Questions/Answers

Previous urban regeneration policies merely focused on physical redevelopment of dilapidated and vulnerable areas. ‘The Building A Happy Village Initiative’, launched to overcome the adverse effects of the earlier policies, aims to restore a sense of community and to improve the quality of life of the underprivileged and vulnerable. Since 2010, the City of Busan has provided various community-based social services through administration and human resource support. With the implementation of the Building A Happy Village Initiative, an improved application of the existing social services system, the city plans to designated and operate 68 Happy Villages in 2018. The two important activities of the initiative are as follows: first, enhancing social values of a community by strengthening communication and improving the relationship between village residents; and second, building capacity of village residents by bottom-up decision-making process and citizen participation. As a result, village residents demonstrated the ability to assess and initiate things independently. For example, they have shown great initiative to improve their own living environment, to keep safe and provided for one another, and to create new jobs for themselves. In 2015, the city started to run ‘the Village Helper Program’, a citywide action plan to foster the efficiency of the Building A Happy Village Initiative. The Village Helper Program was devised to enhance the living environment of the vulnerable and poor by providing housing-related support. Each designated village is provided with a village helper who heads the respective Village Maintenance Office through which village residents receive various property management services. As a result, satisfaction of the underprivileged residents has been greatly increased.

The two objectives of the Building A Happy Village Initiative are as follows: first, to improve the quality of life of village residents; and second, to promote the sustainability of an underprivileged community. The methodology for the initiative was based on three different approaches for the urban renewal of dilapidated and vulnerable areas – regeneration of physical environment, socio-cultural regeneration, and economical regeneration. First, regeneration of physical environment aims to build a community hub where village residents exchange opinions and ideas and share feedback in order to improve the village physical living environment. Second, socio-cultural regeneration intends to improve the quality of life by running various community programs tailored to meet particular needs of village residents. And lastly, economical regeneration addresses the issue of economic independence and self-sufficiency. The city government has been cooperating with local businesses to create new jobs to invigorate the local economy and to launch a for-profit social venture.

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, Busan developed into a hub trading port with Japan, becoming the second most-populous city after Seoul. In the wake of Korea’s independence from Japan in 1945, a majority of Koreans who had emigrated to Japan during the Japanese rule or had been conscripted during World War II repatriated to Korea via the Port of Busan. Furthermore, the city witnessed a massive influx of refugees escaping the horrors of war during the Korean War since Busan was one of only two cities in South Korea not captured by the North Korean army. An enormous inflow of population caused a shortage of proper housing, and thus, a great number of people had been displaced and settled in slums over a mountainous terrain. Currently, Busan has the highest urban deterioration rate of 86.2% in South Korea with about 600,000 decrepit housing units in a situation of deteriorated infrastructure. To address the issue of urban decay, the city undertook the Building A Happy Village Initiative, vigorous urban regeneration planning, aiming to enhance the capability of the most vulnerable and poorest by reaching them through inclusive social tailored to meet their specific needs.

To ensure village residents’ participation, the city government carries out the following. First, the government recognizes the needs of the vulnerable in a designated village. Second, it organizes a residents’ group composed of a diversity of socially vulnerable groups including women, children and the elderly. Third, a residents’ group holds a regular meeting to gather ideas, provide feedback and coordinate various community activities. These communal endeavors, actively participated in by residents, are as follow: setting up a childcare center where mothers take care of their children jointly with other mothers of the community; establishing a community kitchen to prepare hot meals for the seniors who cannot cook; hiring women to run a village café and a handicraft workshop; employing men to repair machinery or appliances around a house owned by the poor; and offering property management service to the most vulnerable households including people with disability, multicultural families and the elders. Moreover, the government cooperates with such organizations as ‘Busan Institute for Talent and Lifelong Education’, ‘Busan Cultural Foundation’ and ‘Research Institute for Social Enterprise’ to ensure lifelong education opportunities for residents. These partnerships enable the city to continuously offer customized education programs catering for the specific needs of residents.

