KITWE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

STAFF COLLEGE.

STUDENT NAME : JANE MULENGA

LECTURER NAME : MS.E.M.MACHILA

COURSE : COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

SUBJECT : PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

TASK : EXPLAIN SOME OF OBSTACLES TO PARTICIPATION IN

YOUR COMMUNITY.

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Over the last decade, terms such as community mobilization, citizen involvement, community
participation, community organizing, community dialogue, multi-stakeholder processes, interactive
decision-making and social learning have been frequently used in the literature of community
development. These terms embody the idea of bringing together different stakeholders who have an
interest in a problem situation and engaging them in processes of dialogue and collective learning that can
improve innovation, decision-making and action. For the purpose of this paper the term community
participation has been used to discuss the benefits and challenges of community participation for
community economic development, a case of Uluguru Mountain Road Project that was facilitated by
Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) in Morogoro Rural District.

There are certain things that can hinder community participation process in various ways as follows;
Firstly, Government and development practitioners, political and legal structures do not encourage or give
room for community participation. Most of the programs for community development are identified by
the Government or Non-Government organizations communities are just involved at the implementation
level as a result most of the programs fails as they do not meet the community expectations and the real
community needs.

Secondly, Government and NGOs that work with communities are often primarily motivated by their
strong sense of urgency about achieving their preset objectives and timeline. They are likely to be
frustrated by what they perceive to be a lack of progress. At the same time, community members can be
irritated, offended or simply confused by the expectations of the facilitators. For example most of
government and donors funded project do have pre-determined life spans of initiatives. Many community
projects have a pre-planned project design imposed on them without the wide participation of community
members. Typically, such a design has a specific schedule, including a fixed end-date and rigid reporting
requirements. This builds inflexibility into the project from the start and frequently imposes an unrealistic
pace on it. Inflexible planning often cannot adapt to events that are highly important to community
members.

Thirdly, incomplete participation or representation in decision making causes a risk that community
leaders and influential people in the community whether traditional or external do not represent the whole
community, but instead focus on their own concerns or agendas. At the same time, certain groups within
the larger community whose participation can be highly important to community economic development

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may be marginalized or ignored due to culture and classes. This was observed in a case of the Uluguru
Mountain road construction whereby women were often reluctant to speak publicly due to culture and
religious norms. As per waluguru tribe who are most Moslem, women were not allowed to speak in the
public as a result was not given room to participate during the planning processes which did not consider
women’s other activities such as agriculture. In view of that the road construction was delayed as women
were supposed to fetch water for the road construction instead they were busy with agriculture activities.
In conclusion,community participation is a vital important strategy in efforts to work with community to
improve their Community Economic Development. It respects the rights and ability of indigenous and
other community members to design and implement programs within their community. It also opens the
way for community members to act responsibly. Whether a participatory approach is the primary strategy
or a complementary one, it will greatly enrich and strengthen programs and help achieve more
sustainable, appropriate, and effective programs in the field. For real Community Economic Development
calls for active citizen involvement in a development process which brings together a diversity of
community interests and sectors. The central credo of CED according to Douglas (1994) is to develop the
competency of the community to deal with its own problems. Real participation is an essential ingredient
to building community competency.

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REFERENCES:
Jeanne Koopman, et al Rhoda kweka , M.SC. Mary Mboya Samuel m. Wangwe, ph. d. may 2001
irrigation section, ministry of agriculture and food security Dar es salaam, Tanzania community
participation in traditional irrigation scheme rehabilitation projects in Tanzania.

J. Norman Reid (June 2000) community participation 1 Usda rural development office of
community development.

Peter Dreier, community empowerment strategies: the limits and potential of community
organizing in urban neighborhoods cityscape: a journal of policy development and research •
volume 2, number 2 • may 1996 cityscape 121.

http://www.epi.org/downloads/docs cited on 12th Dec 2007

http://wwwdata.unaids.org/publication/irc.

Oxford advanced learners dictionary (1995), oxford university press, London.