Rural Access Programme

Fact Sheet

Personal and Social Capital Accumulation

Introduction to Personal and Social Capital Accumulation (PSCA)

One of the key aspects of the RAP goal will to be to ensure that poor, socially excluded people are included and play a part in the development process. This important part of the RAP development process is referred to as Personal and Social Capital Accumulation (PSCA) and 'Empowerment’. The approach recognises the importance of gender in the whole process.

PSCA will occur both as a means to an end and as an end in itself. As a means it enables poor people to take advantage of the new opportunities for income generation that arise, and as an end it will increase their dignity, self-confidence and ability to deal more effectively with other situations i.e. it will empower them.

Members of the RBGs will be paid for their work, over a period of time considered sufficient for them to be able to plan and accumulate some savings (minimum of 60 days and up to 150 days each year for three years). The income generated directly by employment and the savings accumulated should enable people, women and men to increase their productive and financial capital, and so help develop more secure and sustainable livelihoods.
Specific attention is placed on the position of women. It is essential, that in mixed groups the voices of women are heard, and in women's groups that the voices of those who face problems with communicating are also heard. This will ensure personalised social capital enhancement.
In addition they will be able to benefit from a range of other EPIs designed to reduce their vulnerability (protecting activities) and to increase their capabilities (enhancing activities), including their personal and social capital.
The thinking behind this process is that more secure and sustainable livelihoods can only be achieved by a combination of human development (personal and social capital accumulation), economic development (financial and physical capital accumulation) and resource development (physical and natural capital accumulation). RAP is designed to enhance and protect all these aspects of capital accumulation:

1. Protection of the natural environment – green roads;
2. Creation of sustainable infrastructure;
3. Promotion of savings, income generation, and improvements in local production;
4. Capacity building and empowerment.

The Enhancing and Protecting Interventions (EPIs) will be focused specifically on points 3 and 4, enhancing and protecting the accumulation of personal and social capital, (EPIs for PSCA).

EPIs for PSCA

If the enhancing, enabling and protecting activities which make up the EPIs are going to increase PSCA, then specific human resource development ‘packages’ have to be developed.

For example, members of the RBGs need the specific communication, literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to articulate their needs in meetings, keep records and accounts and to understand the transparency process to ensure they are not being cheated. To this end RAP has developed a specific set of materials based on the road building activities. These materials are used to enhance the skills of local people working on the programme. For example, “Mero kitau: Mero bikas” (My book: My development) is a workbook used to teach illiterate people basic literacy and numeracy skills using the context of road building situations. Lessons will be conducted during the road construction activities and beyond, therefore enabling the PSCA process.

Also the members of the RBGs need to be able to harness their existing livelihoods to new sources of income, from employment and from micro-enterprise development. In order to help them take advantage of various jointly identified opportunities for more secure and better paid employment and other Income Generating Activities (IGAs). RAP will be developing a range of ‘pilot packages’ to be discussed with members of RBGs in coming months.

There are many possible components in such a 'package' of EPIs for PSCA, which may vary according to specific areas. Some of the expected outputs are listed below.

Enable people to have greater access to information and be less dependent on others for interpretation of facts.
Enable people to know their rights, giving them greater independence in their decision making.
Enhance prospects for transparency in all RAP and other operations through people having a better understanding of their rights and entitlements.
Protect people from vulnerability, those who would otherwise be cheated or mislead.
Enable and encourage people to take an active interest in the contractual arrangements, physical and infrastructural work allocation and payment and measurement procedures. This enhances greater prospects for transparency of operations and payments.
Enhance prospects for successful ‘savings and credit groups’ to be established, transactions and accounts being understood by most, if not all, the members.
Enable poor people to have an enhanced perception of how they might benefit in the longer term, as well as in the short/medium term, from road building opportunities.
Encourage people to have a long term perspective and interest. Develop their responsibility based on their vested interest and sense of ownership.
Enable previously ‘excluded’ people to be ‘included.’ An important component of the ‘empowerment process’.

Enhance social mobilisation through capacity building.

EPIs for PSCA enhance prospects for poor and socially disadvantaged people to have dignity, self-confidence and a greater control over their own lives.

PSCA activities will, it is planned, enable the poorest, socially excluded people within specific communities to benefit from the short, medium and long term opportunities provided by RAP. The initial employment of carefully identified members of local communities near the proposed road in road construction activities provides the economic and social basis from which the critically important process of empowering poor people and transforming their livelihoods and their local communities can develop.