Co-production of community managed operations and maintenance: taking a critical view on rural water schemes in Ethiopia

In this paper we take a critical view on community managed operations and maintenance of rural water schemes and examine the responsibilities and power relations produced within community management in the Ethiopian water sector. In particular, we focus on the ways in which the co-production of public services is practiced in community managed operations and maintenance processes. Through analyzing 53 interviews with district officials, community water committee members and local suppliers, and the recently drafted National Rural Water Supply Operation and Maintenance Management Strategic Framework we illustrate how the macro-level policies on community managed operations and maintenance and institutional co-production can be enacted in a more micro-level construction of power relations. In the study we identified several responsibilities that were shared by several organizational levels, and examined how they were embedded in the organizations’ formal and informal hierarchies. By taking a critical approach to community managed operations and maintenance, we have also been able to explore some unwanted consequences of emphasizing community management in rural water supply.