City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

CITY-LEVEL DECOUPLING: URBAN RESOURCE FLOWS AND THE GOVERNANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSITIONS

The success of the OPP’s Low Cost Sanitation Program has not come easily. Over the years, it has struggled with government inconsistency and an ad hoc approach to planning. The scale of demand for services has made it difficult to respond to the large number of requests for support, and a lack of access to information adds to the challenge of disseminating ideas to the poor. The psychological barrier of dependency has been evident in low levels of confidence in people’s initiatives, and has been difficult to overcome. Over the years, the OPP-RTI has learned a great deal about interacting with communities and government to solve problems of service access in a coordinated way. These lessons can be summarized as follows: Poor communities have the skills, finances and managerial capacity to help themselves, but they need social and technical guidance to put them to proper use. •

Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI)

• Interaction with communities is needed to understand the extent of problems, how people perceive them and what possible solutions they have tried or would suggest. This interaction in itself starts a process of mutual understanding between the support organisation and the community. • A technical ‘package of advice' should be developed through interaction with the community (including councilors, elders, local leaders and individuals) to foster mutual respect, sharing and learning. • Both technicians and social organisers are required to adequately support the community - technicians develop the package of advice, and social organizers from within the community share it with their contemporaries.

• Activists from within the community should be identified to support and extend the program.

• A smaller level of organization is better, due to the concentration, time and effort required during the initial stages of a project. This improves understanding and reduces the possibility of conflicts and errors.

• Changing community attitudes can be slow initially, but demonstration has a snowball effect that makes it easier to extend the concept in time.

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