Community management or coproduction? The role of state and citizens in rural water service delivery in India

This paper makes the case for a realignment in the discourse and conceptualisation of community management of rural water supply. It draws on data from 20 case studies of reportedly successful community management programmes from India to argue that current discourse is remiss not to describe the substantial role of the state and other supporting agencies in financing and supporting service provision. In the context of such substantial levels of support, conceptually, it is argued that the tendency to treat the challenge of rural water supply as one of either a community participation or collective action problem that only the community can address further limits current thinking in this area. Recasting the primary challenge of rural water service delivery as improved cooperation and coordination between state and citizen, the paper proposes a more substantial focus on coproduction as a route to overcome sustainability problems in rural water supply. The paper ends by reflecting on the generalisability of this thinking noting the specific context of the Indian empirical data. It concludes by arguing that, although certain aspects of the study are specific to that empirical domain, the normative and conceptual reasons for shifting the discourse remain applicable in broader contexts

Supporting community management: a synthesis of successful rural water services programmes in India

For the past 30 years the dominant approach to managing rural water services in low and lower middle income countries has been the community management approach. Yet there is increasing evidence the model is not fit for purpose as too many services fail. The next generation ideas for community management emphasise the need for continuous on-going support to communities – an approach known as the community management plus approach. This thesis tests and develops this next generation community management plus paradigm. It analyses field data from twenty case studies of ‘reportedly successful’ community management programmes across seventeen states in India. Bringing together data from 2,355 household surveys, 272 interviews and 130 focus groups it provides a synthesis that assesses the type and level of support found in successful examples of community management. The evidence from these case studies demonstrates that communities receive significant recurrent subsidy covering between 7-48% of operational expenditure. This is in marked contrast to the conventional principles of community management whereby communities cover 100% of these costs. Analysis of organisation types also shows how community management has been shaped by the devolution of governance in rural India. Many community management programmes involve a structural overlap between the local self- government institution of the Gram Panchayat and water committees. The thesis argues this represents a shift to the ‘institutionalised co-production’ of rural water services, involving both the state and private citizens in public service delivery. Overall, the research shows that successful community management in India involves continuous on-going support as per the community management plus paradigm. However this has required the nesting of the model within the broader system of local self-government which blurs the lines between public and community management

The on-line tutorial: developing and evaluating resources and disseminating experience

This is an ESCalate development project awarded to Kerry Shephard, University of Southampton in 2005. It looked at developing practical approaches to integrating a range of commonly available e-learning tools to facilitate wider use of the On-line Tutorial in staff development settings. The aim of this project was to implement and assess the value of an online tutorial within staff development scenarios which are themselves encouraging e-learning engagement. Four tutorials were developed, each one addressing a different issue relating to the use of ICT (information and communication technology) in teaching: factors that limit the use of ICT to support student learning in UK HE, use of ICT to support widening participation, teaching strategies for e-learning, and a simulation of online student assessment

The political risks of technological determinism in rural water supply: A case study from Bihar, India

With the politics of the environment so fundamental to the development process in rural India, this paper analyses the relations between water discourses and drinking water technology. First, the national discourses of water are analysed using key policy and populist documents. Second, the paper presents ethnographic fieldwork studying the politics of drinking water in rural Bihar, where the relative merits of borehole handpumps and open wells are contested. The links between the national discourses and local contestation over appropriate technology are examined. The paper argues both policy and traditionalist perspectives are too technologically deterministic to adequately account for the myriad challenges of delivering rural water supply. The emphasis on technology, rather than service levels, creates the conditions in which capability traps emerge in terms of service provision. This is not only in terms of monitoring regimes but in the very practices of rural actors who use certain water supply technologies under an illusion of safety. With a focus on furthering the policy debate, the paper considers ways forward and suggests that a move from a binary understanding of access to a holistic measure of service levels will reduce the potential for political contestation and capability traps in rural water supply

Implementing screening and brief alcohol interventions in primary care : views from both sides of the consultation

Excessive drinking is a global health problem which is responsible for a wide range of both chronic and acute illness, and which costs the UK National Health Service (NHS) £1.7 billion annually. Current health policy aims to reduce alcohol-related problems by promoting early identification of risk followed by brief intervention to facilitate positive changes in drinking level or patterns of consumption. However, practical and philosophical barriers concerning screening and brief alcohol intervention have so far impeded its uptake in routine primary care. This qualitative study aimed to simultaneously explore and compare health professionals’ and patients’ views on the acceptability and feasibility of screening and brief alcohol intervention in primary care. Focus groups were held with (a) four primary care teams, (b) two general practitioner (GP) and two nurse groups and (c) six patient groups in the north-east of England. A thematic framework approach was used to analyse audio-taped data via transcripts. Both health professionals and patients reported that raising and discussing alcohol-related risk was acceptable in primary care, when combined with other lifestyle issues or linked to relevant health conditions. Targeted rather than universal screening was the most acceptable method of identifying alcohol-related risk and would fit well with existing practice. However, there was uncertainty among health professionals about the effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions and some disagreement with patients concerning who was best placed to deliver them. Health professionals felt that nurses were best placed for such work whilst patients reported that they would initially raise the subject with GPs. There was broad acceptance of brief intervention approaches but a lack of support and specific incentives for this work impeded its delivery in routine practice

