Initial Conditions Matter: Social Capital and Participatory Development

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents inIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. Billions of dollars have been spent on participatory development programs in the developing world. These programs give community members an active decision-making role. Given the emphasis on community involvement, one might expect that the effectiveness of this approach would depend on communities' pre-existing social capital stocks. Using data from a large randomised field experiment of Community-Led Total Sanitation in Indonesia, we find that villages with high initial social capital built toilets and reduced open defecation, resulting in substantial health benefits. In villages with low initial stocks of social capital, the approach was counterproductive -fewer toilets were built than in control communities and social capital suffered. JEL Classification:O12, O22, I15

Sustainable Total Sanitation in Nigeria

“…Columns 2 and 3 of Table 7.6 conduct a similar analysis using social capital and religious fragmentation, both measured at the TU level, again considering above and below median values for each. Column 2 suggests that CLTS had an impact of 5pp among households living in communities with high levels of social capital, and no impact in areas with low levels of this index, consistent with the findings presented in Cameron, Olivia and Shah (2015). Nonetheless, in our case, the evidence is not extremely robust: the difference between the coefficients for these two groups is small, just 4pp, and not statistically significant.…”

“…In a recent policy brief, Abramovsky et al (2016c) show that CLTS triggering meetings are more likely to fail, and not be carried out at all, in areas with high population density. In a similar vein, Cameron, Olivia and Shah (2015) show that a CLTS trial in Indonesia was only effective among communities with high levels of social capital, while no improvements in terms of toilet construction and OD were observed in areas with lower levels.…”

“…An alternative but related approach to ours is the one used by Cameron, Olivia and Shah (2015). They estimate CLTS impacts using a DiD strategy and run it only on the subsample of households that did not have a toilet at baseline.…”

Sustainable Total Sanitation – Nigeria: second CLTS impact evaluation report

“…An alternative approach to ours is the one used by Cameron et al (2015), who use DID specifications but run it only on the subsample of households that did not have a toilet at baseline. We believe that our approach is a more comprehensive approach because, besides persuading non-owners to construct toilets, CLTS informs households who already own a toilet about the importance of its maintenance and usage.…”

Trust, Trust Attitudes and Group Membership

“…Trust, successful group formation, subsequent cooperation and collective action are highly correlated (Cardenas et al, ). Higher initial levels of social capital and trust are associated with participatory development success (Cameron, Olivia, & Shah, ). More trusting and trustworthy individuals are expected to self‐select into groups, but other motives besides working together to achieve a common goal can influence individuals' decisions to join groups, particularly when promoted by development initiatives (Francesconi & Wouterse, ).…”