Aligning community and public priorities in informal settlement upgrading: Evidence from discrete choice experiments in Indonesia

This study employs two discrete choice experiments (DCEs) conducted with two sample groups in Indonesia to investigate the informal settlement upgrading priorities of residents (sample 1) and explore how they align with public taxpayers’ preferences (sample 2). The first DCE explores the relative importance placed upon common planning and public health priorities, such as water security, drainage, and diarrhoea in children, alongside local economic development priorities. The second DCE investigates the relative importance placed upon project implementation design considerations, including project completion time and community consultation. Our findings reveal that residents particularly prioritise improvements in water quality and economic development. While informal settlement upgrading interventions often prioritise improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) to reduce diarrhoea and other water-borne disease, our study highlights that residents also highly value economic empowerment, underscoring the need for integrated upgrading approaches that address both health and livelihood concerns. Taxpayer perspectives were well-aligned on upgrading outcome priorities, but diverged slightly on project implementation. Whereas residents prioritized minimizing project duration and were less concerned with significant community consultation, taxpayers emphasized generating employment opportunities for residents within project designs. Both groups expressed an aversion to residents bearing full responsibility for resourcing ongoing operations and maintenance, preferring government or shared responsibility, highlighting the need for sustainable funding models. The study highlights the value of DCEs as a tool to support locally-led development, informing upgrading strategies that are more likely to be both politically feasible and successfully appropriated into urban livelihood practices of residents.