This text is the result of work that began early in 1996 by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. The first part of the book explores and documents the conditions under which the transfer of rural water supply schemes was sustainable and the conditions under which the transfer proved to be a failure. The first report found a great deal of raw potential for collective action in the self-delivery and self-management of rural water supply. It further explores what factors were most conducive to successful self-management and hence scheme sustainability and what factors were most likely to hinder collective action. However, the collective action observed and studied was for the most part spontaneous. Two hypotheses are explored in Part 2, a second study. First, that the raw potential for collective action could be galvanized into sustainable scheme management with the social mobilization of development NGOs. Second, that the critical factor for inducing collective action may be "demand" and the presence of such demand may incline communities towards social mobilization and collective action. Thus, demand and social mobilization could implement each other.
Interesting findings emerge from both reports. The book is addressed broadly to those concerned with development and more specifically to institutional economists concerned with collective action issues and the role of NGOs in fostering development and collective action.