MRDV / Institute of Rural Development / See the attached abstract below

MPM / Oliver Reginald Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies / Community participation is a concept which is meant to ensure that community members are an integral part of processes that determine their destination in relation to their development needs. It is a means of empowering people by developing their skills and abilities to enable them to negotiate and make appropriate decisions for their development. Community participation, however, is not without its challenges. In most development projects initiated by local municipalities and other government departments, community participation appears to be an afterthought. In this regard, the study aimed to investigate challenges of community participation in Tickyline. The research methods used for this study were both qualitative and quantitative and data was collected from twenty-two (22) research participants using open-ended interviews and questionnaires. Data was analysed using thematic method and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Findings The study revealed that majority of the participants do not participate in development projects because some meetings are arranged during odd times, particularly during the initial phases of the projects. The study further revealed that these challenges of participation are influenced by officials who take decisions on behalf of communities as they regard the participants as less capable of taking independent decisions regarding their own projects. It was found that community projects are literally imposed to the communities and therefore, participation and community involvement is very minimal which consequently collapses the projects. Recommendations Consequent to the findings, it is recommended that community leaders should make community meetings open to all community members. There should be regular community gatherings to discuss issues affecting the community; and there should be inclusion of community members in every phase of projects by municipal and government members to ensure maximum participation in relation to development projects. The officials should regard the participants as important stakeholders in the development of the projects in the area. Community members should be literally made ii sole beneficiaries of development projects from the inception to the hand-over phase. By so doing, they will be able to sustain both themselves and the development projects within their area. / NRF

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how a landscape architect may help to address environmental decay and the threat of food scarcity that are the results of rapid urban growth. For this urban renewal scheme, it is proposed that the underutilized open spaces within the city are reclaimed and interconnected in order to maximize their potential, forming a continuous landscape network. It is believed that this landscape network needs to function beyond mere beautification in order to be successful and productive. A multifunctional strategy is thus brought forward, as emphasis is placed upon providing for food security and realizing the city’s wasted resources. Along with related economic and ecological advantages, ways in which open space may be more sustainably managed are explored. Acknowledging the sheer lack of municipal funds, community involvement is believed to be the catalyst of this vision. Surrounding neighbourhoods are hence proposed to be the maintainers of their surrounding open spaces, decreasing the monetary pressures on the authorities. Emphasis is placed on ways in which communities may be incorporated through designing for flexibility, pride of ownership and sense of belonging. A new identity that ties in with the original genius of place is ultimately promoted through this meaningful utility parkland. An abandoned stretch of land along the Walker Spruit between Pretoria’s Sunnyside East and Clydesdale suburbs served as a model for testing the hypothesis of a spatially continuous, linear and productive community park. / Dissertation ML(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / Unrestricted