Previously, public services had been offered in accordance to the top-down decision making process in which actual needs of residents were unfortunately neglected or residents’ feedback did not effectively reach policy makers. With the implementation of the Building A Happy Village Initiative, however, public services and community programs are provided in a lateral or bottom-up manner. For instance, a regular meeting is held and participated by important stakeholders, i.e. village residents, public officials and related experts in order to ensure an effective communication network among the stakeholders and to provide public services modified to suit a particular village. Naturally, village residents are encouraged to contribute by taking responsibility and action for their own neighborhoods, including cleaning up the streets, organizing a neighborhood watch, drawing up a safety map of the neighborhood, and patrolling deserted or dilapidated houses. As a result, residents’ pride in their neighborhoods was restored and their self-confidence was enhanced considerably.

The city government encourages village residents to participate in the planning and implementation phases so that bureaucratic inefficiency is eliminated in providing public services. The government successfully established a cooperation system where residents and the government are organically connected with each other and share their experiences and expertise. As a result, residents are actively engaged in the following communal activities: regularly cleaning the streets and repairing old retaining walls to improve the physical environment of the neighborhood; offering a night-time accompanying service for women for protection who are easily exposed to the risk of being the target of a crime when they come home late at night; preparing hot meals for the elderly who experience difficulty in cooking; establishing and operating a village library; and performing maintenance work on houses occupied by the vulnerable such as single mothers, children and the elderly. Since its launch in 2010, the initiative had a positive impact on the residents of 52 actively participating villages as of 2017. In 2018, 16 villages were designated as new participants, proving that the successful outcomes of the initiative are transferring at a municipal level. In addition, 30 Village Maintenance Offices are established and help the most vulnerable.

The Building A Happy Village Initiative is a distinctively new approach to provide public service in South Korea since it was the first case of a village-based public service program provided by a local government. The city government channels funds into ‘the Urban Regeneration Center Busan’, a non-governmental institution which works with civilian experts called ‘happy village advocates’ to support village residents lacking necessary expertise and knowhow. When a public service provider such as government focuses on community-based social welfare service at a village-level, needs of individual residents may be neglected. The city government set up a village maintenance office (VMO) to deter oversight of individual cases. VMOs deliver public services directly to people in need, and naturally, residents benefiting from the service have reported a high level of satisfaction. Moreover, on every planning and implementation phase, residents are provided with consulting tailored to their specific needs, which allows the initiative to preserve unique characteristics and features of each village.

The city government originally came up with an idea of the initiative when it witnessed the advocacy work of social activists who worked with locals without administrative support from government. They caught the attention of city officials who conceived an idea of sending each village an expert who would act as a link to facilitate cooperation between the government and residents. This was the nation’s first case of dispatching an administrative expert to a village-level administrative unit by a local government. The news of the initiative’s success spread quickly and other local governments began to adopt the initiative to reach out to the most vulnerable and poorest. The initiative now serves as a benchmark for other local governments and public institutions in training and dispatching village advocates. Moreover, inspired by property management system used in Korean apartment complexes, the government formulated the concept of setting up a village maintenance office (VMO) in a neighborhood with a vulnerable population. Just like a property management office in apartment complexes does, VMO repair and maintain physical capital assets of a pertinent village and offers general customer service for tenants. VMOs cooperate with social welfare centers to enhance the efficiency of public service delivery.

1. Financial resources The initiative is fully funded by the Korea Lottery Commission of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance which has provided USD 40,856,000 since 2010. 2. Human resources a. External experts and happy village advocates They cooperate with the city government in: planning customized social service programs; organizing a local residents group; and promoting a regular small meeting. b. Urban Regeneration Center Busan URC Busan cooperates with the government in: supervising village advocates and manage the day-to-day operations of VMOs; and delivering educational programs to build residents’ capacity. c. Busan Institute for Talent and Lifelong Education (BIT) BIT cooperates with the government in providing various lifelong education programs tailored to the needs of specific groups. d. Research Institute for Social Enterprise (RISE) RISE cooperates with the government in organizing and supporting community-based economic organizations such as village cooperative associations and village shops.

