Distribution Effects in resource management

A Distribution Effect occurs when people perceive that an organization has a bias in favor for or against a specific group through the way they distribute resources.

The criteria interveners use to select recipients of assistance or to hire their staff or identify their partners often match with local identity groups. If the choices about who to help, who to hire or with whom to partner favor one group over others, and thus provide important resources for survival to this group, the assistance becomes contested and can be a serious source of tension and conflict.

The following section describes a common type of distribution effect, with some examples. The examples are not exhaustive of the type, but rather illustrative of a pattern we have seen repeated in many places.

Distribution Effects in resource management

Resources that are used in common, such as water, forest, or pasture, are always challenges to manage. When more than one group wants to access a resource this can lead to conflict.

When working with communities to manage natural resources through new infrastructure, access points, technology, organization, etc, the benefits tend to be provided to specific people because of some criteria. These criteria can be economic or social, geographical, political, identity-based, or technical. All of these tend to be gathered within identity groups.

Water, in the form of wells, boreholes, sandtraps, irrigation canals and the like, is often a source of tension.When a new well is dug in a location where a single identity group is more likely to reap the benefit, other identity groups in the area will become angry. Dividers are heightened. Further, those who are left out become suspicious of the motivations of the group who dug the well for the “other” group.

Do No Harm users have found ways to help groups who are contending over water resources to come together around the shared resource. Most people recognize their mutual interdependence on water resources and, when local allocation systems that are trusted can be tapped, groups can become better connected through working together to share a scarce resource.

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