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Community development

Water kiosk in urban unplanned settlement Community housing construction Women mixing concrete

Governments and City Councils often lack the capacity to provide adequate services to poor settlements. Communities, on the other hand, know the problems and can provide solutions, but often lack organization, know-how, funding and contacts. Communities can be assisted to improve their organisation and negotiation skills by organising themselves into Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), which represent the interests of the wider community.

Through the establishment of CBOs, poor people are able to plan and design improvements in their community, negotiate with local authorities for a greater share of investment resources, and organize construction, maintenance and service delivery projects. Governments, City Councils and donors can subsequently contract certain activities, such as the construction of a drain, to a CBO. Under such a community contract, the CBO will either carry out the work directly using local labour, or subcontract it to a local labour-based contractor. The use of labour-based technologies has the advantage that local people are gainfully employed and that a larger part of the investment is injected into the local economy, whilst the acquired skills remain within the community and can be used in maintaining the created assets. In addition, the local people's capacity to organize themselves is improved and their negotiating skills enhanced. The CBOs that are developed, have also provided a good basis for other initiatives, such as mutual health funds for the informal sector.

The identification of appropriate interventions in the community through a proper planning process, ensures that infrastructure is planned around local needs rather than vice-versa. The EIIP therefore also promotes the Integrated Rural Access Planning (IRAP) tool, a participatory planning tool which involves people in the decision making process from identification and prioritisation through implementation to operation and maintenance of the investments made. Combined with efforts to decentralize planning and decision-making functions to local authorities and local planning structures, this is an important tool in the democratisation of rural areas. Training of local authorities in the IRAP tool, greatly enhances their capacity to adequately plan local investments.

The Hanna Nassif community based settlement upgrading project in Tanzania
Hanna Nassif is an urban unplanned settlement located 4 km from Dar es Salaam city centre. The settlement is a low-income area with about 20,000 inhabitants. The Hanna Nassif community organized itself into a Community Development Association (CDA) to address its main problem: seasonal flooding.

It looked for assistance from the ILO, which resulted in the first phase of the community and labour-based project (1994 to 1996). In this phase, with technical assistance and using labour-intensive methods, the CDA constructed a main drain, roads and side drains to prevent flooding and to improve access in the settlement. With the help of direct financial contributions from donors, the CDA was in control of the construction works through community contracts. In addition, the CDA and staff members of the Dar es Salaam City Commission were trained in labour and community-based construction and maintenance techniques.

The CDA employed the residents of the area, which resulted in local employment creation and skills development. Various workers found jobs in construction and maintenance after the first phase of the project had ended. The CDA itself maintains the project infrastructure. It has set up a road toll, approved by the City Commission, under which each vehicle entering Hanna Nassif pays a fee. This provides sufficient local funds for maintenance. Trained local residents, with the assistance of the City Commission's engineer, carry out the maintenance.

In April 1997, the second phase of the project started. This phase aims to improve drainage, roads and footpaths in the remaining part of the settlement. However, due to the success of the first phase, the community wanted to address other problems as well. The second phase therefore also involves water provision, sanitation, solid waste management and credit schemes for micro-enterprises.

The CDA members have been trained in management, bookkeeping, leadership skills, etc., while the organization of the CDA has been strengthened and legalized to become a strong representative of the community. The City Commission and other donors are now in the process of replicating the approach in other settlements.

Community development

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