COLLEX: Solving Collective Action Problems in Development Contexts

In developing country contexts, government services often cannot be taken for granted. Such services may be unreliable, demand illicit payment to function, or simply be unavailable when needed most. If locals were better empowered to work towards solving problems in their own communities, the impact of governance deficits could be reduced in importance, leading to significant improvements in quality of life.This paper lays the foundation for an open-source software package, COLLEX, intended to help people take the management of collective action problems into their own hands, leading to the generation of public goods that may otherwise never arise.COLLEX advances psychologically-sound principles for communicating and structuring projects, handles rewards and failure, and addresses funding and maintenance concerns.