Governance and community participation : a collective approach for upgrading the Mahaiyawa slum community in Kandy, Sri Lanka

• Main Author: Ranjith, J. G. Sri.
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10753

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.