CompactMyMunicipality

The COMPACT project's action research identifies significant challenges in South African municipal planning, including the tendency for Integrated Development Plan (IDP) cycles to be treated as compliance exercises and the presence of institutional silos. While best practices in public participation and technology use exist, the research highlights a need for increased youth engagement and capacity-building for ward committees to combat community distrust caused by project implementation failures.

• Public participation in the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) cycle is often treated as a mere compliance exercise in some municipalities, lacking in both process and substance. This is exacerbated by a lack of project implementation, which leads to community fatigue, anger, and distrust.
• Institutional challenges include departments operating in silos and tension between politicians and officials regarding service delivery. Conversely, best practices among partner municipalities include the use of technology for participation, ward committee action sheets, and effective public participation and ward committee meetings.
• Ward committees serve as a critical interface between municipalities and communities, but members require further training and capacity-building. Additionally, there is a identified need to increase youth involvement in participation processes.

APA

Public Affairs Research Institute (n.d.). CompactMyMunicipality. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/COMPACT-Factsheet-2-v2.pdf

Chicago

Public Affairs Research Institute. CompactMyMunicipality. n.d. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/COMPACT-Factsheet-2-v2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Public Affairs Research Institute |title=CompactMyMunicipality |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/COMPACT-Factsheet-2-v2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{publicaffairsresearchinstitutendcompactmymunicipality, author = {{Public Affairs Research Institute}}, title = {{CompactMyMunicipality}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/COMPACT-Factsheet-2-v2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }