be generalist in nature.^
An 'appraisal study' that begins formulation of action plans so that
the IRC project development of theory and strategies can be trans-
lated into community implementation plans was written by Anne Whyte.
She concludes that "how to do it" is the most neglected and the most
urgent question.
The consensus of direction and strategy on the international multi¬
lateral aid scene is similar to that of the Agency's. The needs,
in terms of better evaluation and better community participation
form a congruent and coherent multi-national objective.
AID Involvement in the U.N. Declared Water Decade of 1981-90
In 1978 AID projected its support for the U.N. International Drink¬
ing Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, over the coming ten years,
at about $2.5 billion. Presently because 1980's financial environ¬
ment is so bleak in terms of foreign aid, and because the $2.5 billion
was understood to mean new and increased funding, there has been a
retrenchment of that goal. Although the Decade is to be supported,
^"Participation and Education in Community Water Supply and Sanita¬
tion Programs, 1979, op. cit.
2
White, Alistair (1978) and Lovel, Hermione, (1978) as quoted in
Whyte, Anne (1979) op. cit.
^Ibid., included in Annex A is 'Summary of Hypotheses about Com¬
munity Participation in Rural Water and Sanitation', taken from
Whyte (1979).
17
in terms of Agency priorities there seems to be a ma]ority con¬
sensus that "water" does not rank with the other enumerated pri¬
orities of energy, health, food, and population. There is, however,
a strong minority opinion that "water" is competing with health
projects for funding, and deserves to be taken from under that um¬
brella and a separate office be created for its administration. It
is felt by this group that "water" is a far larger development issue
than health because it is considered to be a basic building block
for all development efforts.
At this point the U.S. expresses full support for the Decade and
there is definitely preparation and planning for it within AID.l
But it will most likely not reach the earlier planned or hoped for
goal. Present project support and funding seems to bear out the
diminished funding point of view, in 1979, AID planned 70 water
supply and sanitation projects in 33 countries, and in 1980 activ¬
ities are programmed for 44 countries. Total AID funding for water
and sanitation projects in 1979 was $158,035 and $170,537 in 1980.
However, in 1981 total funding will be $146,900, a fairly signifi¬
cant decrease in funding that in 1978 was envisioned as substanti¬
ally increasing through the early years of the Decade.2
In summary, although retrenchment of financial assistance seems to be
a certainty, USAID in terms of its emphasis on rural water supply
and software components has in principle, addressed itself to the
most difficult area and most complex subject of the Drinking Water
Decade. If committed Bureau staff people can negotiate the diffi¬
cult shoals of financial constraints^ and place their diverse re¬
sources squarely on implementation, in all its complexity, the goal
of truly aiding national governments in attaining Decade goals may
indeed become a reality.
^"The WASH RFP and its imminent funding as a four to five year project
is indicative of AID preparation for Decade activities.
2
Figures obtained from Ambassador John McDonald, U.S. coordinator
for the Drinking Water Decade.
3One of the most difficult aspects of these financial constraints
is the tendency, despite policy emphasis of software components,
to allocate a greater percentage of the financial resources to
tangible installations, disregarding the known social and behavioral
risk factors. For an excellent analysis of how equal emphasis and
integration of the technical and social factors may actually accel¬
erate construction, see Burton, (1979) op. cit., pp. 29-30.
I
18
THE SOFTWARE ISSUES OF RURAL WATER SUPPLY
Goals, Objectives, and Expectations
There is a series of interlocking steps and patterns in all develop¬
ment activities. The same pattern is found at each level or step,
and each reinforces the others. In considering the largest sphere,
the context and objectives of international development have changed
radically in the past fifteen years. The capital intensive tech¬
nology tied to 'trickle down' theories of development have given
way to appropriate technologies tied to equitable distribution of
goods and popular participation in self development.^-
In the United States' sphere, the "New Directions" strategies legis¬
lated by the 1973 United States Congress directed AID to make its
programs more responsive to the poor majority in recipient countries,
improving their access to resources and services so that the poor
could "better their lives through their own effort".2 ^t the same
time, new objectives of effective local participation in development
projects brought about new expectations of more equitable distribu¬
tion of goods for all people. Effective local participation 'for
all people' was further defined as 50 percent female through the
recognition of 'women in development'.
The objective of this report, congruent to the interlocking steps
and patterns of the larger development arena is to describe at a
more specific level and in the interests of more successful rural
water projects, what community participation is, how to accomplish
it in these projects, and how women can be effectively included in
this participation. The most basic issue is, of course, success or
failure of the rural water supply project. Woman's role, both as
she affects the project, and as the project affects her, has not
been adequately defined.
Rural Water Supply and the Concerns of Women
Until 1972 water supply construction and technology were the major
emphases.in any water project. The publication,in that year, of
See Rogers, "Communication and Development: the passing of a Para¬
digm", 1976, Communications Research, vol. 3-, no. 2, 1976, pp. 213-
240.
2
See Section 102(b), (c), (d), of the FAA, as quoted in AID Agricul¬
tural Development Policy Paper, June, 1978, p. 6.
19
Drawers of Water: Domestic Water Use in East Africa described and
defined the entire gamut of issues that were to be given importance
in the coming decade. The issues included water use, the social
cost of obtaining it, health of the user and the quantity vs. quality
quandary, and user choice of water sources. The definition of these
issues for the first time outlined the role of women in water supply
projects.
Before 1972, during the time of construction and technology emphasis
in water supply, water quality was considered to be the most important
component because of its perceived relationship to better health. The
convenience brought about through improved access and reliability
were secondary, as were the possible health benefits of greater
quantities of water. Women as passive beneficiaries of the project,
and their assent, along with the reliability of the technology, was
assumed.
The realization that the reliability of the water system could not
be assumed, and in fact rural water installations were failing at
an appalling rate made its way from the field level to the inter¬
national level via documentation by White et al (1972)2 and Saunders
(1976).3 This in turn led to new priorities and the formulating of
major resolutions at the 1976 U.N. Habitat Conference in Vancouver,
and the U.N. Water Conference in Mar del Plata. From that point
forward, the provision of reliability, improved access, and in¬
creased water quantity would be regarded at least as important, in
terms of project success, as the point installation of a water sys¬
tem that would provide potable water. These changing priorities
have increasingly emphasized the role of women in rural water supply
and sanitation, but this inter-relationship has not been adequately
explored and acknowledged. The four major issues that are relevant
to women's needs and power structure are briefly discussed below.
The Convenience Factor
Access and. reliability of the water source are key factors as women
White, Gilbert F., David J. Bradley, and Anne U. White, Drawers of
Water: Domestic Water Use in East Africa, 1972, University of Chicago
Press. This is a bench mark publication, and its elucidation of
issues is as relevant today as at its publication date.
2
White, et al, Ibid.
"^Saunders, Robert and Jeremy Warford, Village Water Supply: Economics
and Policy in the Developing World, John Hopkins University Press,
1976, Baltimore.
20
decide whether they will use the water source. Report after report
has stated that given several choices, including traditional sources
and improved sources, the closest source is almost always chosen.
In many areas this means that the improved source may well be used
by all during the dry season, but those farther from the source im¬
proved will go back to seasonal traditional sources that are closer
during the wet season. This decision is not hard to understand, if
it is recognized that women are not only the water carriers but also
the water managers. In less developed countries, human energy is
finite and stretched to the breaking point. For women the demand¬
ing workload seems almost infinite, and the fact that convenience is
a major factor in decisions of use should come as no surprise.
The World Bank has recently recommended that projects that must com¬
pete with seasonal traditional sources that are more convenient than
the envisioned new installation be given a low priority. Thus ac¬
cess, as it applies to convenience, is now a recognized major factor
that determines project success through use and maintenance. The
role of women as water managers concerned with efficient use of
time is obvious but was not specifically commented by the Bank pub¬
lication.
Health and Quantity vs. Quality
Until the middle 1970's the criterion of convenience was consistently
over-ruled by water quality criteria in the name of health. It was
believed that strict attention to water quality was necessary to
achieve the health benefits that were known to aggregate around pure
or potable water. However, research published in the 1970's brought
to issue the one-sided emphasis on water quality as opposed to that
of water quantity. Feachem (1978) and Brisco (1977) found little
proof for the long held assumption that diarrheal disease was trans¬
mitted primarily through the water source. On the other hand, large
numbers of studies reviewed by White et al (1972) and Saunders (1976)
showed diarrheal disease decreases with increase in availability of
water.^ Feachem states that non-water borne diarrhea, skin and eye
infections, which are all major causes of morbidity, "are reduced
by increasing the quantity, availability, and reliability of the
See White, op. cit.; Carol Ayad, "Social Soundness Analysis of
Potable Water Interventions in the Central Tunisia Rural Develop¬
ment Project Zone, AID, 1978; Grace Hemmings, Tangaye Water Study,
AID, 1978; Paula Roark, "Social Soundness Analysis of the Upper Volta
Village Water Supply Design Project", AID, 1978.