Orientador: Regina Stella Spagnuolo / Resumo: Introdução. A participação da comunidade é uma das diretrizes do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), sendo entendida como instrumento fortalecer a democracia e ampliar a cidadania. O presente estudo insere-se no contexto da participação comunitária de conselheiros de saúde e no fortalecimento de suas práticas. O objetivo geral foi qualificar conselheiros/as municipais de saúde por meio de oficinas educativas e do método da pesquisa-ação, com vistas a melhorar a participação da comunidade enquanto diretriz do SUS. Os objetivos específicos foram: identificar as temáticas discutidas nas reuniões dos conselhos municipais de saúde; levantar as fragilidades e potencialidades da participação comunitária nos conselhos municipais de saúde por meio de revisão integrativa da literatura; analisar mapas conceituais desenvolvidos em oficinas educativas no âmbito da capacitação profissional de conselheiros/as municipais de saúde; compreender a percepção dos conselheiros em relação a sua função participativa nos conselhos de saúde. Método. O projeto foi aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa com Seres Humanos da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu – UNESP sob número 1.578.025/2016. Trata-se de pesquisa-ação, de abordagem qualitativa e multi métodos: oficinas educativas, observação participante e grupos focais. A construção de informações foi realizada em três municípios da região de saúde do Pólo Cuesta no interior do Estado de São Paulo no... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Introduction. Community participation is one of the guidelines of the Unified Health System (SUS), and is understood as an instrument to foster social capital, strengthen democracy and broaden citizenship. This study is part of the community participation of health advisors and the strengthening of their practices. The general objective was to qualify municipal health councilors throuch educational workshops and the action-research method, with a view to improving community participation as a SUS guideline. The specific objectives were: to identify the topics discussed in the meetings of the municipal health councils; to raise the weaknesses and potencial of community participation in municipal health councils through an integrative literature review; analyze conceptual maps developed in educational workshops in the scope of professional trainning of municipal councilors of health; understand the perception of counselors regarding their participative role in health councils. Method. The project was approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research with Human Beings of Botucatu Medical School - UNESP under number 1,578,025 / 2016. These are action research, qualitative and multi-method approaches: qualification workshops, participant observation and focus groups. Data collection was carried out in three municipalities in the health area of the Cuesta Pole in the interior of the State of São Paulo in the years 2016 and 2017. Documental analyzes, qualification workshops and focus... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

As a mega-city and the most populated city in Africa, Cairo is characterised by a high birth rate, escalating rural-urban migration and where the socio-economic services are centralized and overwhelmed, these generally poor migrants have no choice other than to create and develop their own informal shelter in the outer city areas that lay farthest from the reach of the authorities and from where they then search for better job opportunities. The expansion of these slum areas places an extra burden on the already deteriorated natural and unplanned urban environments. No government or public sector mass production housing units . inherited from the former socialist system . have been able to cope with the magnitude of housing demand nor is the private sector interested in investing in a non-profitable market. At this juncture there is an urgent requirement for new ways of thinking that address the realities of the situation and consider integrated socioeconomic long-term solutions for the informal settlements. Under the Egyptian-German Cooperation, GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit) proposed the Participatory Urban Upgrading Program as a possible means of addressing the problem which is based on stimulation, promotion and effective participation of local communities in the upgrading process. The Participatory Urban Upgrading Program operates at two levels, (i) the local level: through .Demonstration projects. to be applied to a limited geographical area. Ezbet Bekhit Demonstration Project is the case of the present study and (ii) the national level: the experiences gained through several .Demonstration Projects. will give substance, and thereby prominence to the participatory approach, so that the Program has an increasingly beneficial impact on the national policy. The experiences gained from Ezbet Bekhit Upgrading Project will offer the opportunity to examine the main concept expressed by the Program and increase the prospects of having an impact on the urban upgrading policy at the national level. The current study attempts to develop and assess the overall Participatory Upgrading Programme and Ezbet Bekhit Project within a framework of benchmarks extracted from the program concept. At the Project level, the focus of thesis analysis is based on aspects that explain the Project’s approach to solving basic problems. Attention is placed on the involvement of local inhabitants in the solutions at the planning and implementation levels. A Model of Community Participation is proposed for application in a selected upgrading component. The Model is based on the .Community Action Planning., which has been developed by Hamdi and Goethert as an appropriate planning tool that can stimulate and organize a non-cohesive community type. At the Program level, recommendations are presented in this study, which have been extracted from the main pillars of the Program concept and characterized the driving forces influencing the main objectives and orientating the goals of the upgrading projects. It is contended that an in-depth understanding and analysis of the specific socio-economic conditions and the community profile of the selected informal settlements; together with an explicit governmental policy supporting the Participatory Urban Upgrading Approach will enhance the success of Participatory Projects.

