Community management is the accepted management model for rural water supplies in many low and middle-income countries. However, endemic problems in the sustainability and scalability of this model are leading many to conclude we have reached the limits of an approach that is too reliant on voluntarism and informality. Accepting this criticism but recognising that many cases of success have been reported over the past 30 years, this study systematically reviews and analyses the development pattern of 174 successful community management case studies. The synthesis confirms the premise that for community management to be sustained at scale, community institutions need a ‘plus’ that includes long-term external support, with the majority of high performing cases involving financial support, technical advice and managerial advice. Internal community characteristics were also found to be influential in terms of success, including collective initiative, strong leadership and institutional transparency. Through a meta-analysis of success in different regions, the paper also indicates an important finding on the direct relationship between success and the prevailing socio-economic wealth in a society. This holds implications for policy and programme design with a need to consider how broad structural conditions may dictate the relative success of different forms of community management.
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Research Article|
March 14 2015
A systematic review of success factors in the community management of rural water supplies over the past 30 years
Paul Hutchings;
Paul Hutchings
*
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
*Corresponding author. E-mail: p.t.hutchings@cranfield.ac.uk
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Mei Yee Chan;
Mei Yee Chan
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
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Lucie Cuadrado;
Lucie Cuadrado
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
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Fatine Ezbakhe;
Fatine Ezbakhe
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
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Baptiste Mesa;
Baptiste Mesa
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
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Chiaki Tamekawa;
Chiaki Tamekawa
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
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Richard Franceys
Richard Franceys
1School of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield Water Science Institute, Vincent Building, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
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Water Policy (2015) 17 (5): 963–983.
Article history
Received:
July 03 2014
Accepted:
January 17 2015
Citation
Paul Hutchings, Mei Yee Chan, Lucie Cuadrado, Fatine Ezbakhe, Baptiste Mesa, Chiaki Tamekawa, Richard Franceys; A systematic review of success factors in the community management of rural water supplies over the past 30 years. Water Policy 1 October 2015; 17 (5): 963–983. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2015.128
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