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Evaluating the importance of community participation in infrastructure delivery in the Western Cape

Thesis (MTech (Construction Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / There is a realisation that new emphasis and added responsibilities are heing placed on
professional consultants to involve local communities in the development process. The traditional
hierarchical 'top-down" approach which characterised the way projects were initiated and
managed by construction professionals in the past has lost favour with the Department of Public
Works (DPW). It is therefore necessary for professionals to change their thinking, react and adapt
to change. This will require a major paradigm shift on the part of the construction professional
consultants.
The World Bank advocates three measures to reform the provision of infrastructure services,
namely wider application of commercial principles to service providers, broader use of
competition, and increased involvement of users where commercial and competitive behaviour is
constrained.
The need for people involved in development to be placed in the centre also suggests the
implementation of specific and intruding shifts in emphasis. Policies and strategies directed
mainly at the control of natural settings, technological considerations, economic structures and
demographic conditions have to be replaced by policies that take full cognisance of concomitant
values, customs, social structures and political participation.
The study examined the lack of community participation in current community development
projects in South Africa which resulted in their diminished usefulness to beneficiary
communities. The study had five main objectives namely (a) To highlight the importance of
community participation in development projects through a theoretical study; (b) With the use of
surveys establish whether community development projects involve the participation of the
beneficiary community in all the stages of a project; (c) To show the Current project delivery
systems enhance community participation; (d) To highlight the effect that community dynamics
has on the process of delivering development projects and (e) Show through a survey that
beneficiary communities do not accept ownership of projects unless they participate in these
projects.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/1055
Date January 2005
CreatorsKhan, Zainunisha
PublisherCape Peninsula University of Technology
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/

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