The poor depend on a range of actors for their services. Evidence from a wide range of poverty focused activities in various sectors has shown that building on the potential of established support systems (such as NGOs), established delivery mechanisms (such as water tankers or independent waste collectors) and established relationships, can be quite critical in enhancing the success of new interventions, safeguarding against impacts on the most vulnerable groups, and facilitating immediate improvements and interim arrangements. The large-scale private operator thus becomes one partner among many, working towards solutions that meet social as well as physical and financial objectives.
A number of actors play a variety of roles in a focused partnership arrangement. Together they will be able to respond to the specific needs of the poor and take up those processes that promote poverty reduction. The development and implementation of a partnership framework should therefore include communities and their representatives, such as the NGOs and small-scale service providers on which they currently rely. This enables the meaningful participation of poor communities at planning and implementation stages. Depending on the organisations and resources in a specific context, it may involve a number of linked and coordinated actors and organisations offering the skills and resources needed to address the key livelihood aspects affecting service sustainability in poor areas. The role of the potential partners involved in arrangements focused on the poor are developed in Chapter 6.
Box 5.4 Integrated Poverty Responses Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
Looking back on our 10 years of work in Barrio San Jorge in Buenos Aires (see also Box 7.3), we realise that our main challenge has been to support the rekindling of community action and organisation, and in so doing, to support the reconstruction of social capital based on the promotion of solidarity and reciprocity between neighbours. The activity of IIED-AL in Barrio San Jorge throughout the last decade has maintained one overall objective: to improve living conditions by means of the organisation and participation of the inhabitants in a comprehensive development process. This approach implies a questioning of the traditional government and NGO approaches to poverty reduction in Argentina, which are generally short-term, sectoral and top-down programmes and projects. | |
Our work in Barrio San Jorge was based on two main strategies: the promotion of a more integrated and long-term approach, which builds on continuous and complementary improvements, and the involvement of stakeholders, who were identified as individuals, groups, organisations or institutions whose interests could be affected by the initiatives. | |
The first strategy stemmed from the acknowledgement that the inhabitants of Barrio San Jorge (and other informal settlements) have multiple and diverse needs and problems. Virtually all are rooted in a common cause: poverty. Most are closely inter-related. The development of a more integrated approach to these needs has not led to the need to implement projects in every sector, but to the development of an integrated perspective in every initiative in which we were involved. This perspective was based on the recognition of the intersectoral nature and effects of all the interventions; an examination of their coordination can often ensure that they complement and reinforce each other. The building-material bank is an example of this approach. This not only supports housing improvement but was used to give advice about construction techniques and design. It also served to disseminate information about the relationship between habitat and health. It also developed a credit system to allow the inhabitants to purchase materials on credit, which helped them to learn how to manage credit. The building materials warehouse was also essential for storing materials for the water and sewerage project. | |
Another advantage of having many initiatives in different sectors was the availability of different funding sources, as many external funders will only consider providing support for particular sectors. This also meant that if one initiative was interrupted, it was possible to continue with others. Achieving continuity is important in maintaining community organisation. The inhabitants of Barrio San Jorge have experienced several interventions animated by political interests - mostly before a local or provincial election - which, after a short period, became of little value or even useless. The extension of water supplies from the nearby factory, which had been carried out in part because of the political aspirations of the factory's president, was an important achievement, but the lack of standpipe maintenance created drainage problems and pools of stagnant water. On one occasion, the main street of Barrio San Jorge was filled with soil and levelled, but the soil was not compacted, and after the first rain shower it became so muddy that it restricted the use of motor vehicles for several days, just before an election. Such interventions have a short life and the inhabitants take over the maintenance and repair, despite their limited resources. | |
The continuity of actions and the achievement of tangible results have been crucial to the community and its morale. For instance, the mother and child centre encouraged a growing interest from small groups of residents who supported the initiative - mostly women - in initiating new activities. After groups had laid pipes for water and sewerage, others went on to lay pavements. The inhabitants of Barrio San Jorge needed support not for one or two development projects but for continuous actions that supported a long-term development process. | |
Our second strategy consisted of working in partnership with the different actors involved in the development process, i.e., not just community groups but also local and provincial government agencies, other NGOs, the private sector and donors. The interaction with such a wide range of organisations taught us several lessons: | |
• it is important to establish where and with whom common goals can be developed. • Partnerships with any stakeholders are time-consuming exercises in persuasion, lobbying and bargaining to make different views, rationales and priorities compatible. • Negotiations with local actors produce important results; at the same time, partnership also implies taking considerable risks and having to bear the consequences. • The development of partnerships with other organisations is important, but given the unpredictable performance of some organisations, experience suggests the need to analyse costs and benefits. | |
Source: Schusterman and Hardoy, 1997 | |