2
See George Self's "Social Analysis of Rural Potable Water Programs",
AID, 1979, for a helpful integration of current research on the re¬
lationship between water supply, sanitation, and health.
21
water supply almost irrespective of its quality". He then postu¬
lates :
Therefore a general rule can be postulated that all
low-income water supplies should strive to bring
abundant quantities of water near to or into dwell¬
ings throughout the year.1
The importance of this statement is borne out by two facts. Ade¬
quate amounts of water for effective control of water washed diseases
ranges from 20 to 80 liters of water per capita per day.2 Rural peo¬
ple without tap connections or standpipes use anywhere from a little
over a liter to 25 liters.3 However, for those people that live more
than a kilometer from the water source, daily use is usually about
10 liters per capita, while those more than 5 kilometers away exist
on about 5 liters of water per day.4 Access, then, is a key factor
for possible health benefits.
There are several interesting studies currently being carried out
concerning quantity/quality of water and its relationship to health.
One of the more interesting is taking place near Hyderbad in India.
Three paired villages in three agro-climatic zones of the semi-
arid tropics have been studied, extensively, for agricultural and
socio-economic information, with no interventions, since 1975. Water
samples of the wells in all three villages were taken and were shown
to be contaminated to the highest measurable level with 'e coli'.
Subsequent parasite studies of the village populations, consisting
of stool samples from adult head of households and children showed
however, that the rate of parasite infection in each village popula¬
tion follows the agro-climatic zones. In other words, the village in
the A Kola district with 35 wells per village and an assured annual
rainfall of 900-1000 had the lowest rate—25 percent—of parasite
Feachem, R. G., "Water Supplies for Low-Income Communities: Resource
Allocation, Planning, and Design for a Crisis Situation", in Water,
Wastes, and Health in Hot Climates, Feachem, McGarry, Mara, eds.
John Wiley and Sons, London, 1977, p. 86.
2
White, et al, op. cit., 1972.
3
White, Anne U. , "Patterns of Domestic Water Use in Low-Income Coun¬
tries", in Feachem, McGarry, Mara, eds., op. cit., p. 96.
4
See Ayad, 1978, op. cit.; Hemmings, 1978, op. cit.; Roark, 1978; op.
cit.
^See AID Evaluation Study of Guatemala, by Daniel Dworkin, June, 1980.
22
infection. The village in the southern Mahahrastra district with
four wells and a non-assured rainfall had the highest rate of para¬
site infection, with 75 percent to 85 percent of the village popu¬
lation suffering from parasites. The village with intermediate rain¬
fall and 15 wells in the village had a parasite infection rate of
about 50 percent of the population.
ICRASAT Research Scholar, Patricia Bidinger, is presently in the
process of developing a research program to evaluate causal hypo¬
theses. Of course, the over-riding hypothesis is water quantity,
but there are other interesting factors that would further elucidate
the relationships. They include: number of trips to the well and
subsequent storage; type of storage receptacle; and finally, the
fact that the most northern village, where the lowest levels of
parasite infection are found, also has a guru that incessently asks
people to wash their hands.
More attention is also being paid to the fact that water, potable at
source, is not necessarily so by the time it is drunk. Observations
at well sites yield the following types of information.
The Ghanian woman approaches the well from the river
path. She has obviously decided to travel the extra
1/4 kilometer for water from the CIDA^ small bore
well rather than stopping at the ponds that are just
now beginning to hold water at the beginning of the
rainy season. She shakes hands with the foreigner
sitting under the tree while still holding the empty
metal pail on her head. She then takes her pail to a
trough of runoff water and swishes the pail out with
her hands. She puts the pail down beside her on the
red sandy mud and talks to neighbors while she awaits
her turn. A child painstakenly dribbles equal amounts
of sand into each of the three waiting buckets. In
turn she fills her pail and sets it down to finish
the conversation. A village dog arrives and drinks
unnoticed from the bucket; the child then carefully
adds more sand, and then finished with the job, rinses
his hands.
Just as she is about to leave, an old man walks by.
The woman hails him and offers him a drink. The
man willingly obliges and scoops up several hand-
fuls. The dog decides to try again but is noticed
''"Field Communication, Patricia Bidinger, Research Scholar, ICRASAT,
Hyderbad, India, May 198C.
2
CIDA—"Canadian International Development Agency."
23
this time by the old man and is shooed away. With
a quick smile to the foreigner, she places the pail
on her head, smooths her pagne, and slowly moves ^
down the path to her compound, 1/2 kilometer distant.
Recognition of the prevalence of these types of situations has led
to an increased emphasis of health education components in many
RWS projects. Emphasis of the faecal-oral process that transmits
diarrheal diseases and is decreased by greater quantities of water,
irrespective of quality has increased, while explanation of the
germ theory that accompanied water supply projects emphasizing wa¬
ter quality has decreased. The World Bank for instance has developed
a diagram that describes 'behavioral loopholes in the water-use
process', or practices in water use that allow for contamination.
Despite these changes in orientation, the emphasis of project health
education components still focuses on water quality. Therefore,
the advantages of increased water quantity is rarely mentioned to
communities as they consider new water supplies. For a village that
must decide between increasing hand dug wells or relying on hand
pumps dependent upon regional maintenance teams, this is a valid
and important piece of information. Exterior emphasis then, on
certain types of health information and objective, limits community
choices as to the ideal mix-for-them of quantity, quality, access,
and reliability that a specific water technology can offer.3
Field observation, team visit to CIDA rural water supply project in
northern Ghana, July, 1978, Paula Roark, Social Analyst, Upper Voita
Village Water Supply Project Design Team.
2
Perrett, Heli, "Social and Behavioral Aspects of Water Supply and
Waste Disposal Project Work", draft, June 1979-Jan., 1980, World
Bank publication, Diagram 1.
3This situation also tends to remove women from active participation
and responsibility in areas where they have traditionally been most
strong. In Perdita Huston's Third World Women Speak Out, 1979, she
documents interviews throughout the world where women categorically
state that they are most interested in knowledge and skills pertinent
to nutrition, hygiene, cultivation, and health care. Anne White (1977),
op. cit. documents that "there is considerable evidence that a woman
in selecting her source picks what she considers the best quality for
her family". Anne Whyte of Toronto, in "Towards a User-Choice Philo¬
sophy in Rural Water Supply Programs", Carnets de 1'Enfance, vol. no.
34 argues that it is just this mix of quality factors, quantity fac¬
tors, social cost and energy factors, that has already established a
user choice hierarchy in the traditional water system.
24
Maintenance
When it became apparent that Murphy's law not only applied to rural
water supply projects, but that it was even especially applicable,
maintenance was recognized as the all important variable in the
success of rural water schemes. Maintenance failure is many
faceted, but can be basically classified into three factors—tech¬
nology, capacity, and motivation.1
The concept of a correct technological "fit" between community and
technical equipment used to provide water is the simple side of
the maintenance spectrum. Every so often when a water supply in¬
stallation fails the problem may well be a straightforward case of
inappropriate technology. However, in rural water supply the tech¬
nology itself is rather simple, so most of the problems of main¬
tenance revolve around such questions as: there are no spare
parts; the regional repair person hasn't come in two months be¬
cause his Landrover is broken down or doesn't have gas; the water
tastes salty; the motion of the pump is too tiring for people to
operate; the pump is sited in an area where spirits or genies are
known to gather. All of these are questions of 'capacity'and 'mo¬
tivation ' .
—The word "capacity" is used here to cover a number of
shortcomings and deficiencies in national rural water
supply programs which result in a reduced capacity or
incapacity to undertake the maintenance function ade¬
quately.
—More could be done effectively if the ingredient of
"motivation" were more prevalent at the community level.
By "motivation" in this context, we have in mind a series
by social considerations which adversely affect the
performance of rural water supply systems.2
These then are the complex factors of the maintenance spectrum. The
extent of women's input into these factors are only now being recog¬
nized. This input in the area of motivation is in actuality a broad
outline of the subject of this paper, and is discussed throughout.
However, there are several issues, specifically in terms of technol¬
ogy and how it relates to capacity and motivation, that are es¬
pecially relevant to women and their responsibilities.
Women have been, in most instances, effectively barred from the
''"Burton, Ian, 1979, op. cit., pp. 19-26.
2
Ibid., p. 19 and p. 24.
25
planning, design, and implementation transactions that concern
technical design or maintenance of a project. This situation has
been rationalized by alluding to the cultural inappropriateness
of including women in this type of work. In reality, however, it
is a synergetic relationship between the weakened but continuing
Western concept that man's work is technical work on the one side,
and the developing country's attitude that 'men's work' and 'wo¬
men's work' although similar, if not the same, in the nature of the
task, are actually separated in terms of workforce. This gives a
situation where project design teams assume that women have not
been included in planning and design meetings because they tra¬
ditionally have no role or responsibility in the matter at hand.
Men from the developing country, on the other hand, will not wish
to include women, nor will women wish to be included because of
the culturally traditional sex separated work force.
