Community initiatives in urban infrastructure

This manual provides guidelines on community partnered procurement of small-scale neighbourhood (tertiary level) infrastructure projects and programmes for low income urban communities. The contexts include: upgrading works carried out by urban government; donor funded urban development programmes; and programmes initiated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Thirty cases are investigated relating to water supply, sanitation, drainage, access, paving, street and security lighting, solid waste removal, and community buildings. The findings are based on interviews and a review of literature, documents and project files on urban upgrading projects in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. Following an introductory section, the second section outlines the process of infrastructure procurement. Section 3 briefly describes the cases which have been analyzed, and refers to an annex in which a detailed narrative and commentary are provided for each case. Section 4 discusses the main themes which emerge from the cases. These include: accountability and transparency; decision making processes; and performance, benefits, constraints and institutionalizing of community partnered procurement. The final section offers guidance to actual and potential practitioners of community partnered procurement of neighbourhood infrastructure.