Sustainable community initiatives: a unique partnership and participatory approach

Abstract

Existing research on partnerships between local governments and communitybased organizations within Local Agenda 21 processes across the globe have embarked primarily on the advantages of partnership within the philosophical discourse of community participation as well as the barriers of such participation and their effects on intended partnership. Both empirical and qualitative findings which mostly cover the cases from the United Kingdom and European countries revealed the need to explore more in-depth aspects of Local Agenda 21 programme implementation. In Malaysia, the study of Local Agenda 21 programme participation and implementation remains deficient. In an attempt to evaluate the nature of partnership and participation through document analysis and participant observation, this qualitative study reports two major findings; first, there is a need for strong leadership within a community-based organization in order to mobilize its local resources, and second; there must be a willingness by the local government to employ external expertise and work closely with the main stakeholders to keep Local Agenda 21 processes growing and improving.

A Tale of Two Neighbourhoods: Some Evidence of Leadership, Learning, and Liveability

“…Petaling Jaya had an opportunity to engage in the pursuit of sustainable development when its city council became among the four selected local authorities out of 145 local authorities nationwide to implement the first round of Local Agenda 21 in Malaysia (Mokhtar & M.Dali, 2015). In 2003, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) published LA21 Guide and Case Studies which acknowledged the best practices of partnership and participation by the City Council of Petaling Jaya or Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) in LA21 to serve as guidelines for other local authorities.…”

“…A preliminary study has shown that the implementation of LA21 in Petaling Jaya within the span of fifteen years has generated learning communities under strong and charismatic leaderships (Mokhtar & M.Dali, 2015). While such research explores some relationship between community participation, leadership, and learning, a deeper investigation into their relationship with liveability may contribute better to the understanding of CBOs' roles in partnership and participation arrangements.…”