The World Bank | 4 XF- v ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 o o 2 | | fOlu2 N U NUMBER 72 POVERTY Community user groups: vehicles for collective action- or personal gain? A study of three user groups in India suggests that such groups rarely perform as expected. Devolution of management to the local level ment of formal and member objectives, par- has become increasingly common in devel- ticipation in different group activities, real- Despite the opment initiatives. Nearly 40 percent of ization of benefits, group transparency, and World Bank projects in India, for example, internal accountability. hierarchical social depend on local organizations such as user groups to enhance project effectiveness. Group achievement context, distribution The assumption is that user participation Formal group objectives involved the equi- in project implementation: table distribution of benefits, increased of benefits was not * Improves project outcomes. supply or productivity of benefits, and main- * Fosters the inclusion of disadvantaged tenance of assets used or created. Among biased toward any people in decisionmaking. all the groups analyzed, 35 percent of mem- * Promotes equitable distribution of pro- bers felt that the groups had done a good social or economic ject benefits. job of achieving formal objectives, 28 per- * Increases local commitment to project cent felt thatformal objectives had been sat- group objectives. isfactory achieved, and 14 percent felt that * Contributes to democratic governance these objectives had not been achieved. and accountability. Another 22 percent of members felt they Yet projects involving user participation have did not have enough knowledge to assess had mixed results in achieving these goals. achievements. This note is based on an empirical study Although nearly two-thirds of members of the performance of 100 community user had positive views on group achievements groups involved in the collective manage- of formal objectives, many members felt ment of natural resources in three Bank- excluded from the benefits associated with supported projects in India. The study was one or more of these objectives. Given social undertaken in the states of Andhra Pradesh, patterns in rural India, it was hypothesized Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. It used that most of the excluded or poorly a mixed methodology, covered 100 villages, informed members came from disadvan- involved more than 2,000 respondents, and taged, low-caste, or low-income groups. The assessed whether the user groups were per- analysis, however, did not find any signifi- forming as expected. cant relationship between respondents' Two aspects of performance were eval- social or economic attributes and their per- uated: group achievement and group func- ceptions of group achievements. But it did tioning. Among the issues analyzed were find strong relationships between members' member perceptions of groups' achieve- satisfaction and whether they attended FROM THE DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS VICE PRESIDENCY AND POVERTY REDUCTION AND ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT NETWORK group meetings, served as group represen- Pradesh the same proportion said that they tatives, or were young or well-connected- had no interest in attending meetings, and community members. in Uttar Pradesh the same proportion indi- In addition, while groups' formal objec- cated that no meetings were held. tives rarely coincided with members' per- Among members who attended meet- sonal objectives, user groups did provide ings, participation in different stages of most members with the benefits they group decisionmaking varied by state. As expected-regardless of their social or eco- a result different stakeholders had differ- nomic status. ent influences on group business. Although project staff usually initiated discussions dur- Participation and equity ing meetings in Uttar Pradesh, 70 percent All the user groups studied were expected of attendees reported being involved in the Women played to support the equitable inclusion of dif- discussions. Project staff also played a major ferent stakeholders and to function as demo- role in making final decisions for these almost no role in cratic bodies overseeing collective resource groups-but only about 20 percent of atten- management and benefit distribution. Advo- dees felt that they had participated in this group affairs- cates of community participation in resource stage of decisionmaking. management believe that it increases local In contrast, in Madhya Pradesh group regardless of their ownership and enhances equity, thereby con- chairmen tended to initiate discussions and tributing to development goals. finalize decisions, with project staff playing caste or class Member participation varied consider- a smaller role. Perhaps more important, ably among the groups. Members who more than 90 percent of attendees felt that attended meetings indicated that their par- they had participated in discussions. In ticipation was motivated by prospects of per- Andhra Pradesh few group members sonal gain and improved livelihood options. reported participating in any aspect of deci- None of the members cited cooperation for sionmaking. Members said that chairmen the maintenance of collective assets as a rea- made nearly all decisions based on discus- son for their participation. Groups were con- sions with representatives rather than with sidered means to individual ends, not the group as a whole. The study found no mechanisms for cooperation or collective case where a woman initiated a discussion action. or made a final decision. Overall, group meetings were poorly Despite this, there was no evidence that attended. Attendance was more likely extensive participation in decisionmaking arnong elected representatives and mem- was required to achieve distributional equity. bers involved in political activities-and This was largely due to the efforts of pro- most likely among members who were well- ject staff, who played an important role in connected or who owned more material ensuring that no group appropriated assets. Women rarely participated in meet- benefits-particularly in areas where wealth- ings or served as representatives. The user ier and upper-caste residents have tradi- groups in Madhya Pradesh had the highest tionally benefited most from development attendance, with-regular participation by opportunities. In Andhra Pradesh caste- nearly half of members. In Andhra Pradesh based power and politics undermined group and Uttar Pradesh two-thirds of members functioning, leading members to request