Evaluation of Community Participation in the Development of Urban Settlement Case Study: City of Dili, East Timor

Abstract

The city of Dili is considered as essential transit access for the country because of its seaport as well as international airport. Dili potentially can grow into densely populated area compared to other districts in Timor-Leste, which is indicated by the spreading of slums. Slums in Dili district are located in five villages, or commonly known as "Suco", namely Suco Caicoli, Suco Colmera, Suco Vila Verde, Suco Mascarenhas, and Suco Motael. Slum in Dili can be considered into urban slums which categorized into mild and moderate slums (Ministério da Administração Estatal Timor-Leste 2014). Improvement of settlement quality is easier if it is started from the internal aspect of the people living in the settlement, especially their participation. The purpose of community participation is to obtain useful inputs and perceptions of citizens and public interest in order to improve the quality of environmental related decision-making (Canter, 1977 in Horoepoetri, 2009). It is being questionable for their participation since the conditions of existing settlements do not meet the quality of life, which is proved by the growth of slums). The research methods used is descriptive research. Descriptive research is conducted by creating description, depicted in systematic, factual and accurate about facts, properties and the connection among investigated phenomena. The main interest is on how community participation could be used in urban improvement programs which is based on community participation. The case area is the city of Dili (sub district vera-cruz), namely: Suco Caicoli, Suco Colmera, Suco Vila Verde, Suco Motael, Suco Mascarenhas and Suco. The research results show that community participation in the improvement and maintenance of the settlement will not succeed if poverty is still being existed (they are unable to participate in donations or giving materials). Community unawareness towards their urban living environment shown by the existence of urban-slum dwellers. However, they believe that this is common situation because of poor level education. In fact, it is potentially beneficial that the proportion of male is bigger than female, so that they could take part in rehabilitation and improvement of settlement through their membership in informal organization.