Underlying factors for effective collective decision on community-driven infrastructure in developing countries

The prevailing collective decision in the emerging communities in Sub-Sahara Africa illustrates the paradigm shift from top-down decision making to bottom-up democratic practices in procuring community-based infrastructure, in the era of dwindling financial capacity of government. This paper analyses factors influencing the success of the community-driven project in selected communities surrounding the largest city of Ibadan. We collected survey data through copies of semi-structured questionnaire, backed with an interview. Factor analysis categorizes the major factors into seven groups, including social integration and commitment to the community development project, governance structure and leadership, democracy, selfless services, networking and accountability, openness in selecting professionals for development, and joint agreement. We subject the items of the factors into SWOT analysis to understand the values. Community-based organizations (CBOs) serve as potential means to address infrastructure deficit if CBOs take note of the main factors, use the opportunities that match the strengths, attempt to overcome the weaknesses to attain the opportunities, use the strength to reduce the vulnerability to the threats and prevent the weaknesses to avoid susceptibility to the threats.