Browsing by Author "Kamara, Richard Douglas"

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    Accountability in the context of cooperative governance and local economic development (LED) in South African local government
    (Megatrend University, 2021) Kamara, Richard Douglas
    Provided the tensions and challenges found in different types of governance systems for developing clear objectives, effective policy implementation strategies, as well as monitoring and reporting mechanisms aimed at improving efficiency and sustainability of initiatives, this paper seeks to contribute to both theoretical and practical debates surrounding cooperative governance and LED. Whilst better policy outcomes that fit with local and differentiated needs among stakeholders may be one of the drivers for moving towards cooperative governance, there is a normative question of accountability. Does the common feature of flexible and adaptable arrangements in cooperative governance create accountability deficit, specifically promoting laissez-faire approach commonly associated with the implementation among role-players? This paper considers this question and the extent to which accountability may be ensured. To address these concerns data were collected from six municipalities in Western Cape, South Africa. A qualitative research design paradigm based on Interpretivists/Constructivists philosophy was employed. Data were collected through three data collection instruments, namely, document review, interviews and focus group discussions. This paper argues that employing Key Performance Indicators as commonly used in the public service to promote accountability is difficult to enforce specifically in collaborative endeavours where participatory is voluntary. The paper recommends some accountability promotion enhancers. This will assist in improving the understanding of the context that may inhibit or enable stakeholders in taking full advantage of collaborative-led developmental interventions to further peoples’ lives and to enhance their opportunities to partake in matters of development in their municipalities.
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    Cooperative governance and local economic development in selected small towns in the Western Cape Province
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Kamara, Richard Douglas; De Coning, Christo; Rabie, Babette; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : 21st-century complexities paved the way for an emerging need for a robust approach on localised and territorial development concerns. Advances in collaborative/cooperative governance increasingly attract immense attention from researchers and practitioners. A broad range of opportunities are established, addressing the multidimensional challenges in the public sector, specifically in local government (municipalities). Promoting such an inclusive representation and participation of the relevant stakeholders provides a viable and complementary alternative to the traditional bureaucratic governance mechanism. Municipalities in the Western Cape of South Africa progressed extensively in exercising their facilitating role in the development process by applying plethora economic development facilitation strategies to enhance locational competitive advantages while supporting the creation of versatile local markets by collaborating with local and regional stakeholders. Despite these great strides by the municipalities in their various attempts to turn around and revitalise their governance practices, some exogenous and internal constraints still exist in the evolving structures, possibly beclouding the holistic transformation of local governance in development matters. These fragmented perspectives, epitomised by a lack of cooperation and integration of development strategies, renders particularly the smaller municipalities, highly susceptible to myriads of challenges, ranging from a lack of stakeholders’ support, inadequate capacity resources, inadequate knowledge, insignificant leadership, insignificant development planning and implementation, all culminating into poor socio-economic conditions of the citizenry. These backgrounds manifest in the continued rise in the country, the rate of social discontentment vented by the individuals against inadequate service provision. Certain municipalities are successful, while others are ineffective in delivering on their developmental mandate. Are all municipalities managed in the same way? While getting similar resources (grants), receiving the same training, using the same policy frameworks, it is disputable why they have diverse successes. Scholars indicated that the solution to the multidimensional challenges in local economic development (LED), encountered by municipalities, lies in the context of resilient multi-jurisdictional initiatives of the various LED key stakeholders, in the state and non-state. Despite the overwhelming proclaimed benefits of collaboration of multi-actors for local governance, the conditions required to ensure its efficacy are extremely challenging. An emerging need exists for a holistic understanding of the specific collaborative/cooperative governance factors involved in the efficacy and governance of local economic development (LED) in small towns, not well known and comprehended. In this regard, the main objective of this study is to assess the factors involved in designing and implementing cooperative governance for local economic development (LED) in selected, comparable municipalities in the Western Cape, namely, Swellendam (SM), Theewaterskloof (TM), Mossel Bay (MBM), Oudtshoorn (OM), Kannaland (KM) and Hessequa (HM). This research specifically attempts to: Analyse the main policy and legal frameworks that promotes cooperative governance for economic development in local municipalities; develops a conceptual framework; identifies factors for the design, implementing and assessing cooperative governance for local economic development (LED) in smaller towns; performs a comparative assessment on the functioning