Despite billions of dollars spent and hundreds of studies conducted, there seems to have been progress made in meeting the housing and infrastructures shortages in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) (Akinyemi, 1988; Scott, 1998; Easterly, 2006). Theoretical constructs such as culture, geography and institutions (Huntington, 2000; North et al, 2009; Vanessa Watson, 2002, 2013; Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012) have not been able to explain this deficit. Few studies have provided empirical evidence of factors that encourage citizens of LDCs to participate in community development projects. The objective of this study is therefore to identify such key factors and use them to develop policy recommendations that, when applied would give citizens of marginalized communities more autonomy in the design and implementation of fiscally and environmentally sustainable community redevelopment projects. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design—beginning with a quantitative survey of 1,202 residents of Lagos, Nigeria and followed by an in-depth qualitative interview of a subset of these residents and other stakeholders—this study has determined which of eleven independent variables significantly affect the willingness of residents to participate in self-help community development projects. The quantitative study found that when a citizen group is in-charge (hereby termed “The New Deal”), the following factors are positively correlated with willingness to participate in self-help community development projects: age, home ownership, their home’s physical condition, and the inclusion of their homes, drainage systems and road ways in the work being done. The number of years of residence is negatively correlated with willingness to participate. Education level shows no association to willingness to participate in this procurement modality. The study further found that the aforementioned willingnesses to participate is increased when community elders express support for, or corporations donate money to, the project. The level of participation is unchanged when the government encourage citizens to participate. When the government is in-charge (hereby referred to as “The Status Quo”), the result is similar (though less eagerly, see Table 5.4) for most of the explanatory variables, except education is now negatively correlated; road improvement and age now show no association to willingness to participate. The subsequent qualitative study offered further explanations in support of the above findings, as well as clarification of anomalous findings of the quantitative study. Grounded theory application in the qualitative study found water, electricity, and security provisions as additional factors that affect residents’ willingness to participate. The overarching conclusion of this research is that while residents are willing (to varying degrees) to participate in community redevelopment projects in all three procurement modalities examined (i.e. Citizen Group, Government, or NGO in-charge), they are more eager to do so when they are given significant control over the management and ownership of the project (i.e. Citizen Group in-charge). This conclusion and associated findings helped develop a conceptual framework for a transformational approach to community development in LDCs. The two key tenents of this conceptual policy framework are: a) A collaborative planning approach with pivotal roles for community elders; and b) Alternative funding sources that include leveraging residents’ buying power. These tenents formed a new paradigm for procuring community development projects nicknamed “The New Deal Paradigm.” Successful implementation of this study’s policy recommendations would empower communities in LDCs to self-initiate, self-fund, and self-implement holistic redevelopment of their homes and surroundings, thereby creating jobs, improving health, and in the process, improving the trajectory of individual lives. Key words: Self-help, Community Development, Participatory Planning, NGO, GIS, Sustainable Developments, Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa, Africa, Global South.
