A Framework for implementing agencies to enhance effective community participation in public construction projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Construction projects are often very complex, competitive in nature, and managing the influence of multiple stakeholders with varying interests and conflicting requirements. Therefore, developing a strong and effective relationship with the key stakeholders including local communities has recognized as an essential element of public projects. Several researchers have identified the importance of stakeholder management in construction projects. However, very few researchers have explicitly recognized “community” as one of the complex stakeholders and stressed the importance of community participation for the effective delivery of construction project. Specifically, the involvement of local communities in infrastructure provision has not been considered adequately in the context of developing countries. Moreover, there is no ideal local community based participatory approach is available among the various stakeholder approaches. Therefore, this research was undertaken to develop a framework for implementing agencies to enhance effective community participation in public construction projects in Sri Lanka. This research has adopted a mixed method sequential research approach to develop a framework for implementing agencies to enhance effective community participation in public construction project. Both questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were used for the data collection. The research analysis and findings were revealed that 13 community participation activities are important for effective community participation and identified the factors affecting the practice of community participation under four major categories. Further, the analysis recommended eight strategies for the effective community participation in public construction project namely: transparency in community participation process, create community awareness, implement community responsible entities, develop ownership-based approach, conduct assessments through government organizations, educate construction industry professionals, conduct post community participation evaluation and establish government audits for community participation. With the research findings, the study was then developed a framework for implementing agencies to enhance effective community participation in public construction projects in Sri Lanka