Abstract
It is widely argued that the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) in Egypt suffers from failing urban communities resulting partially from unresponsive services. The local discourse on urban services has not paid attention to the investigation of the provision process of services and its impact on community satisfaction and prosperity. In the Global South, there is an ongoing debate on the shortcomings of service provision and ways to improve them. Yet, emerging theoretical/conceptual approaches to the provision of urban services are not sufficiently comprehensive to explain processes of service provision worldwide and, arguably, cannot be because they cannot take account of local diversity. Consequently, this research investigates the impact of the process of service provision on community satisfaction and prosperity in GCR, Egypt. To help collect and analyze data, we constructed a conceptual framework of a potentially responsive process of service provision. We studied two privately developed middle- and upper-middle-income urban communities, using questionnaires with inhabitants and semi-structured interviews with relevant official representatives as well as documentary data sources. The research finds, in line with the Global South debate, that absent public participation, ineffective governmental institutions, pseudo-decentralization, and deficient regulations stand behind the failure of services, their lack of responsiveness, and low levels of community satisfaction. Yet, it also shows that community prosperity could be aided by, for example, private developers playing an active role in the provision process. Hence, community prosperity is not tied only to a specific set of institutional arrangements.
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Notes
In this research, the term “urban services” is used to indicate educational, healthcare, commercial, recreational, and religious services.
“Service satisfaction” is a psychological condition that emerges from a comparison between perceived service performance and user expectation of it (Elsahn 2002; Noridin 2007). Hence, satisfaction is a personal, relative (to a person’s expectations), and evolving matter (that changes negatively or positively through time) (Noridin 2007).
Going beyond the confined notion of wealth accumulation, “prosperity” encompasses a real sense of collective happiness and the ability to build a better future (Farahat and Bakry 2012; Provsot 2012). Prosperity is also a relative term that depends on the general context in which it is measured (qualitatively not quantitatively) (Provsot 2012).
The literature reviewed mainly discusses service provision for low-income people. However, the framework for this research only includes what the researchers thought is relevant to higher classes.
Interviewees were selected using a snowball sampling technique. They were asked about how services are planned, implemented, and managed in the settlement and about their opinion on the roles played by the different bodies involved.
Such as the unified law #119 and the Housing Cooperative Law no. 14 for the year 1981.
The two developers helped distribute and collect questionnaires through their personnel deployed on the main gates to the two settlements. Eight hundred and ninety-two valid questionnaires were collected in Al-Rehab out of 1200 distributed and 109 out of 1000 in Al-Hadaek. Levels of satisfaction with services were measured by asking residents about their frequency rate of services, new services they would need, and where to locate them inside the settlements.
This documentary data usually stands as a genuine and free reflection of people’s perception of their community problems.
The main consultant indicated that very recently, in 2015, ACPUD had to pay extra charges for this extra 5%.
Which are as follows: Educational Building Agency for schools, Ministry of Social Affairs for kindergartens, Ministry of Health for medical centers, and Egyptian Ministry of Awkaf (Islamic affairs) for mosques.
The project was implemented in phases where detailed planning was prepared, services were designed, and building permits were obtained for each phase.
See Fig. 2 for two school sites which were turned into green areas without getting approval for this change, as indicated by the planning consultant.
See Fig. 2 for sites of medical centers that were allocated for commercial uses and a school site which was assigned to a religious service.
Housing units increased from LE 900/m2 in 1998 to LE 7000/m2 in 2015 reaching over LE 11,000/m2 in 2017 and commercial units from LE 1700/m2 in 1997 to LE 30,000/m2 in 2015 reaching LE 70,000/m2 in 2017 (US$ 1 = LE 17.89).
CSBDP is a typical cooperative society that provides integrated urban communities with serviced land lots to its members to build on. Any cooperative society is in charge of service provision and maintenance (Article 16, the Housing Cooperative Law no. 14 for the year 1981).
However, according to CSBDP, these agencies tend to be too strict in issuing approval, consuming a lot of time (Ibrahim 2016) and, sometimes, hindering CSBDP attempts to develop vacant lands (Ramadan 2016). In support, CSBDP reported that it has taken steps towards developing a vacant service lot but the CCUH canceled the steps taken because of potential corruption suspected.
See Fig. 3 for the allocation of two services land lots to building materials stores.
The difficulty to walk throughout the community due to its hilly nature makes it even worse.
They rely perhaps on the neighboring well-serviced relatively old urban areas.
Currently, two commercial centers are under construction but in the vicinity of the already existing one.
It only increased from LE 1500/m2 in 2004 to 2500 in 2017(US$ 1 = LE 17.89).
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Acknowledgments
Many thanks go to Dr. Steve Connelly of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, and his wife Nicola Wilson for their English editing of the article. Thanks are also due to Ahmed Farag for helping in data collection and to Doaa Hamed for helping in the preparation of the article’s figures.
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Shalaby, A.S., Shalaby, M.S. Service Provision and Prosperity in Urban Communities in the Greater Cairo Region. Urban Forum 29, 239–258 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-018-9332-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-018-9332-9