Flooding over the last few years has become the most frequent and devastating of the natural disasters. This has accounted for approximately half of the death-rate and a third of economic losses as a result of weather-related events. Though these flooding events affect many cities across the globe, it is often the less fortunate who are disproportionately impacted by such events. There are many factors as to why this is the unfortunate case, with a high number of the underprivileged urban population finding themselves living in informal settlements. These settlements are often developed on environmentally-fragile land on steep sites or floodplains and lack the adequate waste and drainage systems that control the flow of water, further aggravating the flood risk within these areas. These uneven hardships are no different to Cape Town metropolitan region. Flooding has become an annual recurrence for the city during the wet winter months between May and September, with the informal settlements in the Cape Flats low-lying area bearing the brunt of this impact. The research therefore aims to explore how integrated flood control design within urban development can contribute to creating social and environmental sustainable interventions for flood resilience in informal settlements within the Cape Town municipality. One of the most important findings was the strong relation between waste as one of the largest contributors to the flooding events in these settlements, which became a key driver for investigation within the research. Kosovo informal settlement is one of the hardest hit communities during Cape Town’s high rainfall winter seasons and will used as the case study area for the research. The objective of the study is to investigate the existing condition and the involved stakeholders to develop well thought design strategies and toolbox for the municipality, planners, and residents. The design strategies and toolbox provides mechanisms to rethink flood prevention measures by shifting from creating barriers [interrupt], to mechanisms that engage with floodwater [interact] within a case study area. This research has attempted to position the community at the centre. Community participation and collaboration with key stakeholders will allow the residents to contribute with their local knowledge, experience and voices, sharing their views on the design solutions that are required to be integrated into their spaces.

Thesis (M. A. (Media Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Citizen journalism has the potential to enhance the state of community newspapers. The emergence of digital media brought about the concept of citizen journalism, allowing ordinary citizens to practice journalism similar to professional journalism. The resultant high volume of news information from ordinary citizens, despite its benefits, leaves editors grappling with what enters the news gate. This study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of editors of community newspapers in Limpopo province of South Africa towards integrating citizen journalism into their daily journalism practices. This qualitative study used interview guide for data collection from a total of six (7) community newspaper editors in the province. The findings of the study indicate that most editors of community newspapers have positive perceptions towards citizen journalism. They are of the view that it could contribute positively towards their organisations particularly in strengthening democratic participation as a corner stone of community media, increasing the circulation of their newspapers, and assisting their communities to strive and strengthen their relationship with the outside world. However, they are not keen to incorporate citizen journalism in their professional practices. Their expressed concerns are lack of ethics and other basic journalistic skills in citizen journalism and the possibility of encumbering the process of news gatekeeping. However, due to many positive impacts of citizen journalism, editors should endeavour to find ways to incorporate citizen journalism into their organisations. Keywords: Gatekeeping, citizen journalism, community newspapers, community participation, news editors

