How does delegating decisions to beneficiariesaffect their access to a public service?

Evidence from a field experiment in Bangladesh

Malgosia Madajewicz, Anna Tompsett and Ahasan Habib

August 23, 2017

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Malgosia Madajewicz, Anna Tompsett and Ahasan Habib

Delegating Decision-making to Communities

What aspect of promoting women’s participation will wediscuss?

I We will present the results of a field experiment whichevaluates what happens when we give targeted beneficiarycommunities the authority to take non-technicaldecisions about the construction of community wells, whichwould otherwise be made by project staff:

I ...without imposing any rules about how decisions are madeI ...when we impose decision-making by consensus with

representation of women and the poor

Malgosia Madajewicz, Anna Tompsett and Ahasan Habib

Delegating Decision-making to Communities

What was the purpose of our study and why should youcare?

I Participation in decision-making is very widely seen as key tosuccessful community development projects

I Different types of participation in decision-making may havedifferent consequences, not all of which are positive

I e.g. elite capture, marginalization

I Most prior research cannot separate out the effects of differenttypes of decision-making from other characteristics of theimplementing organization, project, or beneficiary community

I Our study provides the first experimental evidence on howparticipation in decision-making affects projects to providesafe drinking water

Malgosia Madajewicz, Anna Tompsett and Ahasan Habib

Delegating Decision-making to Communities

Participation in decision-making increases project impact...

21%

12%

12%

26%

15%

14%

Regulated Community Participation

Community Participation

Top-Down

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

All treated villages Tubewells feasible

Average change in fraction of householdswho report using safe drinking water

... but only when we impose decision-making by consensusand rules on representation of women and the poor

Malgosia Madajewicz, Anna Tompsett and Ahasan Habib

Delegating Decision-making to Communities