of cooperative governance and local economic development (LED) in selected small-town municipalities; determine the push and pull factors for the successful functioning of cooperative governance. This is aimed at promoting local economic development (LED) in these municipalities. Finally, develop a normative performance framework that should influence the outcomes and tools employed in the monitoring system of cooperative governance, intended to achieve appropriate developmental objectives to develop its society sustainably. The study also provides lessons of experience and recommendations on how cooperative governance and local economic development (LED) can be improved in small towns. These concerns are explored by triangulating diverse research sources. It is considered necessary to triangulate by collecting information from various sources to do justice to the complexity of the subject in question. A case study design with qualitative data sources is employed in the study. An interpretive paradigm is considered appropriate to be utilised in the study to obtain an in-depth understanding of the participants' observations and experiences of local economic development (LED) and cooperative governance within the six selected municipalities. A literature review and documentary analysis, individual key informant interviews and the focus group discussions conducted with local economic development (LED) key role-players within the selected six municipalities, are part of the methodological approach. The study presents evidence from a case study of the six selected municipalities in the Western Cape to achieve the research objectives. By revealing how various dimensions of local economic development (LED) and cooperative governance operates and interacts, the findings demonstrate that though the potential for local economic development (LED) is identified within the six municipalities, specific challenges exist in local economic development (LED) and cooperative governance. This includes institutional arrangements, intergovernmental relations practices, as well as gaps in the policy design. Provided these circumstances, recommendations are suggested in the study. Based on the conceptual framework and the findings emerging from the study, a normative performance measuring framework is developed to influence the outcomes and strategies employed in the monitoring system of LED and cooperative governance. The aim is to achieve appropriate developmental objectives to develop society sustainably.
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    Creating enhanced capacity for Local Economic Development (LED) through collaborative governance in South Africa
    (ARMG publishing, 2017) Kamara, Richard Douglas
    The complexities of the twenty-first century have paved way for the emergence and proliferation of cross boundary collaboration in the lexicon of localised and territorial development. Collaborative governance is increasingly playing a vital role in addressing the multidimensional challenges of the contemporary era. This paper seeks to contextualise collaborative governance as a possible remedy that could help to salvage the incapacitated municipalities and be more resourceful in their developmental mandate of fostering localised territorial development. In addition, the article discusses some of the contextual limitations of commonly applied state-led and civil-powered approaches to address socio-economic problems in municipalities. To constitute a resilient collaborative governance capable of improving system management and responsiveness to socio-economic issues in municipalities, the paper tends to shed light on the emergence of another type of approach, the hybrid-centric collaborative approach. Given this scenario, what would be the specific roles and relationship between the state and non-state?
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    Developing and implementing an effective framework for cooperative governance and Local Economic Development (LED) in South African local government
    (Megatrend University, 2022-05) Kamara, Richard Douglas
    The lack of a comprehensive institutional framework to promote joint participation in the development of local economies has hampered grassroots development efforts in South African communities. The majority of the South African local government authorities struggle to fulfil their developmental mandate. Notably, there’re certain collaborative governance factors that tend to enhance the effectiveness and control of localised development. These factors are not captured in the integrated conceptual model that articulately depicts the relationships between these variables and their impacts on the perceived outcome of LED. This negatively impacts the municipality’s ability to manage localised development well in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. A complete understanding of the relationships and dynamics of these variables is required to make recommendations for improving management and response to socio-economic concerns within the community through improved LED governance. Data were collected in six municipalities in the Western Cape, South Africa, to address these challenges. A qualitative study design paradigm based on interpretive philosophy was employed. The instruments used to collect the data were document reviews, interviews, and focus group discussions. The study analyses and evaluates the design and implementation of collaborative governance policies and initiatives in selected local governments in the Western Cape, South Africa. A normative, collaborative governance framework was developed in the study. This captures not only the enhancing and limiting factors of LED but also the relationship between these factors that can hinder the success of the collaboration between local governments and other key stakeholders. This integrated framework/model can inform future design, implementation, and evaluation of LED co-governance in small towns and future policies for improving co-governance and LED in small towns.
