Communitybased Information System CBIS: A Tool For Increasing Efficiency of Water Provision in Delhi

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New IT in the Old Political Economy An
Exploration of a Community-based GIS in Improving
Services to the Poor In New Delhi, India Thesis
Research
Claudia Canepa 2005
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Presentation Outline

• The Context Delhi and Its Challenges
• Background on Public Participation IT and the
  particular type which is the focus of this thesis
• Overview of Case Studies
• Findings

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Delhi and its Challenges

• Rapid population growth 4.3 percent per year
• Rising Poverty
• Multiplicity of government agencies with
  overlapping functions
• Challenges
• Deteriorating infrastructure
  and services
• Gap between the government
• and the poor

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Public Participation IT
Role of public participation information
technologies in bridging the gap between citizens
and government (i.e., helping government provide
services that are recognized by citizens as
serving their needs)
Government
Community
PPIT
More Need-based Service Delivery
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Focus of Thesis
One particular type of PPIT that merges
low-tech participatory mapping from the South
with the high-tech geo-spatial technologies of
the North
Community-based Information System (CBIS)
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Technologies
Planning, Learning and Action (PLA) Techniques
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Question
What are the opportunities and constraints of the
union of PLA with GIS in helping government
provide more need-based service delivery to the
poor? Why is it so difficult to implement and
sustain these types of projects?
CBIS
Need-based Service Delivery
Local Knowledge (PLA)
Planning Policy-Making
GIS
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Case Studies
Three CBIS production projects in Delhi (NIUA
CURE)
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2
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URBAN SERVICES
EDUCATION
WATER
WSP DJB
UNICEF
CARE
1998-2002
2002-2004
2004-Present
NIUA 15 NGOs
CURE
NIUA only
Production Without Government
Formal Partnership with Government
Initial Integration of GIS
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Planning Learning and Action (PLA)
Main themes -Bottom-up -Empowering the
marginalized -Self-help and private sector
(distrust of government) -Local Knowledge Main
Characteristics -Reversal of roles -Visually-base
d methods Strength and Weaknesses -Micro level
change -Limited influence over macro processes
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Geographic Information System (GIS)
A system of hardware, software, data,
people, organizations, and institutional
arrangements for collecting, storing, analyzing,
and disseminating information about areas of the
earth (Duerker and Kjerne 1989 7-8 quoted in
Chrisman 1997).
Capabilities Data inputting data storage and
retrieval data manipulation and analysis and
data reporting. Conventional GIS versus Public
Participation GIS (PPGIS)
Conventional GIS
PPGIS
Data accessibility through conventional GIS
Alternative GIS
Example CBIS in Delhi
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Merger of PLA with GIS
(1) Scale, (2) Legitimacy and (3) Integration
with Other Types of Knowledge
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Case Study 1 UNICEF Project
Focus Education Key Actors UNICEF, National,
State and Local Government Agencies, NIUA and 15
NGOs Goal Increase enrollment and retention of
poor children in primary schools by identifying
the issues that keep people out of school and and
mobilizing communities to alleviate these issues.
(NIUAs focus was on the micro). 120 settlements
(Phase 1) 180 additional settlements (Phase
2) Purpose of Integrating GIS To monitor the
scaled up micro-level work of the NGOs who worked
in 180 settlements (not to influence
policy) Outcome Community-capacity building
Need to pursue blank slate approach
Realization of potential of CBIS for helping
government plan more need-based service delivery
(more macro-level) triggered the beginning of a
potential shift in paradigm.
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Case Study 2 CARE Project
Focus Urban Services Key Actors CARE, four NGOs
and NIUA, Frontline government workers (only NIUA
collected data for the CBIS) Goal Improve basic
services by building infrastructure and helping
residents help themselves 20 settlements (NIUA
only) Purpose of Integrating GIS To make data
available to government, yet integration was done
in the same way as in the UNICEF project (which
did not facilitate scale, legitimacy,
etc.) Outcomes Community capacity building
Still very localized Tension between
participatory approach (blank slate) and the need
to focus on only one sector for purposes of
involving government inhibited CBIS production
Other impediments include approach to GIS
integration, lack of standards, procedures and
quality control of data collection.
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Case Study 3 DJB/WSP Project
Focus Water Key Actors DJB, WSP, CURE, Outside
consulting agencies Goal Collect necessary
data to adequately inform the pro-poor provisions
of the management contract and select
neighborhoods for pilot demonstration projects
Approximately 300 settlements (CURE) in 4
operational zones Purpose of Integrating GIS To
convert local data into a form that is useful to
policy makers Outcomes Co-production process
exposed CURE to the complexities and
multi-dimensional aspects of government, and
helped uncover some of the tensions to targeting
the poor within government. No
community-capacity building. Community-based data
integrated into DJB GIS. Direct access to policy
making, but minimal use of data. Deteriorating
relationships between some actors.
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Case Study 3 Lessons
-Importance of not regarding government as
monolithic. -Why were governments interested in
using the CBIS? - Access to policy-making -
Effects of government restrictions -Tension
between silos (participatory development versus
engineers and other professionals)
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Summary of Major Findings

• Main lessons from the combined experience of the
  three projects in terms of opportunities and
  limitations of the CBIS to influence policy
• Project 1 GIS need not scale up PLA work to
  influence policy its contribution was in the
  triggering of a potential shift in paradigm
• Project 2 True participatory approach may be
  inconsistent with CBIS production, especially for
  influencing policy. (need direct access to
  decision-making and formal partnership with
  government)
• Project 3 The need for individuals who can
  bridge the silos (participatory development
  practitioners versus engineers and other
  professionals) Need for activities that begin to
  converge the silos to the extent possible
  (example process for obtaining expert data).
• GIS acted as a catalyst for formally involving
  government in PLA-based work
• Do not regard government as monolithic
• Knowledge differentials and differences in
  knowledge requirements for different levels of
  personnel
• Recognize that structures and cultures within
  government differ between divisions and
  geographic areas (vertically and horizontally
  integrated).
• Policy makers are not within government or
  funding agency could be outside consultants too
  (find out who is drafting policy recommendations)
• Beware of extremes no need to limit oneself to
  PLA or local knwoeldge only, or qualitative
  information only
• Importance of both quantitative and qualitative
  data, local and expert knowledge (local knowledge
  need not be qualitative in nature similarly,
  expert knowledge need not be quantitative
• Unpack Local Knowledge
• Data collection of local knowledge has to be very
  rigorous to withstand critique (triangulate with
  multiple data of other sources primary and
  secondary data)
• Choose appropriate data collection method for
  gathering local knowledge need not be solely
  PLA depends on the type of information, the
  form it needs to be in and the purpose
• Involve all stakeholders at the beginning
  (including those outside contractors who the
  government will hire to do things)
• Reflect on ways to bridge communication gaps
  what are the tacit assumptions that each group
  has that may be in conflict with one another?
  Prevent Path-dependency - Reflection during and
  following a project to ensure that one is
  correctly interpreting lessons

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Conclusion
Importance of not taking a solely techno-centric
approach to building a GIS that is used by
government GIS can only do so much Need to
focus on the cultural, political, and
institutional factors that prevent greater
understanding between silos (converge discourses)
or that create internal tensions within
individuals and groups Opportunity of PLA and GIS
merger, to the extent that it helps lead to
partnership with government? The coming together
of two isolated groups for improving services to
the poor? Constraint? The lack of understanding
between the silos.