But women have traditionally played a strong role in traditional
technology decisions. In most West African countries the women
construct small temporary water source structures during the rainv
season that are closer to their homes than the dry season source.
In northern Ghana and southern Upper Volta, it is the women who
decide when a new permanent water source is needed, and then they
approach the men to decide together how it can be accomplished.
In another Voltan ethnic group the women play a symbolic role in 2
their group's efforts to attain sufficient rain from the rain gods.
Translation of this traditional responsibility into roles as
supervisors and planners in current projects is certainly the ex¬
ception. In Bolivia, young women are in complete charge of repair
and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities.^ In Peru, wo¬
men are laying pipe as construction workers for their community
systems, and in some areas are involved in leadership roles.4 In
East Africa, women have in some instances been involved in planning
and design.^ However, as Elmendorf points out, women-oriented
''"Field communication, Josephine Gissou, Voltan sociologist, 1978.
2
See Social Analysis, Upper Volta Village Water Project, Roark, op.
cit., 1978.
"^Elmendorf, Mary, "Women, Water and Waste: Beyond Access", 1980, p. 11.
4
Personal communication, Bucky Northrup, Program Officer, Latin
America, CARE.
^See Whiting, M. and Krystall, A., "The Impact of Rural Water Supply
Projects on Women", CARE, Nairobi, no date.
26
projects, although easily replicable, have not become the model.
She states: "Usually women-oriented projects last through one
administration at most. Others dwindle as private agencies change
focus"
If these types of projects, where there is essentially a co-
responsibility between men and women reminiscent of traditional
work divisions, have not flourished, the question must be asked
why. The answer is found, at least partially, in the modern main¬
tenance sector and its diversive strength.
The maintenance sector has been strengthened both by sanitary en¬
gineers, often in the past proponents of high technology, and the
newer wave of experts who advocated 'appropriate technology'.
Sanitary engineers saw as their first objective the provision of
potable or high quality water. To achieve this objective in rural
areas, they were dependent upon the simple technology of handpumps.
The possibility of maintenance failure, therefore, was not rele¬
vant to them, the emphasis was on site construction, and capacity
was overlooked.
The proponents of 'appropriate technology' focused on maintenance
failure in their designs of "easily installed and easily main¬
tained" water installations. But they seemed to forget if there
are no spare parts there is no repair. Once again, in the name of
an admirable objective, the real capacity of the government was
overlooked, and the importance of the reliability of a village-
water source was underestimated. Literally and figuratively, women
were left in the middle holding the bucket.
Reliability of the water source is essential to life. As long as
the maintenance sector can afford to ignore the necessity for re¬
liability of each specific water source, they can also ignore the
needed role of women in maintenance. But if the maintenance of
the new improved water source is not sufficient to provide that
reliability, the users will return to the traditional sources.
If women are not included in the planning and implementation of a
modern water source, as they have been in the past for traditional
water sources, their motivation to use the new source will be
limited. If the maintenance is given over to an untested and un¬
controlled agent, from the village point of view, should women
1Elmendorf, Mary, op. cit., 1980, p. 11.
27
take a chance and go along? Many village women (and men) think
not.^/2
The Scope and Substance of Community Participation
The definition of community participation, how it is related to
project success, and why women must be included to achieve this
success, is the central question of this paper. In this sub¬
section the historical progression of community participation as
an element of development will be briefly traced. Its relation¬
ship to project success will be discussed and its relationship
to development ideologies will be examined. Finally, participa¬
tion, defined as the learning process by which communities deal
with change and development, will be described as an integrative
framework for the social and technical factors of rural water supply
projects.
This point of view concerning necessity for water source reli¬
ability was expressed to the author in many villages in Upper
Volta, and several in Ghana. Because the other issues discussed
in this section are not bound to a specific geographical area,
this issue is also expressed as a general concern. It is left
to the reader's judgement how well this applies in areas they are
familiar with.
2
Two issues that are important to women but are beyond the scope
of this paper have not been included.
The first issue is that of economic or monetary return from freed
time that women experience as a result of improved access and re¬
liability of improved water supply. These figures—and they do
exist—are based on assumptions that have not been proven or ob¬
served. They are essentially figments of the imagination of those
who must prepare cost benefit analyses in support of rural water
supply projects. The best analysis, incorporating what other work
has been done and based upon real figures and complete evaluation
is Dennis Warner's Evaluation of the Development Impact of Rural
Water Supply Projects in East African Villages, Chapter six,
"Productivity Benefits", 1973.
I
The second issue is cost benefit analysis as it applies to evalua¬
tion of capital intensive technology and labor intensive technology.
David French in "The Economics of Renewable Energy Systems for
Developing Countries", 1979, points out the importance of choosing
the correct level of discount rate for correct analysis (p. 41).
He concludes, "the principle holds that low interest rates in them¬
selves are the friend more of sophisticated(Continued next page)
28
For a number of years development workers have reported observations
of community participation that seemed to bear directly on the suc¬
cess of the project. In a 1964 AID report from Thailand the fol¬
lowing observations concerning the success of a potable water pro¬
ject and unsolicited community participation are reported.
One interesting by-product accomplishment has been the
involvement of the village community development com¬
mittee in the process of soliciting village support in
the initial phases of the potable water system, and their
involvement in the management of system following con¬
struction. The direct involvement of these committees
is apparent in all too few villages, but where the com¬
mittees are involved, the systems are generally better
managed than when they are inactive.1
During the next decade a variety of studies began to prove that there
was a strong correlation between measured project success, both in
terms of productivity and social welfare, and effective local parti¬
cipation.^ Each of these studies however, emphasized a different
context and facet of local participation. At this point, there seems
to be agreement that community participation is essential to project
success, but there is still no agreed upon definition from which to
proceed. A Cornell University report, prepared for AID, describes
the dilemna.
After undertaking many hours of discussion and a thorough
review of relevant literature in economics, sociology,
and political science over the past ten years, we are
properly impressed with the complexity of "participation"
as a concept and we can understand better why so much
confusion surrounds the use of the term. It is no wonder
that practitioners find it difficult to promote or even
report on "participation" when academics disagree so on
the scope and substance of the term.^
(Cont.) technologies than of simple ones". Project decisions be¬
tween modern hand dug wells and small bore hand pump, based on
cost benefit analysis must be aware of these implications.
''"Engineering consultant report, Thailand, USAID, 1964.
2
See citation number one, page three of this report.
"^Co'nen, John, and Norman Uphoff. Rural Development Participation:
Concepts for Measuring Participation' for Project Design, Implementa¬
tion, and Evaluation, Cornell University Rural Development Com¬
mittee, 1976, USAID Report, Technical Assistance Bureau, p. 1.
29
Definitions of discussion of community participation in all of these
disciplines have centered around either technique or philosophy.
Participation and its philosophical implications for development
was first discussed as a separate topic at the 24th session of the
United Nations Economic and Social Council's Commission for Social
Development in January of 1975." The report concluded that although
there was no specifically accepted definition of popular partici¬
pation, it does refer to three distinct, but closely related fac¬
tors in the development process. It includes: mass sharing of the
benefits of development; mass contribution to development; and mass
involvement in the decision making process for development.^ it is
the second and third factors that will be more completely examined
in the following discussion.
Technique as Definition
The techniques of participation have been clearly defined and be¬
cause of this, have often been used as a definition of participa¬
tion per se. These techniques fall into two groups. The most
widely known and accepted are those of identification of local
leadership and decision making strategies. In essence, 'local
leadership' techniques consist of identifying leaders of the com¬
munity and enlisting their aid in design and implementation of a
project, with the hope that the local people will see fit to support
the identified leader in his new endeavor. Decision-making strate¬
gies usually focus on the interaction between the local leader and
community people as decisions are made whether to support the pro¬
ject.-3
The emphasis on local participation in adult nonformal education
components of integrated rural development projects in the 1960's
and 1970's led to development of new techniques, and was based
upon the view that the local participants were active agents rather
than passive recipients.4 The community participation technique of
U.N. Economic and Social Council. "Popular Participation and Its
Implications for Development", Progress Report of the Secretary
General, Commission for Social Development, January,1975.
2Ibid., p. 4.
2See Popular Participation in Development: Emerging Trends in Com¬
munity Development, U.N., Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
1971, pp. 1-22, for a discussion of past, present, and possible
future trends in 'community development' and participation.
See Srinivasan, 1977, op. cit., for a discussion of the learning pro¬
cesses of nonformal education and their major theoretical proponents.
30
'problem posing' introduces the process of praxis-reflection/
action/reflection—through which local people become aware of
their own power, and look critically at their own community
situation. They then take steps to change that which is judged
negative.1
At one end of the spectrum then, community participation is pre¬
cisely defined as technique, while at the other end community parti¬
cipation is generally defined as the development goal or philosophy.
In actuality, community participation is both technique and develop¬
ment philosophy, but neither definition is helpful in identifying
the crucial relationship that the correlation between project suc¬
cess and effective local participation indicates exists.
