Many concerns at the international level have circled around the topic of sustainability in
development, and the likelihood of maintaining this development for the coming generations.
On the other hand, on recent decades the concept of ‘community participation’ in
development is highly valued and promoted as an alternative and sustainable approach to the
top-down one.
Hence, this research aims at describing the community participation and gender issues at play
in rural water supply and sanitation projects as an important strategy of poverty alleviation in
the sub-district of Maubara and in Timor-Leste as a whole. The research is done using a
qualitative methodological approach with two case studies in two hamlets as the main focus.
By drawing on some of the main theoretical paradigms of development and community
participation, as well as those of gender studies, the research puts forward four main ideas that
have been empirically explored:
i) Community participation, especially when directed to basic needs and infrastructures, can
have greater potential to mobilize the collective action to address immediate needs.
ii) Community participation is not static or given, it has been regenerated and changed over
time even though it is framed in a top-down approach, a free space is given to the community
members to exercise their autonomy, such as, they can set their own rules for collecting
payment for maintenance funds according to the economic condition of each household. They
can also exercise their local knowledge to improve the water system for their own well-being.
iii) The socio-economic, cultural, institutional, natural, and leadership figures, to a certain
extent, have a significant impact on community participation and therefore on the
sustainability of water distribution. However, a minor difference in the findings reveals that a
high level of education is not a determinant factor that directly influences the participation of
the community, but rather it is the experience of affiliation in an organization and on a social
group that has a great impact
iv) Gender inequality, especially when rooted in cultural and social practices that have hardly
changed and are deeply embedded in social institutions, may be reduced by the introduction
of more egalitarian practices, when and if the community development principles are fully
implicated in actual programs and concrete projects.