| Summary: | The purpose of this thesis is to explore a feasible approach for upgrading the largest slum
community, known as Mahaiyawa, in the inner city area of the Kandy, Sri Lanka. The
community has been living in this location for over three generations, but the existing
government institutional structure has not responded to ensure the economic, social and
environmental well-being of the people. The existing practices of the urban governmental
system to solve the problems of the community have not been successful. Instead, the
further fragmentation of urban institutional network is the norm in Kandy.
Considering the empirical evidence of institutional constraints and conflicts, the thesis
mainly focuses on the lack of local government capacity as a crucial factor to be
addressed in taking measures for upgrading the slum community. Although Sri Lanka
implemented a decentralization policy at the beginning of 1980s, the functional autonomy
of the local governments is still limited due to a number of factors. The lack of local
governments' capacity is identified in four major areas, i.e. fiscal powers, access to
financial resources, legal authority and professionally qualified personnel. This impairs
accountability, transparency, management efficiency and the active role of civil society
groups in governance.
The thesis argues that capacity-building of the local government through decentralization
of powers is a necessary policy reform, but this is not a sufficient condition for creating a
new form of good governance. It requires both the ability and the collective responsibility
of local authorities, actors in civil society, including representatives of the slum
communities, if a new form of governance is to be created for addressing the problems of
slum communities.
The thesis concludes that the inability to solve the problems of Mahaiyawa slum
community is mainly due to the lack of local government capacity, and therefore, certain
aspects of the local governments' capacity should be strengthened. Capacity-building of
local government necessarily involves promotion of collective planning and
implementation to solve the problems for upgrading the Mahaiyawa slum community.
This study suggests that any effort to upgrade the slum community or relocate it to
another area should be made in consultation and negotiation with the community and its
leaders, to sufficiently address their concerns, particularly regarding ethnicity, culture and
social aspects, and their locational dependency on the city for economic reasons.
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