Definition and Ideology of Participation
2
In the AID funded report, "Rural Development Participation" an
Paulo Freire, 1970, op. cit., develops the theory of praxis as
learning process. Goulet, 1977, op. cit. calls our attention to
the difference between technocratic 'problem solving*and Freire's
'problematizing1. He states: "But the problem solving stance fa¬
vored by technology differs totally from the revolutionary "prob¬
lematizing" stance. This important difference is repeatedly invoked
in the writings of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. According
to Freire, one can know truly only to the extent that one 'proble-
matizes" the natural, cultural, and historical reality in which one
is immersed. And how does "problematizing" differ from technocratic
"problem-solving"? In problem solving, an expert steps back some
distance from reality, breaks it into and analyzes its component
parts, devises means for solving difficulties in the most efficient
way, and then dictates a strategy or policy. This approach Freire
contends, distorts the organic totality of human experience by re¬
ducing it solely to those dimensions which can be treated as mere
difficulties to be removed.
To problematize, on the contrary, is to engage an entire populace in
the task of codifying its total reality into symbols capable of gener¬
ating critical consciousness and empowering them to alter their rela¬
tions with nature and social forces. Problemsolvers who break
reality down into parts remain outside viewers of that reality and
are unable to grasp the totality surrounding them. But problema-
tizers see themselves as part of that totality; in addition that to¬
tality is itself subject to the influence of their own actions once
they gain a new critical understanding of it." p. 19.
2
Cohen and Uphoff, 1976, op. cit.
31
attempt was made to objectively define the local participation pro¬
cess. This analysis of what components exist as participation takes
place is informative and useful because it does not fall back on
technique definition, nor does it generalize itself into a statement
of philosophy. Their approach is to establish and assess measurement
and evaluation indicators. The 'basis', 'form', 'extent', and 'ef¬
fectiveness* of participation are the proposed indicators.
The basis for participation is described through analysis of the
impetus and motivation for participation. Impetus is characterized
as either coming from the bottom up, or from the top down, while
motivation is seen as a continuum from voluntary to coercion. The
bottoms-up participation is seen as more likely to be voluntary,
while the top-down participation is more likely to have elements of
coercion.
The form of participation has two dimensions: 1) the extent parti¬
cipation occurs at the group level, or the individual level; and
2) the degree of organizational complexity. The extent of parti¬
cipation depends upon the intensity of involvement as measured by
time spent, and number and range of activities. The effectiveness
of participation is measured by the degree of power that^project
participants have to make their participation effective.
Explanation of the 'basis' of participation in terms of impetus and
motivation identifies a crucial interaction among philosophy, tech¬
nique, and methodology that has contributed to the "complexity of
participation as a concept". The fact that impetus is defined as
having two directions—from the bottom up, or from the top-down—
encompasses the ideological arguments concerning both technique and
philosophy of participation.
Local leadership techniques use 'from the top down' directions and
were first seen in the early community development strategies of
the 1950*s. Here the development objective was on aggregate econo¬
mic objectives, and the development philosophy or ideology empha¬
sized local "input" rather than local "control". On the other hand,
the problem posing and participatory research techniques use 'from
the bottom up' directions to achieve greater distributional justice
or social equity through local control and capability. Thus choice
of participation techniques were often dictated by the overall
development philosophy of the project staff or organization, rather
than the needs of a particular project.
Because of this direct relationship between development philosophy
''"Ibid., Chapter four, pp. 1-20.
32
and choice of participation technique, the objective description of
participation methodologies is made even more difficult. Moreover,
the difficulty in arriving at objective descriptions of participa¬
tion methodologies has been almost, totally attributed to the prob¬
lem of cultural specific demands of participation. This is most
certainly a factor to be reckoned with. But the intertwining of
development philosophy and choice of participation technique is
also a major factor that has contributed to these difficulties of
definition, and one that has not been recognized. This factor is
illustrated in field observation of rural water supply projects.
Service Projects or Development Projects
Rural water supply projects have divided into two camps of develop¬
ment ideology, based upon the project staff perceptions of the
objective of the project—service or development. Service pro¬
jects can be defined as those which involve no social change of the
community in order to receive the project outcome, and the people
have essentially given their consent. Service projects call for only
minimal participation techniques of local leadership promotion for
success. Development projects however, are defined as those which
demand social change in the community to receive the project outcome
or reward. Development projects call for the major community parti¬
cipation strategies of problem posing and participatory research to
define the needed social change, and community decisions whether to
make those changes.
Service projects in rural water supply have successfully used local
leadership techniques to promote community participation in the
financing and construction of water supply. This strategy has been
most successfully used in South America.
Once the community has been selected, the program
promoters assist the community leaders to organize
and conduct their campaign to elect and establish a
local water board. Its responsibility is to obtain
a community contribution of labor and/or cash which
will serve to reduce construction costs, and to organ¬
ize and supervise the community's efforts to build
the system which has been designed by the national/
regional program.^
Development rural water projects, by definition, have dealt with
larger and more encompassing objectives. Whyte points out that "we
are not only concerned with water as a commodity but as a focus for
a whole set of beliefs, values and rules. In bringing a rural water
"'"Donaldson, David, op. cit., 1976, p. 49.
33
project to an area, we are bringing not just new techniques, but
new concepts about the relation of water to health and disease
and new formats for organizing the community.
Again, in South America the community participation techniques of
problem posing and participatory research have been successfully
used.
Local people, leaders, and students were active partici¬
pants in identifying community problems through struc¬
tured and unstructured interviewing, observing, and
listening in Chan Kom... Through this use of such a
technique, the "researched" became "researchers". When
this kind of problem solving approach accompanies the
introduction of a technology, a dialogue is established
between the potential users of the technology and the
agency facilitators or social scientists involved in
project promotion. Community participation becomes an
active concept in which instead of being "targets" of
a delivery system, people take part in the change pro¬
cess . ^
User perception of the project is the correct criteria for classi¬
fication of a rural water project as "service" or "development",
and not as has often been the case in the past, project staff or
organization development ideology. The rigid inflexibility of
development ideologies has contributed to the non-success of many
projects. The person totally committed to a "top-down" development
ideology, stereotypically cast as an engineer, will decide that it
is a service project: "more water is better, therefore, we are ob¬
viously providing the community with a desired service". The person
totally committed to a "bottom up" ideology, stereotypically cast
as a social scientist, will decide that it is a development project:
"more water is a change, therefore, we are obviously dealing with a
development project..." The point is of course, that each side can
point to their own group of project successes and claim that they
are right, thereby totally losing focus on what should be the central
issue for project success—user perception.
Community Participation as the Learning Process
when community participation is defined as the learning process by
Hfayte, Anne, "Towards a User-Choice Philosophy in Rural Water Supply
Programs", Carnets de l'enfance. Vol. 34, April-June, 1976.
2
Elmendorf, Mary, and Patricua Buckles, op. cit., 1978, pp. 45-46.
34
which communities deal with change and development, the necessity
to measure this change from the point of view of the potential user
is further understood. Using Paulo Freire's definition of this
community participation learning process as reflection/action/
reflection through dialogue, it becomes clear that participation is
the essence of the learning process, and control of the knowledge
outcome of this learning process is the reason for community parti¬
cipation.
With this definition in mind, it becomes clear why the description
or classification of the project from the user standpoint, dictates
community participation techniques. As long as the water project
is regarded as a service or good by the community, the top-down
approach of local leadership is sufficient because community assent
has already been achieved.2 This assent exists because the com¬
munity has come to certain decisions through its local learning sys¬
tems. All that remains is the communication of information for
organization of resources, for which local leadership strategies
are well suited.
If, however, the objective is perceived by the community to require
reorganization of presently held social beliefs and community or¬
ganization, it means the community has not yet begun the process of
choice and change in its own system. In this case, problem-posing
and participatory research participation techniques that will
facilitate this learning and decision process are in order.2
The inclusion of women as community participators is automatic when
this process is undertaken. Women traditionally hold power in the
learning process as teachers and purveyors. In rural water supply
and sanitation projects, women's roles are especially strong in
the specific local learning system pertaining to traditional water
technology and health. Thus community participation, under this
.definition, capitalizes on women's traditional community roles and
Progress in the Americas, in terms of rural water and sanitation
projects has slowed considerably according to WHO 1975 statistics.
3urton (1979 op. cit.) discusses the problems of dispersed popula¬
tions as an underlying reason. A complementary reason would be
that in these situations community assent is more difficult to achieve,
and more tenuous to maintain. It may be then that all of the serv¬
ice projects have already been undertaken, and the ones that are left
are the 'development' projects that demand more time and money and
risk a greater chance of failure, dependent upon community decisions.
2
See Mary Elmendorf's and Patricia Buckles' discussion in 'Research
Design and Approach' of "Socio-Cultural Aspects of Water Supply and
Excreta Disposal", op. cit., 1973, p. 3.
35
strengths.
Finally, when the objective of community participation is defined as
the control of the knowledge outcome, the relationship that exists
between project success and effective community participation is
explained. It is simply community control of the new knowledge.
