Community empowerment through municipal service delivery : a proposed operational framework

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Legislation encourages local government! municipalitiesl local authorities inSouth Africa, to fulfil a development role. One of the main objectives ofmunicipalities performing a development role is to empower communities,especially previously disadvantaged communities. This study argues that theservices delivered by municipalities are an essential component of adevelopment orientation. In view of this fact, the study proposes an operationalframework, whereby community empowerment can be achieved throughmunicipal service delivery.The operational framework suggest that for community empowerment to beachieved through municipal service delivery, requires that the empowermentenabler (municipalities or departments within municipalities) should assure that:disadvantaged communities have access to services, services must bedelivered in a non-discriminatory manner, the community should understand therationale as to why the service is delivered, opportunity should be given forcommunity participation in the delivery process, there should be a constantinformation channel between the giver (enabler) and receiver of services, andhuman resources from the local community should be utilised where possible inthe delivery process.Lastly, a descriptive evaluation is undertaken of the health department'sapproach (at the Stellenbosch Municipality) to the delivery of primary healthcareservices and service infrastructure. The purpose of the evaluation is to ascertainwhether the principles as proposed in the operational framework are present inthe health department's approach to service delivery. The evaluation revealsthat most of the proposed principles of the operational framework features in thehealth department's approach to the delivery of primary healthcare services andservices infrastructure. Thereby, concluding that the health department followsto a certain extent an approach to service delivery that could ultimately lead tocommunity empowerment.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University