Chibase ConsultingTalk to us

Risk

The cockroach theory: local structures adapt faster than your organogram

Formal reality

The organogram

  1. Project HQ
  2. Municipality
  3. Contractor

The cockroach reality

Structures already moving

  • Customary leader
  • Local grievance
  • Ward structure
Host communities reorganise around a project whether the organogram names them or not. Dual governance has to be designed, not hoped for.

Play the 45-second scene

Projects enter with a stakeholder list from last year’s consultant. On the ground, influence has already moved — a traditional council, a ward committee, an SMME forum, a youth structure. Those are not obstacles. They are the operating system.

Critical involvement means those structures are named counterparts with place, not a ‘community’ blob. Dual governance — municipal process and customary authority — has to be designed, not hoped for.

We map that before mobilisation. The software does not replace the conversation. It stops the conversation from being lost.

All notes