| dc.description.abstract | There has never been common understanding of the concept of community participation. Along with the positive
effects, various authors have also pointed out many negative outcomes. Nevertheless, community participation is
still being practiced in various ways. Initiated by the researcher's own interest, this study is carried out for
assessing community participation in a public urban improvement project of Nepal. The major objective is to
understand the relationship of 'community participation on the ground' to 'project's success'. Therefore the main
research question posed for the purpose of this study is – 'How did the community participation within the UEIP
Banepa impact the project's success?' Among the numerous subprojects carried out within UEIP, three
subprojects are selected as study units. They are - i) Road Upgrading Subproject, ii) Urban Community Facilities
and Urban Area Improvement subproject and iii) Sanitation and Waste Water Management Subproject.
The main theoretical bases for carrying out this study are' (i) the interrelationship of the objective, intensity and
instruments of community participation' and (ii) OECD success criteria for projects. The 'four questions of
participation'- contribute to identifying these three dimensions of community participation in project. Various
existing ladder of participation are also referred as useful base for evaluation.
'Case study' was adopted as research method and qualitative data were analyzed for the research. The sub
projects are analyzed on the process of community participation, the factors that affected the process and their
outcome in resulting project's success. It was found from the analysis that a common approach of community
participation that was carried out in the subprojects was not always contributing towards the long term project
success. There were various factors on the ground that affected the process. They were mainly -the limitations of
projects approach, nature of job of the subprojects, community availability for participation and formal/informal
energy flow in participation. Depending upon these factors on the ground, the community participation reached to
a moderate intensity in the case of road upgrading subproject and urban area upgrading subproject. However in
the case of sanitation and wastewater treatment system, community participation was not visible during
implementation phase. Where community was available for participation, the short term success conditions of
efficiency were achieved through conflict resolution and inputs to effective implementation. However, impacts of
community participation contributing to long term success were seen only in the road upgrading subproject,
where this process could build some kind of shared ownership to the sub-project.
This thesis then proposes a model mainly for formative evaluation on the availability of community to participate
in a project. And finally the research is concluded by providing some practical implications to follow a consistent
approach to align with objective of community participation in the project. In doing so, a need to pre-assessment
of motivation and availability of the community participation, potential positive strength of informality, and a joint
approach of expert-local synergy is proposed. | nb_NO |
