Slum Upgrading and Community Participation - A case study on slum upgrading in Kibera

Abstract: Construction projects will affect numerous actors with various interests, needs and demands. Different project will affect different actors where their specific interests will vary depending on project type but also throughout the projects execution. These actors are today referred to as a project’s stakeholders. A project’s stakeholders can be defined as the individuals, groups, or organisation, who may affect, or be affected, by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. Every identified stakeholder must be considered and take into account by the project manager in order to provide successful projects. However, to meet and address all interests is not always appropriate or not even feasible and limitations in resources entails that managers must prioritise certain stakeholders and ignore others. The key objective in today’s projects management is therefore to achieve satisfaction among, and create as much value as possible for, the projects stakeholders. Stakeholder’s can have a positive as well as a negative impact on a project and managers must therefore plan for projects that maximize the positives and prevent or minimise the negatives. The stakeholder concept plays an important role in todays project management. Managers must be well aware of who the project’s stakeholders are, what interest they have, as well as their potential impact on the project, to be able to correctly manage the stakeholders. The general stakeholder management process consists of stakeholder identification and gathering relevant information, analyse stakeholders and their potential impact, and at last, developing adequate management strategies. Stakeholder analysis is often used as a tool in the stakeholder management process to gathering adequate stakeholder information in order to determine how different stakeholders should be managed. Stakeholder participation is a common management strategy. Participation can improve projects designs and effectiveness and it increase the projects sustainability. It can also create a more cost-effective implementation since the project cost to some extent can be shared with some of the stakeholders. This research has adapted the stakeholder concept to construction projects in slums and informal settlements. These types of projects is often referred to as slum upgrading, which is a process that include all the physical, social, economic, organizational and environmental improvements of the slum. This study focuses on the actors that living in these settlements and participation involvement of these actors (community participation). The purpose of the study is to analyse and contribute with understanding in how suitable stakeholder management and adequate participation processes can increase upgrading projects success. The aim is to develop a participatory strategy suitable for the community stakeholders and provide key factors that are essential for slum upgrading to be successful. The general research process aims at identify relevant stakeholders, to obtain stakeholder information, and to analyse stakeholders’ potential impact in a project. Based on this a community participation strategy has further been developed. A literature review was undertaken in the beginning of the study to create awareness to the subject and gain understanding in slums, informal settlements, and stakeholder theory. A case study was used as a method to identify the stakeholders and to gain knowledge on the community’s view on slum upgrading and participation as well as gathering relevant stakeholder information. A stakeholder analysis was carried out in order to understand and determine identified stakeholder impact and influence. The specific case was the on going slum upgrading in Nairobi’s biggest slum, Kibera. 4 Following community based stakeholders have been identified in this study: • Beneficiaries • Residents in vicinity • Representatives • Resources • Key actors Firstly, beneficiaries of the projects and residents in vicinity are actors that have been included in the analysis and considered as community stakeholders. In addition to these, the study proposes three community-based actors; representatives, resources and key actors which been distinguished through their resource potential (resources), activeness (representatives) and relevance (key actors). These actors have been defined so they can be analysed, regardless project type. Each and every identified stakeholder’s impact and influence was than determined in different project phases and a suitable community participation strategy was developed. The study also explain why the stakeholder approach is particular important in slum upgrading and how community participation increasing slum upgrading projects sucess. The study concludes by proposing three key factors that are essential for slum upgrading to be successful. These factors have been developed based on the empirical study, observations, the literature, and the stakeholder analysis and can be summarized as: • Adequate stakeholder analysis • Efficient participation • Information and communication The study can show the major impact adequate stakeholder analysis have in slum upgrading projects. To correctly identify, manage and analyse stakeholders entails that for the project valuable information and data can be obtained. In the lack of such processes, project will struggle to address major interests and relevant stakeholders. The study can also show the great benefits of having the community participating throughout the projects. The community possess information, skills and expertise that could be of great value for the projects execution. Different projects however, have different actors, and have different aims and objectives. Some actors may not be needed in certain projects or phases while others are crucial. An efficient participation strategy must therefore be well suited for the projects purpose and for the relevant actors. At last, information and communication is a crucial part in the on going slum upgrading. Without efficient communication channels and reliable information flows the community will feel neglected and mistreated. This increases the risks of unnecessary opposition and irritation, which in turn can have major impact on the projects execution.