Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 92

Abstract

South Africa has a rich history of community-based development which provides a strong foundation for community-driven development (CDD). With the advent of the democratic era in 1994, Government has pursued an explicit strategy to formulate public policy, plan and establish fiscal frameworks that are directly supportive of community empowerment.

The frameworks that have been put in place to allow the local sphere to support community empowerment are impressive. Local councils are subject to validation through regular access to free and fair elections. Local government jurisdictions now cover 100 percent of South Africa’s land area and all residents of the country, and the 284 local governments are explicitly tasked with responding to most service and infrastructure demands of communities. The planning process of the public sector is driven by Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) that are intended to be based on extensive consultation with communities. The country’s medium term planning process plays out in all local government jurisdictions and affords all citizens the opportunity to influence the allocation of public resources to meet community demands. The intergovernmental fiscal framework supports both the governance structure and the IDP process by making predictable and transparent allocations of both unconditional and conditional grants to local governments to meet community demands. In 2003/4 more than US$2 billion in grants were made available to local governments through the Division of Revenue Act (DORA). Local government own resources, derived from property taxes, user fees, licenses, etc, multiply DORA funding several times over.

However, the development impact of the programs supported by these frameworks lags behind. One of the explanations for this lack of impact could be the lack of real community participation in these programs. The objective of this study was therefore to analyze CDD in South Africa since 1991, the year in which the race-based Group Areas Act was rescinded. The study covers the history, the development of the supporting institutions of decentralization, the degree of community empowerment and capacity development already achieved within that framework, and the obstacles still standing in the way of fully accountable community empowerment and scaling up. The analysis identifies the key policy constraints to improving the implementation of service delivery and development programs across sectors and spheres of government.

Following best practice in Community-Driven Development, the design and supervision of this study was a co-production between four Bank units in the Africa Region. The CDD Steering Committee co-financed this review out of the Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development as part of its program to incorporate the CDD “lens” into government policies. The Water and Urban 1 Technical Unit used its supervision budget for the Municipal Finance Management Technical Assistance Project, because of the connection to the Municipal Finance Management Act, which allows for direct grants from local governments to community groups. The Human Development 1 Unit used its staff budget to promote community empowerment and participation as drivers for ‘voice’ and ‘choice’ for the poor to influence policy decisions and resource allocation in their thereby creating opportunities to improve their livelihoods. And the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Unit 1 used its Technical Assistance budget for support to rural development, land reform and the environment, because of the importance of making South Africa’s land reform and environmental programs more beneficiary-driven.

The World Bank team was composed of Aziz Bouzaher, David De Groot, Jacomina de Regt, Norbert Mugwagwa and Rogier van den Brink. The Peer Reviewers were Hans Binswanger, Jim Hicks and Ian Goldman. Rick Scobey and Jaime Biderman were the Sector Managers, and Ritva Reinikka was the Country Director. We all hope that this study will be thought-provoking and useful to policy makers, practitioners, and communities in South Africa.

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