Successful development projects are able, often unwittingly, to have
their information processed through the local learning system so
that the outcome is change or knowledge that results in community
controlled growth and development. Unsuccessful projects, because
of recipient or user perceived irrelevance, or even danger, are
never connected to this system and process, and therefore, the
project remains peripheral and unconnected to community growth and
development.
36
RURAL WATER SUPPLY AND LOCAL LEARNING SYSTEMS
In rural water supply projects as in other development projects,
design and implementation staff are aware of the importance of
community participation and other social factors, but it is dif¬
ficult to integrate these rather amorphous "software components"
with the easier defined and measured engineering and economic
"hardware components". Organization of these disparate hardware
and software parts into an organizational system is needed. The
World Bank has begun description of such a framework, because its
lack was found to be detrimental to project design. As justifi¬
cation for this study the World Bank describes the present situa¬
tion.
The review suggests that, although World Bank staff
working in water and waste section are generally aware
of the importance of social and behavioral factors,
they may encounter difficulties in incorporating such
awareness in project design and implementation decisions
...They are without an operational framework for inte¬
grating social and behavioral factors with engineering,
economic and institutional issues, and with the project
cycle itself.^-
The Bank publication examines "how a sharper focus on the social and
behavioral aspects of projects might improve project design and
better^ensure that the target populations receive the intended bene¬
fits." Through the resulting examination a general framework is
established through guidelines, procedural^reccmmendations, and
development of "socio-technical packages".
This paper, focusing on the need for participation in rural water
projects, develops an 'Operational Framework' that synthesizes the
factors of technology, maintenance, local learning systems, and
community participation. As an integrated whole it provides in¬
formation in terms of inter-relationships and interactions of the
Perrett, Heli, "Social and Behavioral Aspects of Water Supply and
Waste Disposal Project Work", World Bank publication, draft, 1979-
80, p. v.
2Ibid., p. i.
2Ibid., p. iii, also see Diagram 2A, "The Software/Hardware Ap¬
proach to Water/Wastes Services", p. 70.
37
parts, and explains "how" community participation works in rural
water and sanitation projects.
This Operational Framework is a generalized conceptualization of the
local learning systems that are present in every community. It can
functionally describe a culturally specific situation, through first,
capitalizing on the generalizations available from the conceptual¬
ization of learning as a process, and secondly the generalizations
available from focusing on the subject area of rural water supply
itself. The framework is thereby able to explain and clarify to
a greater extent how the lack of integration, or the type of inte¬
gration, for the software and hardware components, affects success.
In this section and background for the Local Learning System (LLS)
Framework will be discussed, the Framework itself described, and
specific uses for project design and implementation will be explained.
The LLS Operational Framework
The analysis of four components provides an understanding of local
learning systems as an operational framework, and how it can inte¬
grate hardware and software components. These components are:
—The Technology Analysis Component
—The Participation Component
—The Information Component
—The Knowledqe Outcome Component
The organization of these disparate hardware and software components
into an organizational system also identifies those project areas
where design and implementation staff can successfully have input in
community participation, and where they cannot. This in turn enables
the project staff to make more effective decisions with greater pos¬
sibilities of success. The following analysis of each of the LLS
components will clarify, in terms of community participation, the
integration and interaction of the technical and the social aspects
in rural water supply project design and implementation.
The description and analysis of the four components that together make
up the Operational Framework is described below.
—The Technology Analysis Component. Describes the present
water technology and its learning system, and compares it
to the project proposed water supply technology. Through
this description and comparison, the type and amount of
social change necessary for the new water supply to be
used and adopted can be identified. For project imple¬
mentation, this description serves as a guideline for the
type of project it is, and what community participation
techniques are appropriate. The identification of the
38
local learning systems also identifies the traditional
power base of women in the community.
In rural water and sanitation projects, the local learning systems
pertaining to traditional water^technology and health at the com¬
munity level can be identified. The identification of these local
learning systems provides the cultural specific information needed
for project success. The World Bank previously cited publication
has pointed out the need for collecting "social information" that
would be of direct use in rural water and sanitation project de¬
sign and implementation.2 The Project Analysis Component of the
LLS Framework is self directing in its emphasis on information that
is of direct use. Questions asked concerning local learning systems
that would indicate community motivation include:
1. Is there management of the existing technology?
2. Is there control of information at the community level?
3. Is the new technology incremental in change?
4. Is the new technology congruent to present water
values and water organization?
Questions asked concerning rural water institutional resources that
would indicate regional and national capacity include:
1. Is there a national rural water supply institutional
infrastructure?
2. Is there a regional resource and administrative in¬
frastructure?
3. Is there a maintenance infrastructure with a local
or regional manufacture of pumps?
4. Is there regularly scheduled and maintained service,
with supply of parts to existing water supply points?
These questions are asked always in reference to a specific traditional
See Anne Whyte, op. cit., 1976. In this article she explains user
choice systems. "My starting point is that rural areas already have
user-choice systems. Each area and each community, in some cases
over thousands of years, has developed a traditional user choice
system that is finely adjusted both to the forms and processes of
the physical environment and to the social and economic context of
the community. The traditional user choice system is based on de¬
tailed knowledge of the area and community, and accords with the
users values and understanding. We would do well, therefore, to
examine traditional user choice systems in order to design an improved
system that embodies an understanding of water use, water organization,
and water values, p. 30.
2
Perrett, Heli, "Note to Stafr", June, 1979, p. 1.
39
water technology and a proposed new water supply technology.
The new water technologies that can be considered include: modern
hand dug wells; drilled small bore pump wells; drilled motor pump
cistern wells; drilled pump well with gravity flow piped water;
village fountains, patio connections; and house taps.
—The Participation Component provides a working defini¬
tion of community participation that is precise in both
objective and methodology. Community participation is
defined as the learning process of reflection/action/
reflection through dialogue. This definition provides
designation of the tools needed to effect change, an
explanation of why community participation is so im¬
portant to project success, and provides clearly defined
areas of action for project planners and implementors.
The actual community process of community participation is, by its
very nature or definition, community controlled and directed. There
can be no successful direct input from the exterior. This is obviously
a limitation that one is sometimes tempted to try and overcome,
through the best of intentions. But finally it is a limitation that
must be recognized as inherent in the need for community controlled
management of new knowledge, and evolvement of new but shared com¬
munity perceptions. This control factor also explains why community
participation is crucial to project success. Without control of the
knowledge outcome there can be no integration of the new information
into existing knowledge systems, and thus no evolving community
perceptions that are more congruent to project technical installations.
This control of the knowledge outcome and resulting changes and de¬
velopment is the ultimate objective of community participation. Rec¬
ognition of the objective for the community also provides the metho¬
dology for both the community and the project staff. That methodology,
simply put, is facilitation of learning. The final two components of
this Operational Framework concern themselves with different aspects
of this process.
—The Information Component aids the knowledge transforma¬
tion process, central in any local learning system, as
it begins. In rural water supply projects, the objective
is technology control and value choice. Provision of
information to strengthen the process and objectives is
a valid input from project implementors. Women are in¬
cluded at this level because they are the managers of
the traditional water systems.
This component represents the community participation technique of
the problem posing process and participatory research that encourages
needed community dialogue for learning, decision making, and value
40
choices. Some of^the methods that have been used to deepen this
dialogue include:
—public meetings led by local officials, often later
breaking into smaller groups for discussion;
2
—study teams working as part of the local committee;
—individual interviews with feedback for group decision
making;
--group interviews;
—seminars;
—visual documentation;^
4
—drama and culture festivals.
The process encouraged by this community participation technique has
been described earlier as "problematizing". It is reserved for those
rural water supply projects that are 'development' projects which,
"makes it necessary for the presumed beneficiaries of technology to
express their values and aspirations before choices are made".^ If
these value choices are not made, the new water supply will remain
peripheral to village life, and the familiar scenario described below
comes into existence.
The community has not really accepted or adopted the
new water supply system. It is "their system" and
"their taps" and "their pumps" and not "ours". It is
an alien thing. So when it needs repair, let them re¬
pair it. And when spare parts are required, let them
supply them or find them. Before long the system fails.
First some components go, then others. Finally, no water
^"Jackson, Ted, op. cit. , 1979, p. 65.
2
See for example, Elmendorf and Buckles, op. cit., 1978.
^For example, "village books" have been mentioned by a number of field
workers and researchers as successful.
4
A good example of this type of technique is found in, "Popular Theatre
and Participatory Research", by Z. Krai, et al, Bosele Tshwaraganang
Publications, no. 12.
^Goulet, Denis, op. cit., 1977.
41
comes from the tap or standpost. The community goes
back to the old sources, and once again the women and
small children are to be seen laughing and chatting
at the well or by the stream, and carrying clay pots
of water on their heads back to the family compound,
scarcely noticing the abandoned standpost as they go.
