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Local Organizations in Development
March 1984
>> This Is USAID >> USAID Policy Papers >> Local Organizations in Development
Executive Summary II. Types of Local Organizations
III. The Role of Local Organizations in USAID's Program
IV. Overcoming Limitations of Local Organizations
Wednesday, 11-Jul-2001 16:50:20 EDT
Local organizations may contribute to a series of critically important development activities, including (a) informed planning and decision-making; III. The Role of Local Organizations in USAID's Program
(b) flexible and adaptive implementation; and
(c) low-cost, efficient monitoring and evaluation.
All these tasks are key to achieving broadly-based self-sustaining development.6A. Planning and Decision-Making
Development planning and decision-making in host countries and donor agencies tend to be highly centralized processes, aimed at generating a rationalized allocation of budget resources among alternative activities. Unfortunately, variable and changing social, institutional, and economic circumstances in LDCs render many such plans (at the national, program, and project level) out of date quite literally before they can be published and disseminated. Moreover, the information upon which these centralized decision ' s are based is often incomplete or even wrong, resulting in projects that may be either ineffective or counterproductive. While some planning functions are inevitably and appropriately the responsibility of central agencies, there is much room for lower-order organizations, including local organizations, to take part in the planning and decision-making process. USAID may often accomplish much simply by getting local groups "a seat at the table" when decisions affecting them are being made.
The potential planning contribution of local organizations can be seen most clearly at the stage of problem identification, when important decisions are made about priority problems and appropriate solutions. These early decisions guide the remainder of the project development process, and, if incorrect, can generate a wholly inappropriate development intervention. Thus it is important for USAID to seek the fullest possible understanding of local circumstances at the earliest possible point in project development.
Local organizations offer ready-made mechanisms through which understanding of local circumstances can be injected into project development. Local business people and shopkeepers, for instance, are in close touch with the financial circumstances of the communities in which they live; local bankers and entrepreneurs can identify investment priorities within the local community; local government and local administrative offices can shed light on the feasibility of alternative implementation and coordination plans; farmers' groups can propose or comment on technical packages and other support programs; and the reaction of local political representatives may indicate whether and to what extent local communities will ignore, hinder, or support a planned intervention. While local views, as mediated by local organizations, should not necessarily determine the content of interventions, USAID should not commit major resources without some understanding of how particular development activities are going to be received or perceived by the local organizations and people who are to administer and utilize them.
B. Implementation
Local organizations may play a role in program and project implementation in two principal ways: by performing administration and coordination functions, and by generating resource contributions.
- Administration and Coordination
Active participation of local organizations in administration and coordination of project activities tends to render projects more responsive to the requirements of a varied and changing social, economic, and political environment. Unfortunately, local organizations are rarely allowed a substantive role in these matters. Local administrative offices, that is, district representatives of central line and executive agencies, often play a larger implementation role than other types of local organizations. However, even these offices are often put in the position of carrying out plans developed at higher levels, and may have relatively little independent authority to propose useful activities or to alter central efforts in ways that make them more viable in local settings. Hence, USAID should ensure that a wide range of local organizations is engaged in decision-making on the "where" and "how" of project activities. "Where" decisions are crucial in projects that involve some type of construction: farmers' associations can advise on the location of farm-to--market roads or irrigation canals, local government can advise on siting of schools and health clinics and appropriate provisions for local maintenance, local business groups can suggest the best locations for market centers and help assess the viability of alternative fee rates, and so forth.
Local organizations may also provide important input to implementation decisions regarding project strategy, project financing, and project-related sanctions.
- Project strategy: If the problem is water conservation in send-arid locations, for instance, farmers' groups can assist in the delineation of subcatchment areas and settle questions about the size, composition, and timing of local construction inputs. If the problem is road development, local government can help ensure that proposed routes serve important trade and production centers not known to central authorities, and organize local labor resources.
- Project financing: local leaders of various organizations are obviously well-placed to gauge what portion of an activity might be financed with local resources, and whether the contribution should be in labor, cash, materials, or some combination of these. USAID should seek their participation in decisions regarding the role to be played by local communities, so that programs we support do not result in demands that are unrealistically high, and do not fail to draw fully on potential sources of support.
- Project-related sanctions: Decisions about what regulations are required to ensure compliance with project structures, and what mechanisms should be utilized in resolving disputes, should also draw upon the advice of local entities. Grazing restrictions on steep hillsides, wood harvesting regulations in reforested areas, water access and maintenance rules in agricultural and domestic water systems, and similar restrictions are often key to project success. Unless local organizations are involved in formulating and implementing them the results are likely to be less than satisfactory because the community does not understand the regulations or because it cannot agree to them, or because no mechanism to resolve inevitable conflicts was ever put in place. USAID projects should be developed with the full understanding and participation of local organizations representing an appropriate range of community interest, so that conflict resolution and enforcement of necessary sanctions will proceed smoothly.
- Local Resource Contributions
Local organizations may also participate in project implementation by generating local resource contributions. Local resources may take the form of labor cash, material goods, or information, all of which can make a significant contribution to the success of development initiatives. In has become increasingly clear that substantial and long-lasting development cannot be accomplished unless local resources are engaged not only to augment the efforts of government and donors, but also to engender interest in and commitment to a project. Unless the local people or local organizations whose resources are desired have been allowed to join in decisions about what is to be done with them, the resources are not likely to be forthcoming. While local groups may not often be able to influence the types of programs and policies directed at them, they can certainly influence the outcomes, simply by withholding their labor, their investment funds, their material resources, their willingness to participate, and their information about and understanding of local circumstances. Rarely can the resources to which local organizations have access be obtained through coercion. Thus USAID planners who wish their programs to benefit through the commitment of local resources should include appropriate local groups in substantive project decision-making.
C. Monitoring and Evaluation
Local organizations can play a role in project management, monitoring, and evaluation, without excessively encumbering a project with expensive, time-consuming data collection and analysis efforts, Representatives of local organizations can be expected to be aware of a broad range of community responses to and perceptions of projects activities; they are likely to be aware of implementation hitches soon after they have occurred; and they often are able to propose practical solutions to emerging problems. Hence, if an appropriately wide range of local leaders is included on project advisory boards or is in some other fashion systematically included in managerial discussions, a broad array of data and experience becomes available. Managers can then monitor implementation effectiveness and other aspects of project impact by listening to the opinions of people representing local organizations. Obviously, these opinions will never reflect the views of the population in general, insofar as leaders of local organizations tend to be of the political, economic, or social elite. Nevertheless, however biased the feedback provided may be, it will be a useful supplement to more formal evaluation activities.
Finally, to the extent that political parties, voluntary associations, and other local interest groups provide strong means through which local evaluations of projects and programs may be communicated to the center, USAID Can do much to improve the responsiveness of central authorities and the relevance of programs we support simply by strengthening a broad range of local organizations.
6 This section draws heavily on the ideas presented in:
Uphoff, Norman T., John M. Cohen, and Arthur A. Goldsmith
1979 Feasibility and Application of Rural Development Participation: A State-of-the-Art Paper. Rural Development Committee, Cornell University.
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Last Updated on: July 11, 2001 |