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    The efficacy of policy and legal framework for cooperative governance and local economic development (LED) in small towns in a selected region in South Africa
    (Jagiellonian University Press, 2021) Kamara, Richard Douglas; Rabie, Babette
    The paper reports on a study investigating the efficacy of policy and legal framework for coop­erative governance and LED to facilitate and coordinate responses to socio-economic concerns in the selected small towns in South Africa. The policy and legal framework place the onus for development on the local municipalities and urge the municipalities to partner with other stakeholders such as the business and the civil society to manage and respond to socio-economic concerns within the municipalities. The purpose of this paper is to review the ‘efficacy of the policy and legal framework’ to facilitate ‘cooperative governance’ and ‘LED’, specifically in six municipalities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Data were collected from government officials, private and civil sector through three data collection instruments, namely, document review, interviews and focus group discussions. The key findings from the study are mixed. The policy design and implementation were established problematic in multifarious ways. However, the findings also provide a glimpse of hopes in matters of public accountability by providing policy guidelines aimed at promoting accountability amongst government role-players. Given the backdrop, some recommendations are provided in this paper. This paper provides feedbacks for policy makers and implementers on the performance of policy and legal framework that informs the cooperative governance of local economies, specifically in small towns, to establish as to what is effective to replicate in form of good practice and what is under-performing for possible review. This assist in improving the understanding of the context that may inhibit or enable stakeholders in taking full advantage of collaborative-led developmental interventions to further peoples’ lives and to enhance their opportunities to partake in matters of development in their municipalities.
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    Enhancing the capabilities of municipalities for Local economic development through skills training
    (ARMG publishing, 2017) Kamara, Richard Douglas; Leonard, Samantha; Haines, Richard
    The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which the existing training interventions in municipalities can be able to build skills capacity for municipal staff to promote local economy, with special focus on two municipalities (Stellenbosch and Drakenstein), in the Cape Winelands District. Thus, it seeks to answer the following primary research question: To what extent can the existing training interventions help to build skill capacity for LED projects in two of the Cape Winelands’ municipalities? To do this, the study seek to analyse LED training for municipal staff carried out in the two municipalities for the past five years with special focus on the transfer of the acquired skills into job in the work place. The study is situated within the interpretivist paradigm, which focuses on meanings and attempts to understand the context and totality of each situation by employing the qualitative method of interviews which were conducted with staff and representatives of the municipalities and other key LED stakeholders in the two municipalities. The methodological finding reveals the following mixed results: Although the two Municipalities seems to be making great strides in providing trainings, there are some contextual issues in their working environments which disenables transfer of skills to the job. These issues are: Limited supports, limited opportunities to career progression, lack of motivation, working in silos and limited opportunities to practice. However, this conclusion does not invalidate the promise of capacity building to transform the two municipalities into an efficient developmental agent, but highlights the importance of the critical factors which tends to shape the positive outcomes of capacity building initiatives.
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    Outcomes-based performance management through measuring indicators : collaborative governance for local economic development (LED) in South African municipalities
    (Technium, 2020-07) Kamara, Richard Douglas
    Undoubtedly, there is a lag in the scholarships on performance outcomes of collaboration aimed at improving the system management and responsiveness to socio-economic issues in local government. Whilst most scholarships on collaborative governance in LED focuses on what we do (processes), some others research addresses the outputs in terms of the goods and services produced from the activities as well as the social outcomes. Very little discourse on collaboration addresses collaborative outcomes in LED. Put simply, we are acquainted with what collaborative actors do, but we know very little about the impact of collaboration on the system management and responsiveness to socio-economic issues within municipalities. Now the question is how do we know what to measure? The dearth in scholarship on how to assess collaborative outcomes in LED provide an impetus to present this paper as it helps to address the knowledge gap on LED and collaboration. The paper aims to present some innovative indicators which can be used to assess, monitor and review collaborative performance in LED, with special focus on the processes and outcomes of the collaboration. Using secondary sources, the paper argues the desirability and constraints of assessing performance outcomes in collaborative governance of development pathways in local municipalities. Moreover, the paper presents some criteria for selecting effective indicators used in measuring outcomes performance of collaboration. A synopsis of major determinants of effective outcomes in collaboration for LED is presented in the paper. Finally, the paper presents proposed innovative quantitative and qualitative indicators which can be used to assess, monitor and review collaborative performance in LED in local municipalities.