Factors that influence community participation in local government activities in Maridi County, Central Payam of Western Equatoria State South Sudan
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Date
2015-09
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kampala International University, College of Humanities and social sciences.
Abstract
Community participation in development programnes is widely recognized as a basic operational
principle of development. Community members have been seen as consumers of services and
their role in development is equally important. The study was carried out in Maridi County,
Central Payam located in Western Equatoria State in the Republic of South Sudan. The study
was guided by the general objective if establishing the factors the influence community
participation in local government activities. The study adopted a descriptive case study design
and used both interviews and questionnaires to collect data from respondents. These respondents
were selected using the simple random sampling technique of the lottery method and stratified
sampling respectively. The data collected was analyzed numerically and descriptively presented
in text and tables.
The study found out that there is low community participation in local government activities in
Central Payam. The reasons given for this occurrence were that: local government officials are
not elected although the Local Governments Act advocates for it; the masses are not involved in
local government programmes; there is limited knowledge of local government affairs and that
local government officials are inefficient.
Findings from the study have a strong bearing with other studies in some countries where
community participation in local government activities has also been found to be very low due to
lack of information; elite capture, lack of involvement in budgeting and planning activities and
excessive corruption among local government officials.
The study finally made recommendations that: there is need for more involvement of community
members in local government activities if they are going to own the local government and
therefore participate in it; local government official should be elected, but not appointed; there is
need for community mobilization and that corruption need to be fought and resources be put to
proper use.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the college of humanities and social sciences; department of political & administrative studies at Kampala International University as a partial requirement for obtaining bachelor degree of public administration of Kampala International University
Keywords
Community participation, Local government activities, Western Equatoria State, South Sudan