Browsing by Author "Ndalifilwa, Rosalia Mwafikange"
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- ItemAssessing community participation in the upgrade of informal settlements : a case study of the formalisation of the Democratic Resettlement Community, Swakopmund, Namibia(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Ndalifilwa, Rosalia Mwafikange; Theron, Francois; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.ENGLISH SUMMARY : Community participation has become an important aspect in the practice of upgrading informal settlements. Since the commencement of democracy in Namibia, municipalities have increasingly been encouraged to promote and empower the people to participate in municipal affairs. This case study assessed community participation in a formalisation project by evaluating the approach taken by the Swakopmund Municipality (SM) during the formalisation of the Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC) informal settlement. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of the municipality’s approach to community engagement. This was achieved by evaluating the structures and open spaces adopted to allow the participation of project beneficiaries in the upgrading process. Furthermore, the study aimed to evaluate the level of participation by community members, which was achieved by examining the strategies/platforms used to participate during the upgrading of the DRC settlement, using the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum model and Arnstein’s (1969) ladder typologies. Lastly, the study made recommendations to improve communication between Swakopmund Municipality and the DRC during the on-going upgrading of the informal settlement. A random sample of thirty participants of the DRC community (both ordinary community members and community leadership committee members) and a purposive sample of three municipal officials and four councillors took part in the study. Due to work obligations, the mayor and general manager of the community development services department were not available for interviews. A questionnaire was used to gather data from DRC participants and interviews were held with municipal officials and councillors. Research observations were made regarding participants’ behaviour under natural conditions (not experimental conditions). A corpus analysis of archived governance documentation was made and a literature study conducted to determine the theoretical grounding of the study and the level of compliance of the Swakopmund Municipality to legislation, regulations and best practice regarding community participation. This study relied on the arguments of the IAP2 (2007) public participation spectrum and Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of participation and its typologies concerning community participation, as conferred by Theron, Ceaser and Davids (2007:8), who argue that the two schools of thought can significantly influence the processes in the upgrading of an informal settlement. In the analysis of the level of participation by both ordinary community members and community leadership committee members, it was revealed that participation is still at a tokenism level and has not yet reached a level where participants are empowered by the process. In this case, participation is applied as a form of information sharing and, although done with the best intensions, it does not serve to empower the affected community. This study adopted a mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative methods and an evaluative research design. The aim of the evaluative design was to measure the level of participation which is indicative of the municipality's perspective on community participation. It was discovered that the SM does not have a principal strategy in place towards achieving meaningful participation, which is the community participation policy. The structures to advance community participation are not properly used and also not enough efforts have been made to promote community participation. This is seen in the absence of ward committees and democratically elected community leaders. SM showed a tendency to use platforms for information-sharing and not one for meaningful community input. This study recommends that a detailed community engagement policy be drafted with the relevant stakeholders, while the existing platforms of participation and exiting strategies to promote community participation in the SM be reviewed.