Tenure, diversity, and commitment: community participation for urban service provision

This paper examines factors influencing a household’s willingness to participate in community based service provision programs. Using data from a recently completed geo-referenced household survey for Bangalore, India, two important hypotheses on why households engage in collective action are tested: does tenure security enhance the probability of participation mainly because the resulting appreciation in housing values can be capitalised and the anticipated benefit stream from service provision is accrued over a longer period? The authors find that security of tenure has a significant and positive impact on the willingness to participate in collective action for access to urban servicesdoes heterogeneity in endowments or culture reduce the willingness of residents to participate in activities that are expected to yield economic benefits or improvements in living standards?In addition to the effects of tenure security and heterogeneity, the authors find that participation is most prevalent in middle class households and communities. This supports the theory that the perceived benefits of participation do not offset the cost of interaction for the rich who can either privately obtain the service or may already have access to most basic services. The transaction cost of participation (especially in heterogeneous settings) is high for the poor due to limited levels of community trust, as reflected in various focus group interviewsRapid population growth in developing country cities creates an ever increasing demand for basic public services. City governments often do not have the capacity, know-how and fiscal resources to provide adequate services to newcomers while addressing the existing backlog in under-serviced areas. Public provision is therefore not always efficient and affordable, and sometimes does not consider the needs of individual communities.If self-provision of urban services by local communities and neighbourhoods can be considered a useful complement to public and private provision, a major policy question is how community action can be encouraged and facilitated by governments and donors. To answer that question we need to know more about what motivates individuals to engage in community initiatives.There is general consensus that community action in the provision of urban services is a viable option when the public sector is unable and the private sector unwilling to invest. However, actual evidence on the success of such efforts is relatively scarce, and there is not enough data about the factors that determine success or failure. Also, as the urban population in developing countries is predicted to double over the next 30 years, all options for ensuring access to basic services need to be considered. An important question then is whether community based service provision is scalable. To make a significant difference, there is a need to expand such programs to a very large number of urban communities. How to facilitate successful community initiatives and how to transfer successful implementations quickly and widely are important questions for researchers and policy makers alike.