Community Data Generation for Better Informed Policy Decision Making and Development Efforts

By Adesuwa Ero, 2nd year MDP student

Without a shred of doubt, data has the potential to direct and drive how government resources are allocated and used. It is also widely agreed that data is useful in supporting meaningful development plans. An important aspect of my work with People’s Dialogue in Ghana was assisting with community profiling and mapping through the application of Geographical Information System (GIS) tools. 

Especially in this part of the world, accessing current and accurate community specific data can be very challenging, making development efforts and government actions sometimes slow, ineffective with minimal impact. For far too long, there has been a persistent disconnect between communities and their respective local and state governments due to the absence of working data to help drive appropriate development, culminating into poor governance measures and an uninformed populace.

Adesuwa facilitating a community consultation session with Bukom community for a solar energy project

An important component of the community enumeration, profiling, and mapping that we carried out is the broad and deep community involvement in the process. This process allows for the application of participatory rural appraisal techniques such as the use of transects, venn and polarization diagrams in identifying available public services, flood prone areas, eviction prone areas, community natural resources etc. Capacity building workshops are another essential part of the work, especially when dealing with the non-literate sect of the population. This is done to enable community residents learn and participate in the actual process. This has translated to high-level community appropriation of the process, and a more politically informed populace.

 

Community youth learning how to use a GIS tool in collecting data for their community enumeration

Community mapping and profiling, in this case, is particularly fundamental because it enables communities identify their development priorities and assist in having more meaningful dialogue with the government. Notwithstanding, the prevailing gaps in the process of improving the livelihood of the poor in developing countries includes grassroots access to government, the level of communication and genuine collaboration that exists between governments and communities. With an increasing availability of validated community data, what then is the turnaround time from generated community data to action (actual use of data gathered)?

The value of inclusive decision-making is, therefore, pertinent to greater success. It could lead to increased grassroots participation in local governance, increased government accountability, more people-centered policies, improved public services, income generating opportunities for youth, encourage partnership with local businesses and NGOs, and more representative leadership. 

Akuaba from Accra, Ghana

By Adesuwa Ero, 2nd year MDP student

For the last three months, I worked as an intern for Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlements popularly referred to as PD in Accra, Ghana. It is a community-based Non-Governmental Organization working in alliance with Cities Alliance and the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor (GHAFUP) in providing and supporting improved livelihood initiatives for the urban slum dwellers. Through this internship, my goal was to synthesize urban development and communications. The opportunity to demonstrate through writing and visuals, the development efforts being achieved here, not just through the lens of development practitioners but also through the eyes of the beneficiaries and how these projects influence policy decisions. 

Although I am originally from West Africa, this was my first time visiting Ghana. Accra, the country’s capital and also where PD’s office is situated is a vibrant metropolitan city known as a commercial, manufacturing, and communications hub. 

 

My role as an intern at PD was to assist the programs’ officers with ongoing projects implementation and assist in coordinating community engagements. But, more importantly, to translate a lot of the office documentation ranging from community mapping and profiling, field visit reports, status reports into stories for the website, blogs, newsletters, project catalogs, press releases, validation reports, and other publications. 

Adesuwa at Kokrobite Beach

Through my time here, I have gained a deeper understanding of the complexities associated with development work especially in this part of the world. Taking into account the issues of accountability, professional work ethics, proper documentation, meaningful involvement of stakeholders/ beneficiaries, developing comprehensive project plans, monitoring, and evaluation. In addition, assessing the success trajectory of past projects.

Another interesting observation was getting to understand the cultural dynamics within which the society operate knowing that it tends to have a significant effect on the outcome of development efforts. 

The only thing I found challenging in my time here was the language barrier in communicating with community members and government officials. However, this challenge was not peculiar to foreigners alone but also common within the city enclave which constitutes a wide array of cultural groups with distinct languages. This meant that for every community engagement we had, a minimum of three languages translator’s asides from English had to be present in order to ensure effective and more meaningful engagements.

In a nutshell, the internship provided me the opportunity to work closely on a wide spectrum of development projects to include waste management, water, and sanitation, improved housing and eviction issues, city-wide profiling and mapping, alternative energy, and the Know Your City (KYC) Campaign. Also, I have gained increased capacity in stakeholder mobilization, community engagement, tension management, identifying meaningful communication techniques best suited for grassroots participation. 

The last but not the least, I had the opportunity to learn and work with a group of community youth along side delegates from Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) in first building capacity and producing a video documentary on the activities of GHAFUP to be shown at the upcoming UN-Habitat 3 Conference in October.

Building Resilient Cities

By Esther Awotwe, 1st year MDP student

“People move to the cities not because they will be better off but because they expect to be better off.”  Anna Tibaijuka, Former Executive Director of UN-HABITAT

My first field placement is at People’s Dialogue on Human Settlements, Ghana (PD). This NGO works with Cities Alliance and Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor (GHAFUP) to address the basic needs of slum dwellers which are driven by three major pillars; environment, economic and equity. 

The rapid spate of urbanization in today’s world is unprecedented. According to the United Nations, six out of every 10 people in the world are expected to reside in urban areas by 2030. Rapid urbanization can be a great economic boost if managed well or cause serious setbacks if not addressed quickly. A major challenge is the rapid sprawl of slums. Worst affected cities are in developing countries where rapid urbanization is a result of migration and population growth. Millions of residents in these cities live in substandard housing with inadequate social infrastructure.  

Aerial view of a slum settlement in the city of Accra, Ghana

Mission Statement of People's Dialogue (NGO)

I was particularly happy when I recognized that the mission statement of People’s Dialogue that was boldly displayed in their office was emphatic of the special focus on the role of women.

Aside having to spend quality time with my family in Ghana, my focal point of interest was to gain more insight from the perspective of women and their specific experiences in the context of ever increasing urban growth. Significantly I wanted to understand how their lived realities translate into policy formulation and decisions on urban settlement as the growth of slums has unique causes and consequences on women especially in Africa where many are disadvantaged as a result of gender discrimination. 

The amazing work done by PD seeks to address the three major pillars of urban sustainability but as mentioned earlier my attention is more on gender specificity of projects. The interaction with women slum dwellers so far has been a humbling and insightful experience as I consciously relate my findings with Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which addresses building resilient and sustainable cities. My expectation at the end of the placement is to understand gender sensitive perspective of building cities without slums.

Esther (L) interacting with some women of the federation for the urban poor