| Abstract: | This paper examines the relationship between community participationand the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce poverty.It outlines a simple model that identifies three actors involvedin the provision of antipoverty interventions: financiers, providersand beneficiaries. This model is used to illustrate what happenswhen the poor move from being passive beneficiaries to beingthe providers of these interventions. Beneficiary participationhas the potential to lower the cost of providing these interventions.It can ensure that they more closely reflect the preferencesof the population that they are designed to serve. However,this benefit is contingent on the ability of communities toengage in collective actions. In fractionalised communities,or where trust and/or social capital are weak, there is a riskthat community participation may result in the capture of benefitsby local elites, to the detriment of the poor. Further, we arguethat the failure to delegate true decision-making authority(allowing for de jure but not de facto participation), may resultin beneficiaries being reluctant to act because of concernsthat they will be subsequently overruled. |
