The challenges of public participation in climate change mitigation projects with focus on Cosmo City climate proofing programme

Abstract

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) like other municipalities in South Africa piloted a climate change intervention programme in Cosmo city, called Climate Proofing Programme, with the aim of rolling it out to other housing projects in the municipality. This research aimed to investigate how inclusive public participation was in the implementation of the programme. The study was a qualitative design that used semi-structured interviews with sampled residents of Extension 2 and 6, where the CCCPP was piloted. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with city officials. Additionally, the researcher made use of the observation method during interviews with councillors and managers of the CoJ and a manager of a donor organisation. In identifying participants for this research, random sampling was used to reach the targeted community respondents. Purposive sampling was used to collect interview data from the managers and councillors.

The research found that the project was pre-determined by the officials in a bid to secure funding that had been provided by the donor. As a result, no proper steps were followed to ensure authentic public participation. The project was not aligned with municipal planning instruments like the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and accompanying institutional structures like ward committees which are the legislative mechanisms that encourage public participation in planning. Where officials endeavoured to engage the community, their public participation style was selective. The main problem appears to be that officials were not accountable to councillors regarding implementation of this project. Similarly, even the local councillors failed to provide political leadership towards implementation of CCCPP, because it was donor-driven.