Project implementors must be aware of the objective and process of
community participation as the learning process, and the techniques
which facilitates this. Only then can they provide sufficient in¬
formation and correctly focus the direction of the information. For
example, in this type of project, the role as controllers of the local
learning system, is crucial. Staff must direct all relevant informa¬
tion not only to the local leadership council where women may or
may not be represented, but also to women and men responsible for
the ongoing effectiveness of water and health local learning systems
as they presently exist in the community.
—The Knowledge Outcome Component defines the validity
and limitation of community leadership strategies.
Community leaders are empowered to communicate to
outsiders community derived knowledge, and communi¬
cate to the community acquired outside information.
Misuse of these strategies using leaders to initiate
and control new knowledge leads to failure.
The fourth component of the local learning system, knowledge outcome,
is related to the community participation technique of local leader¬
ship and decision-making strategies. Leaders of a community are
given the role of communicators to the outside world, and are ex¬
pected to explain their community to outsiders. To do this they ex¬
press their community knowledge outcomes. They also reverse this
role and come back to the community and express the knowledge outcomes
or perceptions of the outside world to their community. In develop¬
ment work community leaders are the only contact that foreign aid
workers normally have with a community. The tendency to inflate the
capacities of these groups well beyond the boundaries of their legi¬
timate power and capabilities is normal, given the lack of easy access
to others within the community group.
This fourth component of the LLS Framework—knowledge outcome—is help¬
ful in defining the validity and the limitations of community leader¬
ship strategies in rural water supply projects. As stated earlier,
as long as the community regards the new water supply as a service—
one where the technology change is minimal and requires little organi¬
zational or social change in the community—community leadership
"Burton, Ian, op. cit., 1979, p. 26.
42
strategies are sufficient. In other words the knowledge outcome
and the assent of the community have been arrived at, and the com¬
munity leaders are empowered to communicate that assent to the
exterior project personnel. The project staff, in turn, will legi¬
timately utilize the community leadership as their conduit for infor¬
mation back to the community. In this situation project requests
for financial and construction support are successful.
Problems, however, arise when leadership techniques are asked to
perform beyond these boundaries. If the project is a 'development'
project and involves substantial organizational and social change,
an individual leader's assent cannot be taken for community assent.
Even where the assent is recognized as individual, but it is assumed
that he or she will be able to initiate and control forthcoming
community assent, failure is inevitable. Misuse of the leadership
community participation technique in this manner is common, and
contributes greatly to project failure.
In summary, the LLS Operational Framework unites, through the
interactions and inter-relationships of its four components, the
disparate issues of technology, learning and change, community
participation and the inclusion of women, into a workable system.
The framework establishes the type of community participation de¬
manded by a specific project, and the resulting level of interde¬
pendence of the hardware and software aspects of successful rural
water supply projects. (See Table 1, p. 44 ). This in turn estab¬
lishes guidelines for more successful design and implementation.
Utilization of the LLS Framework
Irregardless of whether rural water supply project designers stress
hardware or software approaches, the ultimate vaiable in determining
the success of a project is the maintenance element. The possibility
of maintenance failure is usually the result of one of chree fac¬
tors—technology, capacity, and motivation.^ Appropriate water sup¬
ply installation can be fairly easily defined in terms of technical
hardware components. Regional and national capacity levels are more
complex, but can be adequately analyzed through quantitative measure¬
ments of the software components of institutional and organizational
service capacity and economic cost benefit analysis. But similarly
adequate analysis of motivation at the community level is most dif¬
ficult .
Using the Technology Analysis Component of the LLS Operational Frame¬
work as a process and content guide, motivation and capacity check¬
lists and measurements are constructed. A checklist of questions,
based upon the descriptive explanation of a specific project's com¬
munity local learning system indicates community motivation. A
"""Burton, Ian, op. cit. , 1979, pp. 27-30.
43
second checklist of questions, based upon descriptive explanation
of the same specific project's rural water supply institutional
resources, indicates regional capacity. These two checklists,
taken together, provide a first approximation of the amount and
type of change a specific rural water project implicitly expects
of the community and region, (see Table 2). This first approxima¬
tion is sufficient to define the project as a "service" or "develop¬
ment' project with corresponding designation of correct community
participation techniques.
In using the Motivation and Capacity Checklist, an AID Mission or
project design team might decide to analyze several villages or
communities in a proposed project area. Using a proposed technology
as a reference point, say for instance, gravity flow piped water
with patio connection, the analysis and measurement would take place
in the following manner.
First, description of the rural water supply national plan, its in¬
frastructure, resources, and organizational management capabilities
would be prepared. Second, a description of the present existing
water supply technology in the chosen community would be described
with its attendant local learning and management systems described.
Present user choice systems and underlying patterns for these choices
would also be described. In essence, this is a description of social
analysis procedure associated with any Agency project identification
or project design paper. With one difference—the type of informa¬
tion gathered is pre-identified, and will not change according to
hemisphere and continent; the content of that information, will of
course, greatly vary. The variation will not only be seen country
to country and region to region, but even village to village. The
Framework, on the other hand, by calling for the same type of in¬
formation to be gathered, increases the possibility of relevant na¬
tional and regional research as this body of similar information grows.
When the description of the rural water supply institutional resources,
and the community local learning system surrounding the present tech¬
nology are completed, the four indicators that measure community
motivation and the four indicators that measure regional or national
capacity can be answered yes or no_. A "yes" answer for all eight
indicators would indicate a 'service project'. A "no" answer on all
eight indicators would obviously indicate a 'development project'.
Each combination of yes^and no answers would define either a service
or development project.
This includes all enumerated technologies mentioned earlier. The
only exception would be 'modern hand dug wells'. Indicators seven and
eight are net necessary for this technology, so it would be classified
a 'service project' with four "yes" indicators.
TABLE 1
LOCAL LEARNING SYSTEM OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK
--Component II, "Technology Analysis", through questions that measure
motivation and capacity to maintain and use a proposed rural water
supply project, indicates whether the project can bo classified
'service' or 'development'. If the project is a service project,
the minimal community participation strategies utilizing local lead¬
ers, component *4, are sufficient for project success. If the project
is classified as development, community participation strategies that
encourage the entire participatory learning process must be utilized
for project success.
Presently, what often happens is that 'development' projects attempt
to use the minimal community participation strategies suitable only
for service projects, thereby ensuring project failure. There is also
always the possibility that a 'service' project might use the more
profound participation strategies of 'development' projects thereby
incurring unnecessary cost to both community and project. This, how¬
ever, is the rare instance.
44
TABLE 2--MOTIVATION AND CAPACITY CHECKLIST
'Motivation'
1. yes no Is there management of the existing technology? This indicator measures the existence
or absence of traditional or adapted techniques used to manage the water supply environment.
2. yes no Is there control of information at the community level? This indicator measures the con¬
trol of information the community has. If the information is found to be one-way, either
in or out, there is an absence of control. Two-way information indicates dialogue, and
some form of control.
3. yes no Is the new technology incremental in change? This indicator measures the amount of tech¬
nical change between the existing water supply technology and the proposed new technology.
Incremental change that does not demand new organizational patterns is considered to be
ideal.
4. yes no Is the new technology congruent to present water values and water organization? This in¬
dicator measures the congruency of new organizational patterns and values demanded by new
technology to existing knowledge patterns.
'Capacity'
5. yes no Is there a national rural water supply institutional infrastructure? This indicator mea¬
sures the existence or absence of budgeted and professionally staffed national institu¬
tions responsible for the improvement of rural water supply.
6. yes no Is there a regional resource and administrative rural water supply infrastructure? This
indicator measures the existence or absence of adequately budgeted and staffed institu¬
tions at the regional level for the improvement of rural water supply.
7. yes no Is there a maintenance infrastructure with a local or regional manufacture of pumps? This
measure indicates the existence or absence of an adequately budgeted maintenance department
within the national and regional institutions.
8. yes no Is there a regularly scheduled and maintained service, with supply of parts to existing
water supply installations? This indicator measures the existence or absence of demon¬
strated regular scheduling for maintenance service and a regular supply of parts. Norm¬
ally this would mean access to locally or regionally made pumps.
45
46
—Eight "yes" indicators service project
—Seven "yes" indicators service project
—Six "yes" indicators, if evenly distributed between
motivation and capacity service project
—Six "yes" indicators, unevenly distributed between
motivation and capacity development project
....excellent chance of success
—Five "yes" indicators development project
If proper participation mode is followed—good chance
of success
—Four "yes" indicators development project
If correct participation mode is followed and
institution building is addressed..fair chance of
success
—Three "yes" indicators development project
poor chance of success
—Two "yes" indicators redesign project
--One "yes" indicator redesign project
Certain answer clusters will undoubtedly appear again and again, and
therefore deserve some specific comment. In Africa, and countries
where the majority of rural water supply projects revolve around
communities that presently use hand dug wells or surface water, the
project often proposes a change to drilled small bore pump wells.
