The Integrated Development Plans developed by local municipalities are the tool that
should be used to ensure the sustainable development of both urban and rural areas
through combating service-delivery backlogs and also high levels of unemployment and
poverty. Yet, the IDPs developed by municipalities (the study focuses on three local
municipalities in the Free State) often fall short of achieving this objective as a result of
various obstacles, three of which were subjected to scrutiny during this research. Firstly,
the use of development indicators aims to ensure the measurability of development
initiatives, thereby also ensuring the accountability of decision makers in local
government (Paper One). Development indicators guide municipalities in the allocation
of scarce resources to those areas where they are most needed and, therefore form an
essential part of an IDP. This paper explores the use of these indicators in the IDPs of the
three local municipalities in order to demonstrate the critical absence of adequate
development indicators in the IDPs. The implications for development planning and local
governance are also discussed. Secondly, community participation in development
planning will be discussed on the basis of the theory of community participation at both
the international and the national level (Paper Two). The focus of the discussions is on
levels of participation, as well as approaches to and methods of participation. The factors
affecting community participation and the preconditions for effective community
participation are also considered. The process of community participation in integrated
development planning in the three local municipalities is evaluated, with a particular
focus on the dangers of the tendency to engage in community participation in the IDP
process for the sole purpose of compliance with legislation rather than for community
empowerment. Thirdly, local economic development within the three municipalities is
examined (Paper Three). The research focuses on the strategic approaches to Local
Economic Development, in accordance with international and national guidelines,
suggesting that in most cases, LED is limited to a number of small capital projects, and
that it is neither regarded as an integral part of all projects, nor directed at addressing the
real structural problems associated with small towns. These LED projects are identified
haphazardly with no strategic approach or guidelines, and this leads to their being both
unsustainable and dependent on continuous funding. In conclusion, the thesis presents
principal findings and recommendations to alleviate the challenges presented with regard to the use of development indicators, community participation and local economic
development at the local government level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-01252008-105053 |
| Date | 25 January 2008 |
| Creators | Human, Frieda Marié |
| Contributors | Prof LJS Botes, Prof JGL Marais |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-01252008-105053/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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