The citizen voice project: an intervention in water services in rural South Africa
SOURCE: IDS Bulletin
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2009
TITLE AUTHOR(S): D.Hemson, I.Buccus
KEYWORDS: POVERTY, RURAL COMMUNITIES, WATER SERVICE DELIVERY
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 6403
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/4212
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/4212
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2009
TITLE AUTHOR(S): D.Hemson, I.Buccus
KEYWORDS: POVERTY, RURAL COMMUNITIES, WATER SERVICE DELIVERY
DEPARTMENT: Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 6403
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/4212
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/4212
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Despite a legal framework for participation in South Africa, poor citizens have not to date been able to access the public services they need, leading some to talk of a 'second democracy', the political system as experienced by the poor. This action-research study involved local government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community leaders and community mobilisation to develop Water Services Scorecards, in rural Mbizana in the Eastern Cape. Water services had been grossly inadequate and were worsening. Communities were facilitated to analyse their own water-related problems; to establish standards and to measure services against indicators adapted from national policy frameworks. The case study documents the process, and reflects on its outcomes. It notes disappointment that service improvements had not been immediate. A crucial constraint, it concludes, was weak inter-level local government coordination; these are higher-order problems that local civil society action of the Citizen Voice Project type is not well positioned to tackle.-
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