1. WHY WOULD WE WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS AND WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF DEMOCRATIC URBAN GOVERNANCE?

Participation is time-consuming and challenging and results cannot be guaranteed but when people participate in the governance of their cities there are benefits for the city and the citizens.  Democratic urban governance:

• enhances political inclusion by offering all citizens the opportunity to participate in and influence decision-making. In doing this all people have access to opportunities and the benefits of city life.
• increases security of all citizens.
• can help reduce the susceptibility of delivery programmes to political manipulation. Successful democratic urban governance enables the citizenry and the State to elaborate strategies that define delivery of services and to initiate programmes which have better chances of being sustained despite political change or institutional reforms.
• fosters transparent decision making and public accountability which will foster a watch-dog culture amongst role-players with all sectors of society actively holding each other to account. This is turn will foster trust and ultimately improve the quality and quantity of partnerships to tackle urban challenges.[1]
• includes all stakeholders in decision-making processes, especially marginalised groups[2] which results in improved quality of life as participation is experienced as a consequence and a cause of improvements to material [3] Also where residents perceive cities as places of real opportunity and where resources are sufficient, participatory processes become more effective.[4]
• can improve resource mobilisation and service delivery to citizens.[5]

[1] Auclair & Jackohango (2009)

[2] Ibid.

[3] UN-Habitat (2008) p. 162

[4] Ibid.

[5] Auclair & Jackohango (2009)