rarely or never attended a group meeting. increased involvement by project staff. Sim- Lack of information about when meet- ilar conditions prevailed in Uttar Pradesh, ings occurred was the most common reason causing project staff to act as "equity police." for nonattendance, cited by 40-55 percent of members. In addition, in Madhya Pradesh Transparency and and Andhra Pradesh nearly a quarter of accountability nonattendees said that they did not have Transparency is essential to a well-func- time to participate in meetings. In Andhra tioning organization. It allows people to PREMNOTE 72 JULY 2002 know what decisions have been made, how staff-rather than to group needs such as they were made, and whether the organi- building local initiative, responsibility, and zation's rules were followed. The study, how- accountability. ever, found that little information was User groups require varying support from available on the outcomes of group meet- project staff. External support is especially ings, that few members knew how group important in the early stages of implemen- funds were structured or used, and that tation, when members of project-induced members were generally unfamiliar with groups tend to exhibit little ownership of accountability mechanisms (figure 1). group activities and governance. Based on When members have little knowledge of their experiences with various government group operations and transactions, it can and nongovernmental organization initia- increase opportunities for mismanagement tives, group members are accustomed to and corruption. But it does not necessar- external agencies taking ultimate responsi- Low transparency ily indicate that the rules of the game are bility for group management. being ignored or that the distribution of This approach may be appropriate for can destroy a benefits is inequitable or unsustainable. If groups not intended to survive beyond a pro-. rules of governance and accountability are ject period. But the success of longer-lasting group's ability to in place and dependable, groups can func- groups may depend on whether roles played tion well even if members lack knowledge by project staff can be transferred to other promote of group business. individuals or agencies, such as India's In all three states, members knewvery lit- elected panchayati raj institutions. Current cooperation and tle about group governance. In Uttar links between these organizations and user Pradesh two-thirds of members did not groups are extremely limited and tend to be collective action know how group chairmen were selected. confined to individual, not group, contacts. Most members in Andhra Pradesh and Mad- hya Pradesh knew how chairmen or presi- Conclusion dents were chosen, but few knew much Indian villages are often divided by factions, about rules for holding representatives hierarchies, and exploitive relationships accountable. In Uttar Pradesh and Andhra between rich and poor people. These divi- Pradesh nearly 95 percent of members knew sions can impede project goals such as broad of no such rules; in Madhya Pradesh, 63 per- participation, believed to form the basis of cent. And regardless of awareness, account- decentralization and local decisionmaking. ability mechanisms were rarely-if If collective management of a natural ever-applied. FIGURE 1 MEMBER AWARENESS OF USER GROUP FINANCES AND Sustainability TRANSACTIONS Given that few people attend meetings, few Percent know how implementation committees 40 operate, and even fewer are aware of rules on accountability and governance, it is ques- tionable whether benefits will continue to 30 PMradhesyh be equitably distributed once the Bank pro- 25 Andhra jects end, or that groups will continue to 20 Pradesh function. 15 Utt User groups are crucial in implementing Pradesh decentralized projects, and project design- 10 ers and implementers expect the groups 5 analyzed here to continue functioning after 0 the Bank projects end. But in all cases, Availability Amount How spent group formation and support activities ANote: Sample covers 100 user groups in 100 villages. responded only to the incentives of project Source: World Bank data. PREMNOTE 72 JULY 2002 resource is required to achieve a project's Cleaver, Frances. 1999. "Paradoxes of Par- objectives, project staff need to develop strate- ticipation: Questioning Participatory gies for working with differing levels of mem- Approaches to Development. "Journ al of ber interest and for building member InternationalDevelopment 11(4) 597-12. confidence in the benefits of cooperation. Ostrom, Elinor. 2000 "Collective Action and Project designers and implementers need the Evolution of Social Norms."Journal to better understand member objectives, be of Economic Perspectives 14 (3) 137-58. more pragmatic in their expectations of how Wade, Robert. 1988. Village Republics: Eco- local organizations function, and be more nomic Conditions for Collective Action in realistic about what they can accomplish South India. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- given the level and type of resource man- versity Press. agement required. Although the user Until the long-term groups studied were effective in some ways, This note was written by Ruth Alsop (Senior it is not certain that they will be able to Social Scientist, Poverty Group, PREM Network) benefits of evolve or even handle serious problems and SamanthaForusz (SocialDevelopment Spe- independently. cialist, Environment and Social Development cooperation Unit, South Asia Region). The research report Further reading on which this note is based and the related Social become tangible, Agrawal, Anil, and Clark C. Gibson.1999. Development Paper are available on request. "Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Ifyou are interested in similar topics, consider user groups are Role of Community in Natural Resource joining the Decentralization Thematic Group. Management." World Development 27 (4) Contact Dana Weist (x8221 0) or click on The- unlikely to be 629-49. matic Groups on PREMnet. sustainable This note series is intended to summarize good practice and key policy flfl| E * findings on PREM-related topics. The views expressed in these notes are those *flfl of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank. r flfl PREMnotes are distributed widely to Bank staff and are also available on the PREM website (http://prem). If you are interested in writing a PREM- note, email your idea to Sarah Nedolast. For additional copies of this PREM- note please contact the PREM Advisory Service at x87736. PREMnotes are edited and produced by Communicatnk sfpf Prepared for World Bank staff