Concepts of social capital have been prominent in development discourse but have rarely been applied to practice and policy. It is becoming accepted that poverty elimination strategies in urban communities need to build on people’s existing social capital – their associations, networks and key contacts. However, without a better understanding of how the poor feel about groups, leaders and institutions it will not be possible to end their social exclusion and to successfully engage them in service delivery.

A two-year project undertaken by Social Development Direct, in collaboration with South African and Sri Lankan partners, sought to help development practitioners engage with communities and groups. Ideas of social capital were translated and applied to develop practical tools for engagement. A package of three documents offers findings from research in nine urban communities in Durban and Colombo and a user guide on developing research tools to identify social capital and policy implications.

Researchers classified social networks into three basic types: bonds (the support of family and friends), bridges (social protection and livelihood enhancing associations with others in the community – perhaps via informal savings and credit groups) and links to people with power and influence outside the community. For the marginalised, links to those with more resources are often non-existent.

The poor tend to use trusted individuals (often without formal social status) to link into institutions while officials and aid agencies use formalised pathways into communities. Conventional models of community engagement – through development committees, local leaders or area-wide organisations – may be administratively convenient, but do not necessarily reach into the most vulnerable pockets of urban communities.

Evidence from Colombo and Durban suggests that:

• The networks of the poor are highly localised and not immediately apparent to outsiders.
• Community-based organisations (CBOs) working across many neighbourhoods often fail to link up with the poorest and do not provide an effective link between the poor and external agencies.
• CBOs can capture resources – rather than channel them – and often collapse when external programme funds dry up.
• People excluded from community support often exhibit the anxiety this causes by being argumentative and critical in ways not considered as appropriate social behaviour – thus further contributing to their marginalisation.
• The often-ignored field of emotional capital – confidence, resilience and the ability to trust and participate in groups – is easily eroded by chronic poverty, conflict and trauma.
• Alongside the readily identifiable factors that weaken social capital – such as crime, trauma and HIV/AIDS – is the power of envy as a destroyer of relationships between peers.

Building inclusive cities in which slum dwellers are regarded as partners, rather than the source of problems will require:

• prioritising building on poor people’s social capital as an explicit poverty elimination strategy
• recognition that hard-to-reach groups may not necessarily be approachable through conventional means
• awareness that social capital cannot simply be equated with the number and range of groups in a community
• greater attention to people’s cognitive social capital – their ability to form associations.

Programmes targeted at the poor typically evaluate tangible physical impacts while overlooking the opportunities for social investment that interventions can bring. A social capital perspective focuses on people’s existing networks and how to connect to them. Tapping into these rich social networks opens up channels for resource flows and opportunities for sustainable connections between the poor and policy-makers.

Source(s):
‘Tapping into existing social capital: rich networks, poor connections’, Research Findings User Guide and Policy Implications, by Erika Fraser, Allyson Thirkell and Anne McKay, Social Development Direct, 2003

Funded by: DFID (IUDD R7831)

id21 Research Highlight: 28 May 2004

Further Information:
Social Development Direct
4th Floor
2 Caxton St
London
SW1H 0QH
UK

Tel: 44 (0) 20 7654 5323
Fax: 44 (0) 20 7654 3951
Contact the contributor: mail@sddirect.org.uk

Social Development Direct, UK

Institute for Participatory Interaction in Development (IPID)
591 Havelock Road
Colombo 6
Sri Lanka

Tel: 94 1 587 361
Fax: 94 1 587 361
Contact the contributor: ipidc@panlanka.net

KwaZulu-Natal Programme for Survivors of Violence (SINANI)
104 Tembalethu Community Centre
206 Burger Street
Pietermaritzburg
3201
KwaZulu-Natal
South Africa

Tel: 27 +33-342-1378
Fax: 27 +33-342-1378
Contact the contributor: psvpmv@iafrica.com

KwaZulu-Natal Programme for Survivors of Violence (SINANI), South Africa

Other related links:
'Black box of social capital: gender and Indonesian urban-rural networks'

'Capitalising on connections: improving understanding of urban social capital'

'Matching macro and micro: building bridges between policy and livelihoods'

Social Capital for development - World Bank