The Motivation and Capacity Checklist would probably show that mo¬
tivation indicators 1 (management of existing technology) and 2 (con¬
trol of information) would be given a "yes" answer, while indicator
3 (incremental change) and 4 (congruency) would be given a "no"
answer. The capacity indicators would probably register "yes" for
5 (national infrastructure) and 6 (regional infrastructure) and "no"
for 7 (maintenance infrastructure) and 8 (maintenance service). The
final measurement, 4 "yes" indicators, is a common type of 'develop¬
ment' project that presents problems because it is often designed
with only minimal community participation techniques.
One solution is to change the proposed technology to modern hand dug
wells, and the project classification is quickly changed to a service
project, 6 "yes" indicators = service, (indicators 7 and 8 are not
necessary for this technology). National governments and villages
are sensitive to this "congruency=service" issue. For instance in
the project design process for the AID Upper Volta Rural Water Supply
Project, governors of regional development areas and the Director of the
National Water Agency ("HER") strongly voiced approval of modern hand
47
dug wells as short term measures to provide greater quantities of
water to rural populations. This consensus was based upon the
knowledge that "HER" did not presently have the infrastructure to
adequately maintain large numbers of hand pumps, and the observation
that modern hand dug wells were more "congruent to the present life
style of the village".1 Villagers too, during the same design pro¬
cess, indicated great interest in the fresh and clean water pro¬
vided by the small bore pump, but then voiced the opinion that it
too often broke down no-one in the village could fix it, and that
there was not enough money to send someone to find a repairman.
If a change to a more congruent technology is not possible, deci¬
sions must be made as to what chance of success the development pro¬
ject will have. For minimally adequate chance of success both 1 and
2 motivation indicators must have plus ratings. For instance if 1
management of existing technology—does not exist, it will be extra¬
ordinarily difficult to identify local learning system purveyors
and teachers. If only the capacity indicators 5 and 6 exist without
any indication that there is some development of local or regional
pump manufacture, future maintenance, after project support is
finished, remains doubtful.
In other areas, such as South America, where large amounts of aid
have been dispensed to build the institutional capacity for rural
water supply projects, a different group of answer clusters will often
appear. In this situation, often all four capacity indicators will
be measured "yes", while only 1 and 2 of the motivation checklist
will receive this answer. As noted earlier, six "yes" indicators
(1-2-5-6-7-8) with uneven distribution between the checklists is
classified as a "development project" with excellent chance for success.
Often, however, this type of project has been considered a "service
project" with the minimal community participation strategies of local
leadership considered sufficient. If this happens, the technology
may well be maintained by the exterior agency, but it does not mean
that the technology will be used or maintained by the community as it
was intended.
The rural water and sanitation project of Chan Kom, described by Mary
Elmendorf and Patricia Buckles seems to be an excellent example of a
project that would receive the description of six "yes" indicators
(1-2-5-6-7-8) resulting in a 'development project' classification.
Their decision to go beyond the minimal local leadership strategies
and involve the women, men, and children of the community in "parti¬
cipatory research" techniques of local participation, enhanced im¬
measurably the chances of project success. It seems that motivation
"'"HER Proces Verbal de la Reunion du 20 Juin, 1978 pourtout sur le
projet "Hydraulique Villagoise dans 1'Quest Volta" .
48
indicator 4 congruency did not exist, but through community partici¬
pation, encouraged by correct participatory techniques employed by
project staff, it was developed.
The LT.S Framework and Health Education
The description of the LLS Framework in this section has concerned
itself with rural water supply, specifically the use and maintenance
of the technology involved. However, it can also be used for design
and implementation of the health education components of water supply
and sanitation projects.
Traditional health care delivery systems are now recognized as viable
systems and starting points for further improvements of primary health
care.^- This recognition is invaluable because the traditional health
care system of every community includes a local learning system, which
is one of the most easy to identify. In fact, for those communities
where little or no management of traditional technology seems to ex¬
ist, making it more difficult to identify the water technology learn¬
ing system, exploration and entrance into the health local learning
system may well suffice for decisions concerning technological and
health care change.
When using the LLS Framework for design and implementation of health
education components of water and sanitation projects, each task that
the Framework performs for the technology components would be similarly
performed for the health education components. For instance, the
'Technology Analysis Component' would become the 'Health Care Analy¬
sis Component."
Describes the present primary health care and its learning
system, and compare it to the project proposed health
education components. Through this description and com¬
parison the type and amount of social change necessary for
the new health education components to be adopted and
used can be identified. For project implementation, this
description serves as a guideline for the type of project
it is, and what community participation techniques are
appropriate. The identification of the primary health
care local learning system also identifies the traditional
power base of women in the community.
The local learning system concept, in this instance at least, can be
For an excellent discussion of these issues see, "Reaching the Rural
Poor: Indigenous Health Practitioners are There Already", by 3arbara
Pillsbury, AID Program Evaluation Discussion Paper Series, no. 1,
1979.
49
easily transferred, and in actuality both uses should positively
reinforce the other.
Finally, in summary it can be said that the LLS Operational Framework
incorporates the hardware technology with the software motivation of
the community into an integrated design tool. It indicates proba¬
bilities of success for different technologies and health education
strategies, and is an implementation tool that guides the type,
amount, and^direction of information through community participation
techniques. It continues to offer women the strength of their tra¬
ditional power, and offers to the community a design and implementa¬
tion technique that recognizes the inviolability of their inherent
control.
It would seem that the local learning system concept, its definition
of community participation, and its insistence upon the needed in¬
clusion of women, would serve well as an ex post facto descriptor
and evaluator for such proposed studies as "Effectiveness in Primary
Health Care Programming: A Study of Community Outreach and Partici¬
pation", by Barbara Pillsbury, PPS/E/S Working Paper, no. 15, 1979.
2
An excellent discussion of the need for community control in water
supply is found in "Water Supply and Community Choice", Anne Whyte
and Ian Burton, Water, Wastes, and Health in Hot Climates, Feachem,
R. et al eds. op. cit., 1977.
50
POLICY AND PROGRAM DIRECTIONS
Policy for AID
Presently AID policy statements attest to the importance of the soft¬
ware components in rural water supply projects. For instance, the
Draft Agency Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Paper (March 1980)
makes apparent the relationship between water supply and sanitation
and the Agency's basic human needs and development goals. It also
makes clear AID's recognition of the importance of software components.
AID has been a leader in recognizing the many "software"
components of water supply and sanitation programs in
developing countries, and has for a long time designed
programs that take them into account. Major software
components include development of national and regional
water and sanitation policy and plans, training, hygiene
education, the promotion of community participation, the
integration of water and sanitation with nutrition and
health activities, etc. In many externally financed
programs these components are considered as afterthoughts
when in fact, they are usually crucial for a program's
success.
Until recently, little acknowledgement has been made concerning the
motivation behind community participation at the village or community
level. In an AID's publication, "Policy Directions for Rural Water
Supply in Developing Countries", 3urton summarizes the issues.
Careful selection of technology, career opportunities in
water supply, strong commitment by national governments,
and other actions at the national level can help ensure
that motivation exists to build and maintain water sup¬
plies .
Success seems more likely to be assured, however, if the
motivation and understanding extends all the way to the
village level. This can be achieved with increased at¬
tention to health education, to genuine community parti¬
cipation, and by making sure that knowledge of the social
and cultural aspects of community life in relation to
water supply is developed and used in program planning
and project design.
"'"AID, Draft Agency Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Paper, 1980, p. 11.
2
Burton, Ian, op. cit., 1979, p. 29.
51
In view of the foregoing discussion in this paper concerning the
importance and role of community participation, and in view of the
Agency's interest and leadership in the software component area,
several further clarifications and recognitions are needed. There¬
fore, it is recommended that it be AID policy to:
(1) define success of rural water supply projects as
continued full use and maintenance of the water
source five years after project support has
ended. In other words, maintenance and use, as
inter-related factors would be the critical variables
in evaluation studies;
(2) recognize that community participation as the learn¬
ing and decision process that engenders village or
community motivation to use and maintain the water
supply is crucial to the achievement of this level
of success;
(3) recognize that women play, as traditional water mana¬
gers, a crucial decision making role as to whether
the new water source meets their standards of reli¬
ability and access, and therefore, whether it should
be used and maintained;
(4) recognize that women play, as teachers and purveyors
in the local institutions surrounding traditional
technology and family and community health care,
crucial roles in the learning and development pro¬
cesses of the community as a whole;
(5) recognize that women then, must be involved as active
participators, in the community participation pro¬
cess that engenders motivation to use and maintain
the new water source.
These statements further articulate the basis upon which successful com¬
munity participation strategies can be built. In essence, they provide
a working definition of community participation which, of course, is
essential to all methodologies and strategies formulated to achieve
this goal.
Program and Project Guidelines
The need for program and project guidelines is obvious. Presently, AID
project design teams in rural water supply have two choices. The first
is to design a project that pays only lip service to the complex factors
discussed in this paper, and essentially opt for a 'technical' project.
