Small dams and social capital in Yemen : how assistance strategies affect local investment and institutions

This report examines the development of eight small dams in nNorth-Central Yemen and investigates how external assistance affects incentives for local people to invest in dam development and water delivery systems and also to create rules, property rights and institutional arrangements to manage the dam and water. The study shows how external assistance is designed and arranged and how it can have a substantial effect on the motivation of local people to make investments and build social capital to manage and benefit from the new infrastructure. Those villagers who invest in the construction of a dam consider it as their own property. They define their own criteria for membership and identify rules for investment, water extraction, water distribution, silt removal and canal maintenance. The cases support the view that the method of assistance and the incentives they generate may be more important than the social context in building local organizational capacity and producing synergy from joint state and community investment. Evidence suggests that cases with high proportions of external assistance tend to also have poorly developed rules for investment, water rights and irrigation system management. The report provides recommendations on how assistance strategies may be designed in order to stimulate local investment and facilitate the development of social capital.