Community participation in housing development : the Boystown informal settlement project

Thesis (MPA (School of Public Management and Planning))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / One of the problems with development planning is a lack of community
participation. This is due to the top-down approach that dominates development
planning. To improve chances of sustainable development there is a need to
shift from a top-down approach towards a bottom-up approach. The bottom-up
approach promotes people-centred development. People-centred development
focuses on people and enhances their capacity to influence the direction and
implementation of the development process. Communities can only influence the
development process through their participation.
International bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank support the
concept of community participation in development planning. The South African
policy framework also provides for community participation. The change agents
should utilise this opportunity by sharing knowledge and by learning from the
indigenous knowledge of the community. This knowledge exchange between the
community and the change agents creates a platform for social learning, capacity
building and empowerment. It is through this platform that sustainable
development could be achieved. This kind of development process
accommodates the building blocks of development.
This study examines the level of community participation in a housing
development project at the Boystown informal settlement. It was found that there
is a lack of community participation in this project and that the project could be a
success if there is a higher level of participation by the beneficiaries.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1679
Date03 1900
CreatorsXali, Nomawethu
ContributorsTheron, Francois, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Management and Planning.
PublisherStellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
RightsUniversity of Stellenbosch

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