This is accomplished by carefully and minutely defining all of the tech¬
nical and economic consideratiohs of the proposed project accompanied
52
by project attainment schedules that focus on water supply installa¬
tion. At the same time only general statements that community parti¬
cipation will be promoted through local leadership strategies, and
that women's lives will be improved through lessening of drudgery
and improvement of family health. Given the time constraints and
professional pressures of design teams, the 'technical project' is
too often the choice, despite policy statements to the contrary.
The second choice is to consider and integrate the factors described
herein, but the lack of existing frameworks for social and technical
factors of rural water supply often frustrates this decision. There¬
fore, program and project guidelines based upon the LLS Framework
offers AID missions and project team members a 'first approximation'
framework from which the important questions of project success, as
measured by use and maintenance, can be addressed.
Guidelines for AID Country Missions
The following guidelines are general considerations provided by the
LLS Framework.
1. Service or development project. Country missions
should ascertain whether future projects can be classified as a
"service" project or a "development" project. This can be measured
using the LLS Framework. If measurements indicate that it will be
perceived as a service project by the future users, the Mission can
successfully use the present standard set of guidelines for com¬
munity involvement based upon local leadership participation strategies.
If however, the measurements indicated that it should be classified as
a development project, the Mission, for success, must further refine
their options.
2. Service Project. The first option that the AID
mission has is to re-evaluate the water supply technology envisioned
for that project and choose a lower technology. The lower level of
technology, if incremental and congruent in improvement, would move
the project from a development to a service classification. For
instance, this would most likely happen when a rural handpump pro¬
ject is changed to a modern hand dug well project. The positive fac¬
tors in such a decision would include: greater quantities of water
than presently available for the project area; much greater possi¬
bility of project success in terms of use and maintenance variable;
less need for complex and expensive project planning to incorporate
massive software implementation.
3. Development Project. The second option that the AID
mission can decide upon is recognition of the changes at the village
"'"AID, Draft Agency Water Supply and Sanitation Policy Paper, 1980,
p. 17.
53
level that this project would engender as a development project.
Extra funds, more time, and explicit integration of hardware and
software components would be necessary adjuncts of a decision to
pursue such a project.
4. Program Orientation. If an AID mission finds them¬
selves with a series of rural water supply projects that are classi¬
fied as 'development', every effort should be made to change from a
short-term 'project' emphasis to a long-term 'program' orientation.
The application and approval of funding would change from discrete
project approval to the ongoing incremental program building and fund¬
ing of a long-term rural water supply program that would include a
variety of specific projects. This would promote the incorporation of
social and community participation factors into project design and
implementation in the most efficient and qualitative fashion possible.
Guidelines for Project Staff
Rural water supply project design and implementation guidelines can
also be based upon the LLS operational framework. The LLS measure¬
ment indicates what type of community participation techniques will
best promote and facilitate the community controlled participation and
learning process needed for project success. The value of this
measurement for designers and implementors is that it defines, and
through its definition, limits the input and effect that the project
can in reality achieve. Guidelines can be placed in three classifi¬
cations: constraints, valid inputs, and scheduling.
1. Project Design and Implementation Constraints
—Direct control in terms of project acceptance and
success through community participation and learning
remains with the community.
—Project staff can only indirectly affect this process
through community participation techniques.
—The community participation techniques of local leader¬
ship strategies are sufficient only for the organi¬
zational and information needs of service projects.
—The community participation techniques of problem pos¬
ing and participatory research can indirectly affect
the community controlled process of participation
and choices posed by the impending change of the
development process, but there is no guarantee that
the choices will favor the project change.
—Local leadership strategies do not usually involve
women as community participants.
54
—Problem posing strategies directed towards the
specific local learning systems of water technology
and health, do include women as strong community
participators but are more difficult to identify
and more complex to work with.
Valid Project Design and Implementation Inputs
—Decisions, based upon LLS measurements of whether to
plan and implement a service or development project,
is vital to the possible success of the project.
—The type of community participation technique that
is valid is indicated by the project type, but sub¬
sequently must be formed and shaped for the .specific
culture.
—The LLS framework offers project staff a general sys¬
tem through which they can carry out country specific
research, so that in time, regional comparisons can
be made for further refinement of the design and
implementation process.
—The inclusion of women in the community participation
process, necessary to project success, is promoted
through design and implementation components that
identify and utilize the traditional strength of
women in the local learning systems.
Project Design and Implementation Schedules and Workplans
—Schedules for the achievement of software objectives
must be as explicitly scheduled as the hardware com¬
ponent objectives.
—Integration of these schedules is necessary and mutual
inter-dependence must be established at the design
stage and carried on through project implementation.
—Recognition that time schedules and pressures of pro¬
ject design and implementation favor technical projects
with quantifiable results is necessary if inter¬
dependence is to be established.
—Scheduling of design and project staff in rural water
supply projects must include both women and men as
sex segregated work divisions and necessity for en¬
trance into many of the 'local institutions' that
surround these divisions, necessitate the use of
both sexes for adequate coverage and entrance into
communities.
55
In conclusion, the present AID policy statements concerning rural
water supply concerns have provided the correct direction. For con¬
tinued successful efforts and actions for "mass contribution to
development, and mass involvement in the decision making process for
development", participation must become more than a philosophy or a
technique. It must be defined in terms of ob]ectives, methodology,
and actions. AID nas established its leadership in the recognition
of the importance of software components of rural water supply.
Hopefully, AID will continue this level of leadership and take action
to implement these same components so that the stated goals may be
attained.
56
CONCLUSION: AID ACTION NOW
Pertinent issues of rural water supply and integrating frameworks have
been discussed, amplification and clarification of present policy and
guidelines that govern rural water supply projects have been suggested.
However, the possibility of change in AID is essentially governed by
the same rules that control change in a small village, thus perhaps
the same methodologies to achieve change are pertinent.
The following actions are relatively easy to plan and undertake in the
next twelve months. These actions are based both on local leadership
strategies that promote control of knowledge outcome, and problem
posing strategies that promote provision of adequate and relevant
information. Both types of action should better help enable AID parti¬
cipators as they decide whether this conceptualization of rural water
supply issues should be incorporated into the Agency operating agenda.
The actions include the following:
* Collection of articles and monographs about "women and
water" in a book or special edition of a selected journal.
This collection would be oriented to portrayal of women's
daily lives and their efforts to provide this susten¬
ance for their family, as well as the more objective ques¬
tions surrounding project development. Emphasis would
be placed upon contributions from third world women and
men. Partial funding and support could be solicited from
the Q.N. public relations section in support of the U.N.
Drinking Water Decade.
* Develop, using the Local Learning System Framework des¬
cribed in this paper, a review guideline for rural water
supply project papers. The purpose would be to analyze
the following factors: integration of the software and
hardware of the proposed project; type and provision for
community participation; project scheduling that promotes
inter-dependence.
* Research is needed, because the LLS is a conceptualization
based upon field observation, to further refine and
strengthen the framework. Ex post facto research on the
Kenya (modern hand dug well) and Thailand (diesel powered
motor pumps) rural water supply projects, both evaluated
as successful, would be most helpful. Analyses of whether
the technologies involved were congruent and incremental
in change, whether local learning systems were involved
and how these interactions took place would be valuable in¬
formation .
* Research to establish the efficiency of the LLS Framework
57
as an implementation methodology is needed. An ideal
situation would be to incorporate this research and
evaluation in the newly funded Upper Volta Rural Water
Supply Project.
* Conduct one day seminar programs for all rural water supply
and sanitation design teams for successful accomplishment
in the integration of software and hardware project com¬
ponents. Key areas of mutual inter-dependence would be
established and discussed.
* Offer similar, but more in depth seminars to mission based
staff that are responsible for rural water supply and sani¬
tation projects in the field. Seminars should be on a re¬
gional level (for instance the Sahel region) and should
emphasize the Mission needs for a coherent 'all of a piece'
PID. Why and how needed integration and interdependence
of social and technical factors should be achieved, and
how it would promote more relevant project papers would
be the primary subject of discussions. This should be a
service offered to field staff, and at the request of the
Mission Director.
* Further research of the LLS Framework as an implementation
methodology could be pursued with voluntary agencies such
as Peace Corps. The Training Division is presently con¬
sidering beginning a "knowledge and skills" division, where
nonformal teaching and development strategies would be
developed for a variety of specific activities. LLS
might serve as a beginning basis for the strategies, and
be further developed for use in other types of projects,
rather than only rural water supply.
In this paper, community participation was defined as the learning pro¬
cess by which communities deal with change and development.
Using Paulo Freire's definition of the learning process
as reflection/action/reflection through dialogue, it be¬
comes clear that participation is the essence of the
learning process, and control of the knowledge outcome of
this learning process is the reason for community partici¬
pation .
The carrying out and eventual findings of the projects and research
outlined above should enable all of us to further define the specific
connection between community participation and project success. And
then, perhaps, Kenneth Boulding's contention, "that development, even
economic development, is essentially a knowledge process.." will no
longer only be a philosophical generality, but a usable methodology.
53
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