THEMATIC ANALYSIS: GETTING TO GRIPS WITH CITY-TO-CITY LEARNING
5.2. Overview of the demographic profile of respondents
As indicated in the methodology chapter, a total of all eighteen practitioners from the respective municipalities, Local Government Associations, funders and international agencies who were directly involved in the mentorship program were willing to participate as key informant interviewees in the research. The insights from these interviews together with the rich insider perspectives provided by the five focus group participants from the eThekwini Municipality was then complemented by the data that emerged from the census survey of all 10 stakeholders who had been part of the visioning workshops in Otjiwarongo and the larger grouping of 24 stakeholders in Mzuzu. In this section, an overview of the demographic breakdown of all respondents is provided in terms of gender, age, level of education and affiliation.
Table 5.1: Gender breakdown of interviewees and focus group participants (n=24)
Interviewees eThekwini Focus Group participants
Gender Frequency % Frequency %
Female 6 33 4 80
Male 12 67 1 20
Total 18 100 5 100
Reflecting on the gender composition of the interviewees, what stands out most from Table 5.1 is that two-thirds of all interviewees who participated in the case study were male. As explained in the methodology chapter, all senior planners, facilitators, municipal managers and program managers who were directly involved in the mentorship program were interviewed. From this result, the persistent patriarchal nature of the planning profession becomes most evident. Whilst the focus of the research is not to explore issues of gender equality in urban strategic planning, it is certainly worth noting that the experience from this southern African case study does appear to
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confirm the observation in the literature on gender and planning that the experience of a small sub- section of society continues to shape the governance and planning of cities (Escalante & Valdivia, 2015).
The concern with this trend, as highlighted by Ciocoletto (2014 cited in Escalante & Valdivia, 2015: 115) is that ultimately the built environment may begin to respond predominantly to the needs and interests of those managing it. In this case then, it could be argued that urban strategic planning processes, due to the inherent composition of those managing them, may not best serve the interests of women in the respective cities. This is an important observation not only to be highlighted as a key consideration in the learning framework in chapter 7, but to be flagged as a critical area for more focused research in southern Africa.
Having noted the skewed gender representation of the interviewees, it is interesting how this is most starkly contrasted with the eThekwini Municipality focus group participants, where only 20%
was male. Given that the eThekwini Municipality focus group comprised of senior managers and urban planners who were directly involved in the program, the higher proportion of women in this group could be attributed to the eThekwini Municipality’s transformative agenda to ensure greater women representation in management. Regardless of the many complex reasons for this unique trend in this municipality, the need to think about gender equality and how representation in decision-making impacts on the built environment, remains critical. Neglecting this will allow urban planning to reproduce, rather than actively challenge, gender stereotypes as Moser and Levy (1986) cautioned nearly thirty years ago in their seminal work on theorizing gender in urban planning.
Table 5.2: Gender breakdown of survey respondents in Otjiwarongo and Mzuzu City (n=10 in Otjiwarongo and n=24 in Mzuzu)
Otjiwarongo Mzuzu City Total
Gender Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %
Female 2 20 5 21 7 21
Male 8 80 19 79 27 79
Total 10 100 24 100 34 100
With only 2 female participants at Otjiwarongo and just 5 participants in Mzuzu, Table 5.2 above again highlights the glaring gender disparity this time in terms of stakeholder participation at both
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the mentee municipalities. This is an important observation to note as the invited stakeholders were responsible for reflecting on strategic challenges faced by the citizens and participated in crafting long-term visions and strategies for their respective cities. Given the recent research on urban planning from a gender perspective conducted by Escalante and Valdivia (2015: 116) which shows that women are “experts about the places where they live”, it is clear that greater engagement with women could have enhanced the creation of a more robust and inclusive vision statement. Earlier studies also confirm this trend of not maximizing women’s participation in planning. Todes et al.
(2010: 81) in a study exploring the extent to which women are being incorporated into urban strategic planning processes found that “women’s participation remains uneven and partial and the transformative potential offered by the new spaces for participation has not been realized”.
To reiterate, whilst it is acknowledged that the specific focus of the research is to explore how cities learn from each other in the field of urban strategic planning and not on critically analyzing the impact of gender and how this plays itself out in the process, the low levels of women’s participation in the visioning workshop does clearly sound an alarm bell for the learning agenda.
Whilst great strides have been made in the mentorship program to engage with citizenry, the need for more effective strategies to ensure greater participation of women in city visioning processes is a key recommendation that will be proposed in later chapters.
Table 5.3: Age breakdown of interviewees and focus group participants (n=18 for interviewees and n=5 for focus group participants)
Age categories Interviewees eThekwini Focus Group participants
Frequency % Frequency %
Under 30 1 6 - -
30 – 39 - - 1 20
40 – 49 9 50 3 60
50 – 59 8 44 1 20
60 and over - - - -
Total 18 100 5 100
In considering the age breakdown of interviewees and focus group participants, from Table 5.3 above, it becomes evident that very few respondents are under 40 years, with no respondents over 60 years. The fact that 60% of focus group participants and half of all the interviewees are between 40 to 49 years old does make sense as they are mid-career professionals leading strategic planning
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processes. However, a slightly different picture emerges from the results of the census survey. As reflected in Table 5.4 below, nearly 10 percent of all the total respondents were under the age of 30 and over the age of 60. This is understandable as the workshop included officials, political leadership and representatives from civil society, and not just mid-career professionals.
