EVALUATION OF TWO TYPES OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Abstract

Many of the peripheral communities surrounding the Sudanese cities and urban regions are ethnically and culturally homogeneous, keeping many of their cultural and social values alive, this has created a situation where the traditional “community-driven” planning and the legislative “government-initiated” replanning (village incorporation) spatially occur in the same space, often over a short period of time. While these two “timely different” planning approaches might share the same objectives, their approach of involving citizens and building consensus is generally different, quite often conflicts. The purpose of this article is three folds: to emphasise on the importance of the traditional form of Sudanese community participation named as “Nafeer”; to develop a conceptual framework for evaluating community participation in development projects; and to use this framework to evaluate both the traditional “community-driven” and the legislative “government-initiated” forms of community participation in the neighborhood of Al-shigla. Using an analytical approach through a comparison strategy, this article argues that community participation quality and quantity prior to the replanning process is higher than that conceived after.