The effectiveness of integrated development plans in the Free State

[摘要] English: The Integrated Development Plans developed by local municipalities are the tool thatshould be used to ensure the sustainable development of both urban and rural areasthrough combating service-delivery backlogs and also high levels of unemployment andpoverty. Yet, the IDPs developed by municipalities (the study focuses on three localmunicipalities in the Free State) often fall short of achieving this objective as a result ofvarious obstacles, three of which were subjected to scrutiny during this research. Firstly,the use of development indicators aims to ensure the measurability of developmentinitiatives, thereby also ensuring the accountability of decision makers in localgovernment (Paper One). Development indicators guide municipalities in the allocationof scarce resources to those areas where they are most needed and, therefore form anessential part of an IDP. This paper explores the use of these indicators in the IDPs of thethree local municipalities in order to demonstrate the critical absence of adequatedevelopment indicators in the IDPs. The implications for development planning and localgovernance are also discussed. Secondly, community participation in developmentplanning will be discussed on the basis of the theory of community participation at boththe international and the national level (Paper Two). The focus of the discussions is onlevels of participation, as well as approaches to and methods of participation. The factorsaffecting community participation and the preconditions for effective communityparticipation are also considered. The process of community participation in integrateddevelopment planning in the three local municipalities is evaluated, with a particularfocus on the dangers of the tendency to engage in community participation in the IDPprocess for the sole purpose of compliance with legislation rather than for communityempowerment. Thirdly, local economic development within the three municipalities isexamined (Paper Three). The research focuses on the strategic approaches to LocalEconomic Development, in accordance with international and national guidelines,suggesting that in most cases, LED is limited to a number of small capital projects, andthat it is neither regarded as an integral part of all projects, nor directed at addressing thereal structural problems associated with small towns. These LED projects are identifiedhaphazardly with no strategic approach or guidelines, and this leads to their being bothunsustainable and dependent on continuous funding. In conclusion, the thesis presentsprincipal findings and recommendations to alleviate the challenges presented with regard to the use of development indicators, community participation and local economicdevelopment at the local government level.

[发布机构] University of the Free State