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Local governments in South Korea identified and selected the initiative as a best practice for training and sponsoring community-based advocates. Moreover, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport recognized the merit of the initiative, and issued guidelines for the ministry’s urban renewal new deal program, citing the initiative as a good example of neighborhood sustainability. Urban regeneration has been a great interest of the current mayor of Busan, SUH Byoung-soo. When he was as a congressman in the National Assembly, he proposed a bill titled “Special Act on the Promotion and Support for Urban Regeneration” which entered into force in December 2013. Not surprisingly, the firm commitment of the mayor influenced the development process of municipal policies, and the Building a Happy Village Initiative, spearheaded by the mayor and public officials of the city government of Busan, has successfully brought changes in designing and implementing urban renewal policies in terms of the improvement of physical environment and reinvigoration of neighborhood economy without altering the tradition and heritage of a village, all of which proves the transferable merits of the initiative.

The Building a Happy Village Initiative has been sustained since its launch in 2010. To enhance the socio-economic sustainability of the initiative, the city government provides constant monitoring and consulting for participating villages, and provides an educational and cultural program to boost residents’ capacity. In addition, the government constantly solicits ideas from the public for a new project under the umbrella of the Building a Happy Village Initiative, and helps participating villages establish village shops and a co-op. Moreover, the city government pursues the collaboration with external organizations in other regions by establishing a cooperation network among villages beyond its urban agglomeration to share and pool experience and expertise. In particular, the city government is currently assisting certain villages, which has proven its capacity in implementing the initiative, in applying for a bid to carry out the urban renewal new deal program, a national scheme pushed forward by the current Moon administration.

1. Short-term (2018 – 2019) Village advocates monitored and evaluated villages that have been involved in the initiative since its early period of 2010. Based on the evaluation results, the city government dispatched more personnel to a 16 newly designated villages to transfer the lessons learned from the past implementation and make the villages achieve socio-economic sustainability as quickly as possible. 2. Mid-term (2020 – 2021) The city government established a master plan to prepare the upcoming 10 years. The master plan was designed to build capacity of citizens and achieve socio-economic stability and growth. 3. Long-term (2022 -2031) The city government plans to organize an improved residents’ association and continue community educational programs tailored to the specific needs of individuals.

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The initiative was formally evaluated by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, whose subsidiary agency, the Korea Lottery Commission, has been funding the initiative since 2010. The ministerial evaluation, ongoing since 2013, found the city government of Busan as the best local government in delivering public services.

The comprehensive evaluation by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance selected the Building a Happy Village Initiative as the best policy by local governments, citing that the initiative successfully provides tailored public services to local residents without damaging the cultural and historical traditions of a community, making it the most appropriate case of utilizing the public funds injected by the Korea Lottery Commission.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance employed three indices in carrying out its comprehensive evaluation of the initiative. 1. Economic sustainability The ministry measured the outcomes of the initiative in terms of: how firmly economic infrastructure was established by setting up and running community ventures; and how balanced economic developments are among participating villages. 2. Residents satisfaction Residents were interviewed to see if the initiative succeeded in improving the quality of life. The interview was conducted based on three factors: regeneration of physical living environment; socio-cultural regeneration; and economical regeneration. 3. Community reinvigoration indicators The ministry measured how reinvigorated a village is upon the implementation of the initiative. It was measured by the number of residents’ association organized, the number of new community businesses, and the number of community activities carried out by residents’ association.

The city government collaborated with the Busan Development Institute, the academia, village advocates, and most importantly local residents from the initial phase of developing ideas to the actual implementation. Civilian experts provided professional support in consulting and training. The Busan Institute for Talent and Lifelong Education provided educational programs tailored to the specific needs of individual participants.

The city government learned the key lessons that a successful delivery of public service is only possible with the cooperation of all stakeholder (citizens, civic society and the government).