IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

Community Driven Development is now a widely recommended and accepted Development strategy for informal communities across the continent. Centred on the utilisation of Social Capital through community structures, different informal settlements have different structures and different levels of social capital, which affect the implementation and ability to overcome CDD challenges. Although known to be very successful, there are few perspectives on the implementation of CDD initiatives in different informal settlements, as most studies conceptualise them as single, homogeneous communities. This study assesses the implementation of CDD initiatives in migrant and indigenous informal settlements and their ability to navigate challenges. The case study research design was adopted in this research, and respondents were chosen through simple random sampling. Using the Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) for data analysis, the study found that, migrant informal settlement implement CDD projects through the network hierarchical structures based on government systems whereas, indigenous informal settlements implement through the social hierarchical structure based on traditions and culture. The study also found that, with the exception of the challenge of land accessibility in migrant informal settlements, all other challenges such as participation, resource mobilisation and maintenance have a significant relationship with social capital although indigenous informal settlements have higher levels of social capital than migrant informal settlements. The study recommends a framework that incorporates community characteristics and the underling social capital to facilitate upgrading strategies in informal in Ghana.