[pt] Esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar a vida das mulheres moradoras da Favela da Rocinha, na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, questionando quais são as formas e possibilidades de atuação e resistência face aos processos cotidianos de opressão e como o território influencia e muitas vezes delimita sua vivência diária. O estudo foi realizado a partir do ano de 2007, que marca o início do Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento-Urbanização de Assentamentos Precários (PAC-UAP) do governo federal, até os dias atuais. O objeto de estudo é a territorialidade feminina, ou seja, a influência da mulher que, apesar da violência e da qui, molda o território estigmatizado da favela, que é considerado como não pertencente à cidade, e também sua resistência aos processos de opressão diários. Desta forma, esta dissertação visa analisar as ações femininas que reconfiguram o território da favela, através das práticas de resistência e da participação em coletivos políticos e ONGs. Como universo de análise, foi escolhida a favela da Rocinha, no Rio de Janeiro, pelo importante papel da mulher como ativista social e política desde o início do assentamento deste bairro, que conta com um longo histórico de mobilização comunitária e luta por direitos. A pesquisa utilizou procedimentos metodológicos dialéticos e indutivos, através da articulação de conceitos da teoria crítica feminista com a observação participante em reuniões de um grupo comunitário local da Rocinha. Como resultado, espera-se que a pesquisa ofereça contribuições, a partir da perspectiva de gênero, para a elaboração de políticas públicas, projetos e estratégias de urbanização de favelas que levem em consideração as questões das mulheres nestes territórios. / [en] This thesis aims to analyze the lives of women living in Favela da Rocinha, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, questioning the ways and possibilities of acting and resisting the daily processes of oppression and how the territory influences and often delimits their daily experience. The study was carried out from the year of 2007, which marks the beginning of the federal government s Program for Accelerating Urban Growth-Urbanization of Precarious Settlements (PAC-UAP), to the present day. The object of this research is, then, women s territoriality, i. e., how women s deliberate actions and daily practices to resist oppression shape the stigmatized territory of the squatter settlement, despite violence and the absence of the State, which considers this territory as not belonging to the city. This thesis intends to analyze women s actions that reconfigure the favela s territory through resistance practices and participation in political collectives and NGOs. The favela Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, was chosen as the universe of analysis for the important role of women as social and political activists since the beginning of the settlement of this neighborhood, which has a long history of community mobilization and fighting for rights. The research utilizes dialectical and inductive methodological procedures, through the articulation of concepts from feminist critical theory with participant observation in local group meetings in Rocinha. As a result, it is expected that the research will contribute from a gender perspective to the elaboration of public policies, projects and strategies for the upgrading projects of slums that take into account the issues of women in these territories.

The concept of participation seems to reflect in most development programmes that involve people at the grassroots level. In Ghana, the introduction of the decentralization programme in the late 1980s that aimed at promoting effective, comprehensive and rapid development, more especially in the rural areas also adopted participatory approach. The approach led to the introductory of district assembly system which was to enhance the involvement of people at the grassroots in participatory activities. However, since the introduction of the decentralisation system to promote grassroots level participation, the people are still inactive and the level of involvement in development decision-making still remains weak. To clearly understand these problems, the thesis has aimed at answering the following research questions; how are rural people involved in participatory practice in the development activities in their area; what barriers affect and hinder the active participation of rural people and how could these be addressed? Answers to those questions helped to examine the nature of participation at the grassroots level; understand how the district assembly adopt participatory practice and to ascertain the nature of barriers that hinder effective participatory practice. Using a case study approach for the investigation, an interpretivists and constructivists were the philosophical underpinnings of the investigation. The data was gathered through the use of focus group discussions and one-to-one informal interviews. It was observed that, participation continues to reflect in most rural development programmes, but there are key barriers that still continue to hamper the effectiveness of participatory practice. Power relations, threats, intimidations and more especially the use of juju and witchcraft which never featured in most development literature are among the major barriers that continue to weaken local people readiness to actively participate. Most rural people feel threaten to participate for the fear of being bewitched or killed through the use of juju, witchcraft or black magical powers. Without critically and effectively addressing those bottlenecks and barriers, and put community members at the pivot of decision-making, the use of outsiders¿ knowledge and ideas alone to address the problems of participation with the hope of improving the lives of the rural people will not yield any significant result. / Title page missing

Thesis (MPAM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The study sought to assess the effectiveness of Integrated Development Planning as a tool to promote community participation in Fetakgomo Tubatse Municipality, Limpopo Province. A qualitative approach was used for data collection from a sample size of 20 municipal officials. An interview schedule was the chosen research instrument. Data was analyzed through thematic analysis. Measures were taken to ensure that the study results were credible, transferable, dependable, and confirmable. The study findings revealed that the effectiveness of the IDP as a tool for enhancing community participation was being hampered by loss of confidence in the IDP by the community; the COVID-19 pandemic; poor participation and lack of leadership commitment. In addition to the fact that community participation within the municipality was affected by challenges such as low literacy levels in the community the municipality also failed to deliver on past promises and logistical challenges. It was recommended that the municipality put plans into action to regain public confidence; introduce ward-level participation; use social media to reach wider audience and form an oversight committee to oversee the municipality’s financial accountability issues.