An assessment of the role of participatory planning in the attainment of community owned CDF projects

Zambia, after independence adopted a top down planning approach which saw the government of Zambia implementing a number of development programmes. However, it was observed that a number of infrastructural programmes using this approach, were not sustainable as they were vandalized after implementation. This situation made the government of Zambia to shift to a bottom up planning approach in the 1990s and used the approach to implement a number of community projects. In the same line, the government introduced funds called Constituency Development Funds (CDF), to assist in funding community projects emerging from the community themselves in order to ensure ‘community ownership’ of these projects. These funds were sought to meet the immediate social needs of local communities by allowing them to participate in the planning process by identifying the infrastructural projects to be implemented in their own communities. However, despite the CDF community projects using this approach, they have still received a number of criticisms pertaining to the number of problems associated with them, of which their failure to attain community ownership (lack of sustainability) is one of them. CDF projects in Mufulira district have not been exceptional to such criticisms, a scenario that led to the author undertaking this exploratory case study research. The main objective of this research was to explore the strategies aimed at improving the participatory planning process in the CDF decision making process in order to attain community owned projects (sustainable projects). To execute this case study research, the author based the research on the theories of participatory planning and documented concepts such as concepts of self organization, project sustainability, community initiatives, and her acquired knowledge in CDF projects. In depth interviews were conducted with the community, local government officials, the various committees established under the local authority, the local contractor and Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) to assess the manner in which they participated in the planning process, how the planning process itself allowed for changes in project’s goals and lastly the outcomes of the planning process. The research established that, though the CDF community projects (e.g. Butondo street lighting) supposedly adopted a participatory planning approach during its planning and implementation process, it has been unable to attain community owned projects, as the planning process has been more of ‘rational planning’ in nature than ‘participatory planning’ as purported by the Zambian government. Most interesting still, the research identified a unique pattern of stakeholder’s participation during the CDF projects’ planning process; the community was just involved during the first stage (project identification) of the planning process and later on was totally excluded from the planning process leaving only the local authority in the process. This type of a planning process (rational planning) resulted into the stakeholders not building strong relationships that would have necessitated for the formation of project steering committees (to spearhead project’s activities) and collective actions/decision making. This scenario ultimately resulted into the lack of ‘community ownership’ of the implemented CDF project which was evidenced by the desertetion or non participation of the community in the operation and maintenance of the project thus, leaving the entire responsibility to the local authority. The project recorded a high number of vandalism and thefts rates, just six months after its implementation, making it not sustainable. In additional, exogenous factors such as CDF guidelines (rules), resources, time and centralized power vested only in the full council committee, also adversely affected the full participation of stakeholders in the process, thus, making the participatory planning process in the form of ‘rational planning’. Arising from these findings, the author recommends a number of actions among which includes, an immediate need for revision of the CDF guidelines to ensure a CDF participatory planning process which is more adaptive and inclusive in nature, so as to ensure the participation of a cross section of people from the community in the planning process.