The role of public participation for the implementation of local economic development policy in urban municipalities: a case study of the Egodini Mall in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Date
2021
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Abstract
The parley of this study unfolds in conformity with the ascension that citizen participation in
policy and planning process within the local government is of importance. The rationale of this
dissertation is to examine the role of public participation in the implementation of local
economic development policies: a case study of the Egodini Mall in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Local Municipalities operating under the authority of the ministry of local government have
been awarded the sole responsibility to arrange roles, duties, and responsibilities with regards
to economic development. One of the objectives of introducing local government in Zimbabwe
is to foster citizen participation in policy and planning processes. Undertaking this study helped
expose the problem to the extent which the concept of public participation has an impact on
the overall local economic policy development initiatives within local municipalities.
This study made use of both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. For the
gathering of data, the researcher used focus groups, documents analysis and semi-structured
interviews. The study was conducted in the local municipality of the City of Bulawayo in
Zimbabwe. Utilizing the researcher’s judgment, respondents were identified for responding
through focus group discussions, questionnaires, and in-depth interviews. For this desired
study, the sample size included twenty-nine (29) local community members, twenty-(20)
officials from the Bulawayo City Council, twenty (20) officials from the residency
associations, twenty(20) representatives from the local economic stakeholders in Bulawayo. In
total data was collected from eighty-nine (89) respondents who in total formed part of the study.
For the sampling of the participants, the researcher employed both probability and nonprobability
sampling techniques. Data collected was analysed using the SPSS (Statistical
Package for Social Sciences) data analysis package thereby fully analysing the data in both
thematic analysis and statistical analysis.
The study exposed that public participation is essential for LED policy formulation and
implementation. The study further revealed that the Bulawayo City Council ought to take
advantage of the different environmental measures and must ensure and make use of prevailing
environmental factors such as political, technological, social and population mobilizers to
ensure active citizenship participation. The study recommended that the Bulawayo City
Council shifts from the bottleneck form of governance that favours the centralisation of
decisions to a more beauracratic governance system that recognizes the importance of public
participation for LED policies that are community averse.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.