Most development practitioners would list engaging communities in the provision of public services among best practices for improving access. However, whether community participation enhances provision and use of public services relative to a non-participatory approach is largely unknown because few studies compare impacts when the same public service intervention is implemented with and without community participation. This field experiment compares three approaches to providing safe water in rural Bangladesh. Delegating decisions to the community increases use of safe water by about 80% relative to a top-down provider making the same decisions but only when the approach to delegating decisions limits elite influence.

大多数发展从业人员会将参与社区提供公共服务的最佳实践列为改善获取机会的最佳实践。但是，相对于非参与性方法，社区参与是否能增强公共服务的提供和使用尚不明确，因为很少有研究比较有或没有社区参与的情况下实施相同的公共服务干预时的影响。该现场实验比较了孟加拉国农村地区提供安全水的三种方法。相对于自上而下的提供相同决策的提供者，将决策下放给社区可以使安全用水的使用增加约80％，但前提是下达决策的方法限制了精英的影响。