Notwithstanding this limited inclusion of younger and older voices, the overwhelming majority of respondents (76%) were between the ages of 30 and 60 years old. Not recognizing young people as a group with specific aspirations and needs has been identified in the development literature as a concerning trend. For example, Brkovic and Brkovic (2014) argue that urban planners and designers who are involved in developing and designing places normally follow standard procedures which exclude the involvement and participation of younger people. In citing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that recognizes the need for change and recommends the active involvement of children in different areas and decision, Brkovic and Brkovic (2014) make the strong case to apply this in decisions that are made in the field of urban planning and development. Again, in crafting recommendations for deepening participation in the program, the need for greater inclusion of younger people will be emphasized.
Table 5.4: Age breakdown of survey respondents in Otjiwarongo and Mzuzu City (n=10 in Otjiwarongo and n=24 in Mzuzu)
Similarly too, the need to include seniors in future participatory processes will also be noted as a key recommendation to be made, as this is now an important emerging trend internationally.
Raymond et al. (2014) bemoans the fact that whilst contemporary discourses on aging do promote active participation as an ideal framework from which to encourage older people’s life satisfaction, often such a vision of participation is neither meaningful nor accessible to older adults and suggests the urgent need for a widening of the definition of participation. From the case study, it is clear
Otjiwarongo Mzuzu City Total
Age categories Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %
No response - - 2 8 2 6
Under 30 1 10 2 8 3 9
30 – 39 - - 7 29 7 21
40 – 49 2 20 8 32 10 29
50 – 59 7 70 2 8 9 26
60 and over - - 3 13 3 9
Total 10 100 24 100 34 100
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that more can be done to actively promote the participation of marginalized groupings of women, children and the aged in future iterations of the visioning process.
Moving on to an analysis of the level of education of respondents, it is important to note that every focus group participant and interviewee held postgraduate qualifications. These respondents were highly trained senior municipal officials with many years of experience working in the built environment. The fact that all participants in the eThekwini Municipality focus group held Masters Degrees in Urban and Regional Planning and had spent significant years working in a municipal context on strategic planning, clearly demonstrates that high level planning capacity does exist in some African municipalities. The challenge is around how such expertise and experience can be effectively harnessed to build capacity within less developed municipalities in southern Africa.
The findings in this case study of the mentorship model used by UCLG to enhance capacity through city-to-city learning is therefore useful in helping provide recommendations to guide knowledge transfer between planning practitioners.
Table 5.5: Level of education of survey respondents in Otjiwarongo and Mzuzu City (n=10 in Otjiwarongo and n=24 in Mzuzu)
The level of education of the respondents in the census survey in Otjiwarongo and Mzuzu City Council, as indicated in Table 5.5 showed differences between the two cities. Whereas half of
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Otjiwarongo’s stakeholders participating in the visioning process held either only a primary or secondary school education, this was significantly lower at 21% in Mzuzu. Similarly, the percentage of respondents with undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Mzuzu more than
doubled those in Otjiwarongo. This can be attributed to Mzuzu being a much larger city and the critical factor that the Mzuzu visioning process included more officials in its process than Otjiwarongo. This aspect of affiliation or sector that the respondent represented whilst participating in the visioning workshop will be considered as the last demographic factor in this section.
In considering the data from the census survey, it is important to note that the Otjiwarongo stakeholder workshop comprising just 10 participants was much smaller with targeted stakeholders from civil society and with no political leadership. The approach in Mzuzu City Council was structured differently as their initial visioning process included all their political leadership and senior officials as well as Local Government Associations, as indicated in Table 5.6. below. This was done deliberately, as Malawi had just held their local government elections in May 2014 and wanted to canvass the views of their political leadership before engaging with the broader stakeholder base (including NGOs, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations and other interest groups). All Malawian municipalities were without councilors since March 2005 when local government elections were scheduled but never held (Tambulasi, 2011).
Table 5.6: Affiliation of survey respondents in Otjiwarongo and Mzuzu City (n=10 in Otjiwarongo and n=24 in Mzuzu)
Otjiwarongo Mzuzu City Total
Highest level of education Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %
Primary 1 10 - - 1 3
Secondary 4 40 2 8 6 18
Certificate/ diploma 3 30 10 42 13 38
Undergraduate degree 1 10 5 21 6 18
Postgraduate degree 1 10 7 29 8 23
Total 10 100 24 100 34 100
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The Otjiwarongo visioning process included 2 representatives each from NGOs, business leadership and faith–based groups. Whilst this was a much smaller workshop than Mzuzu, having different civil society voices did allow for vibrant discussions and debates.
Having presented an overview of the demographic profile of all the respondents, it is worth
reiterating that no claims can be made on representivity to the larger population. As a case study of the UCLG mentorship program, all planners, facilitators, program managers, funders and other officials directly or indirectly involved in the process were interviewed and all stakeholders participating in the visioning program agreed to participate in the survey. The stage is now set to consider the perspectives offered by a total of 52 respondents from southern Africa.