COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (CD)

Community Development, defined

• The process by which the efforts of the people

themselves are united with that of the government
authorities to improve the economic, social and cultural
conditions of communities, to integrate these
communities into the life of the nation and to enable them
to contribute fully to national progress (United Nations).

• A group of people in a community reaching to a decision

to initiate a social action process (i.e. planned
intervention) to change their economic, social, cultural or
environmental situation (Christenson & Robinson).
Objectives of CD

The primary objective of CD as pointed out by

Griffiths is to promote, sustain, support, and maintain
community action.

Apparently, CD is related to community action, in

much the same manner as education is related to learning.
Hence, in promoting community development, there must
be some kind of community action to initiate or to guide the
promoter to carry out either social or economic activities to
improve their welfare or to solve their real problems.

It would be easier and clearer to understand the

aims and objectives of community development by looking
into different types of community development.
 Key Principles

• People define their own problems and issues

• People work together as a group rather than as

individuals

• Action should increase the self-reliance of the

community and its individuals rather than increase
dependency on others
 Key Principles

• The role of community development workers is to

facilitate this process rather than organize it on behalf
of others

• Community development involves engagement in

political processes and often negotiation between
groups with conflicting interests. It also involves
elements of social change whereby disadvantaged or
minority groups provide challenges to the attitudes or
power relations in society’s planning and
development.
 Types of CD

• Community work type – The objective of community work

is to give aid and support to people who seek to secure
more control over their lives.

• Colonial-social development type – The objective is to

integrate economic and social development programs
together with education for self-management and for
political development of the developing countries which
were once under colonial rule and which encountered
social development problems.

• Urban renewal type – The purpose is to break down social

isolation and give meaning to personal existence by
encouraging the formation of social groups of different
kinds who would organize their own affairs.
Types of CD
• Adult education type – The aim is to give support to the
development of community leaders, to foster the concern
of community life and enable communities to deal with
existing problems.

• The Institutional type –to encourage those who have

been provided formal service, to take action on their own
behalf and in addition, to accept responsibilities for
others.

• The Idealist/political activist type – to give practical

expression to socialism by the encouragement of militant
action and obtaining beneficial social change in the
shortest possible time through the involvement of those
the change would benefit.
Types of CD

• The Community human development type –

The aim is toward human development of the targeted

beneficiary groups by encouraging them to be diligent
and strong in terms of self-reliance. This is basically
needed for strengthening the degree of community
cooperation to improve the participants’ socio-economic
conditions.
 COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
It is the process of –
• Building power through involving a constituency in
identifying problems they share and the solutions to those
problems they have

• Identifying the people and structures that can make those

solutions possible

• Enlisting those targets in the effort through negotiation and

using confrontation and pressure when needed and

• Building an institution that is democratically controlled by

that constituency that can develop the capacity to take on
further problems and that embodies the will and the power of
that constituency.
Community organizing tips

1. Identify a leadership team

2. Develop a common vision
3. Hold a community meeting
4. Conduct surveys
5. Set goals for your community
6. Develop a strategy
7. Implement the plan and evaluate the results
8. Keep up the momentum
Thank you