Social capital, self-organization, and development

Social capital is a necessary complement to physical and human capital if projects are to have a long-term impact. This is one of the major lessons learned by the Decentralization, Finance, and Management project, a research and development effort focused on decentralized public service provision. Lacking understanding the importance of social capital and local institutions, national governments and donors have taken actions that destroyed some of the essential social infrastructure needed to make physical infrastructure operate. the concepts of social capital, and then applies these concepts to an understanding of a successful donor-assisted project (assisting farmer-owned irrigation) in a country (Nepal) where many donor-assisted projects have had few positive returns. (Author abstract, modified)