Look Black in Anger: The role of implicit prejudice in the categorization and perceived emotional intensity of racially ambiguous faces

Research has demonstrated that individuals high in implicit prejudice are more likely to classify a racially ambiguous angry face as Black compared to individuals low in implicit prejudice (Hugenberg & Bodenhausen, 2004). The current study sought to replicate and extend this finding by examining whether the same expression of anger on a racially ambiguous face is perceived to be differentially intense when the face is judged to be Black or White. White participants viewed racially ambiguous, White, and Black faces displaying angry, neutral, or happy emotions. Participants’ task was to identify the race, emotion, and intensity of emotion display. The results revealed that participants high in implicit prejudice reported significantly more of the racially ambiguous angry faces as Black compared to participants low in implicit prejudice. Further, participants high in implicit prejudice reported the intensity of the racially ambiguous angry emotion as greater when the same face had been categorized as Black compared to White. The results suggest that implicit prejudice is not only associated with the racial categorization of an ambiguous face but also the perceived intensity of the emotion displayed

Understanding public attitudes towards organ donation: a media analysis

1. Following public consultations and the passing of the Human Transplantation (Wales) Bill in July 2013, a ‘deemed consent’ system for organ donation will be brought into effect in Wales on 1st December 2015 following a targeted communications campaign by the Welsh Government. This research report was commissioned by the Welsh Government in response to the findings of the Public Attitudes to Organ Donation: Baseline Survey 2012 (PAODBS; Welsh Government, 2012) which identified differences between regions in relation to both knowledge of the proposed changes in legislation and attitudes towards the new legislation, in order to inform targeted communications about the legislative change. These differences were not accounted for by socio-economic or demographic differences between these regions. 2. A retrospective content analysis of Welsh media coverage of organ donation legislation covering the period from October 2011 to April 2013 inclusive was carried out on sources from television, newspapers and social media in Wales. In addition to analysing message valence (positive or negative), source credibility and argument strength, an analysis of key themes identified within the sources was also conducted. 3. Analysis of television coverage in English and Welsh languages broadcasting across Wales on national television showed more positive than negative valence, with the pattern of reporting remaining broadly similar across English only, English and Welsh, and Welsh only sources. This suggests that regional differences in knowledge of, and attitudes towards, organ donation legislation are not due to differences in the way in which television stations in Wales convey information relating to organ donation legislation. 4. Themes relating to political and statistical health issues were the most dominant themes identified in television sources. Whilst both themes featured extensively in positive and negative items, political themes featured in more negative stories whilst statistical health themes were found in more positive stories. The television coverage analysed for this report shows a prevalence of factually objective stories relating to the organ donation legislation rather than religious, moral or emotionally laden themes. 5. Newspaper analysis provided mixed comparisons with the PAODBS. A balance of positive and negative items were identified in the Western Mail (accounting for just under half of items analysed) and in regional newspapers in North Wales. In contrast, a greater proportion of positive reporting was identified in the Swansea Bay and Mid & West Wales regional newspapers, and a greater proportion of negative reporting in the Cardiff & South-East Wales region. Positive themes reflected emotional, statistical and political information whilst negative themes reflected political, moral and religious themes. 6. The higher than average number of published letters from readers in the Western Mail and in newspapers within the Cardiff & South-East Wales region accounted for a high proportion of negative items in these data. Readers’ letters primarily reflect moral themes and, to a lesser extent, political and religious themes. 7. Overall, the coverage of organ donation legislation in Welsh media on television and in newspapers has been broadly balanced, with some regional exceptions. However, these in themselves do not explain the attitudes displayed by respondents to the PAODBS (2012). In conclusion, regional differences in knowledge of, and attitudes towards, organ donation legislation do not appear to reflect differences in the presentation of information relating to organ donation legislation across different types of media in Wales

Community water plus: results from an investigation into community managed rural water supply in India

This paper reports on the outcomes from the ‘Community Water Plus’ (2013-2016) project that was designed to give donors, IFIs and low-income country governments the evidence base to determine and justify the ongoing resources needed to support community rural water services. The research demonstrated that significant recurrent financing from government and other sources subsidised the costs of services in successful community management programmes in India. The Gram Panchayat, the local-self government institution, also provided on-going support and carried out everyday operation, maintenance and administrative functions. The implications of the Indian experience are that successful rural water service delivery requires such significant on-going support, including funding and the delivery of key functions, that it is better to conceive of it as a form of coproduction between state and citizens, rather than community management, and governments should allocate resources accordingly