Solving collective action problems in the community

By combining traditional assets of trust and sharing with modern assets-educated men and women-the villagers can move beyond survival to development. Local leadership blended a keen understanding of the village culture with technical, managerial, and fundraising skills acquired through education and experience outside the village. The project's technical design matched the community's financial capacity and engendered a strong sense of community ownership). It was important that everyone contribute, maintain, and benefit from a project. The villagers in Ait Iktel had to be able to afford the project and subsequent maintenance costs. As Ali Amahan explained, "the grant from the Japanese Embassy for the electricity generator was vital. We could not have done the project without it, but it was important the villagers work hard to get that grant." If a project is designed, built, and entirely paid for by an outside entity, the community will have little sense of ownership.

Achieving unanimity is difficult, but in this village it was important for sustaining the dynamic and guiding traditional social capital in the direction of development. When consensus is lacking (as for the girls school), it is better to move forward on activities on which everyone agrees (the access road and electricity). Goodwill has time to develop, making it easier to reach consensus on the next project. By listening to, understanding, and addressing each family's objections to the school, the village reached a consensus, and the association prepared a highly successful project with locally appropriate features not found in the state education system.³¹

Scaling up community-driven development to a large number of villages requires visible commitment from the communities. It cannot be forced. Mohamed Amahane now works full time in 14 villages on community development, but he advises other villages only when they initiate the contact. He helps them identify "cultural translators," and helps them come up with projects that are within the village's means and capacity to manage. A national effort to support such activities and expand voice in local communities is gradually emerging.³²