Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: The Use of Delphi Technique for Capacity Building Strategy and Decision Making on Low Cost Housing in South Afric
by George Onatu and Didibhuku Thwala

Abstract:
The built environment practitioners and engineering fields as well as other disciplines all engage extensively on the use of Delphi Technique to carry out various investigations since the development of this research method by Project Rand in early 1950s. It is used for forecasting and predicting the outcome or impact of an event or phenomenon. Though the technique has been variously challenged by scholars due to the fact that it does not allow shared opinion based on anonymity of respondents and does not allow shared opinion or interaction. The method over the years has been appraised on how diverse its use can be and the fact that it enables participants to reach absolute agreement or consensus. In this research we explore the relevance of this research technique in capacity building for low cost housing implementation strategy and how it aid decision making for policy advancement. A total of 20 experts were involved in the study of mixed-income housing project at Cosmo City. There was three round of questionnaire that was administered among the professionals. Using SPSS and Excel spreadsheet analysis of these findings, especially the third round suggest that government should gear more efforts at inter-sectoral collaboration, speed up town planning approvals and further review decisions on housing affordability criteria among beneficiaries.

Keywords: Delphi Technique, Low Cost Housing, Consensus Building, Policy Decisions and Research Technique

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