Department of Anthropology & Development Studies

NGOs, Development and Underdevelopment

 COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT AND
EMPOWERMENT
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENT

 Development is about releasing the

community of the poor from the poverty
trap so that they can take responsibility for
their own destiny.
 Developmentis not about placing facilities
among the poor or creating infrastructure.
 Development is not about giving relief to
poor people.
DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENT CONT…
 Development is not purely an economic phenomenon but rather a
multi-dimensional process involving reorganization and reorientation
of entire economic AND social system
 Development is process of improving the quality of all human lives
with three equally important aspects. These are:
 1. Raising peoples’ living levels, i.e. incomes and consumption, levels
of food, medical services, education through relevant growth
processes
 2. Creating conditions conducive to the growth of peoples’ self-
esteem through the establishment of social, political and economic
systems and institutions which promote human dignity and respect
 3. Increasing peoples’ freedom to choose by enlarging the range of
their choice variables, e.g. varieties of goods and services
THE CONCEPT OF A COMMUNITY
 Community is defined as a group of members who live in a
certain locality and interact with one another while
sharing common interests or goals.
 It is a group of people who stay in the same geographical
area, have same cultural background and language
DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
 Community development is a process where
community members come together to take
collective action and generate solutions to
common problems.
 Community wellbeing (economic, social,
environmental and cultural) often evolves from
this type of collective action being taken at a
grassroots level.
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

 The democratic French revolution and Britain as well as Second World

War played a vital role in the existence of comm. dev
 The above three events were the major reason for the emergence of
community development
 The word ‘community’ was first introduced by UK as the ‘As Bridge
Conference’ in 1945
 During Second World War comm. dev. programme was started for the
rehabilitation of the affected victims
 In 1940-1945 the World Bank introduced to give loans
 In 1950 USA introduced technical assistance programme for the
assistance of rural areas
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY CONT …
 The community development programme was
launched on a pilot basis in 1952 to provide for a
substantial increase in the country's agricultural
programme, and for improvements in systems of
communication, in rural health and hygiene, and
in rural education and also to initiate and direct a
process of integrated culture
 In 1953 other agencies of United Nations began to
introduce coordination development program all
over the world
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY CONT …
 In Africa, communities have been engaged in activities to improve the
well-being of their members
 Early forms of human societies were based on mainly on hunting and
gathering, while
 Modern societies are sustained mainly by agriculture and industrial
activities
 The principle of community involvement and collaboration in life
sustaining activities remain the same
 Therefore community development is as old as societies
 In the Third World countries, community development became a
popular approach in the 1950s and early 1960s
 This growth of community development in the Third World was
influences by experiences and initiatives both inside and outside these
countries
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY CONT …
 The experience gained from community
improvement and social welfare programmes in
the US and Britain in the 1930s contributed the
comm. dev
 The term ‘community development’ gained its
popular use in the 1940s
 Inthe US community development in the 1930s
focused on improving the welfare of rural
community
 On the other hand, social welfare programmes in
the both US and Britain were geared towards
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY CONT …
 In Africa community development resulted from the
actions of British Colonial Office
 After World War II the British office decided to use
community development principles to encourage their
socio-economic development
 Continued survival of community development
programmes in countries became heavily dependent on
foreign financial assistance, mainly US and United Nations
Organisation
 The collapse of these community development
programmes in the late 1960s came to be associated with
the withdrawal of aid
ORIGINS OF COMMUNITY CONT …
 Development can be approached and divided into two categories:
i) Growth-centred- theories of development and strategies of development,
economic growth forms an important goal.
-Well-being of society is depended on it
ii) People-centred- referred to as theories of human development
-People are at the centre of development
-Growth-centred strategies of dev. Recognise
human
well-being as the final goal of development
 The differences between the two is that the other stresses on economic
issues and the other on human factors
 Community development seeks to promote human development, empower
communities and strengthening their capacity for self-sustaining
CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
 Community development is widely used in rural areas of the Third World
 Its principles are applicable in the urban areas as well
 The most principle of community development is that it follows an integrated
approach to the problems of poverty and development
 Integration in community development has two major implications:
i) The problems of development are complicated and should be tackled
together in coordinated fashion
-It emphasises the fact that social, political and cultural aspects should
be treated together with the economic aspects
ii) Different role-players in development should coordinate their efforts
-NGO’s, governments, and local communities should work together
towards an integrated rural development
1. Felt Needs
 The people must define their needs, not the government or any agent
 NGO’s and government that wants to be effective in its development
effort must engage in dialogue with intended beneficiaries to
determine their needs
 Due to lack of access to info local communities may not be able to
clearly define their needs
 The community development workers (CDW’S) can help them to
clarify these needs and prioritise them
 Communities need to distinguish between the needs inducement and
manipulation to make them see needs imposed from outside
 Inducement can mean that local communities are served with info
that will enable them to see the broad picture
2. Community Participation
 Peoples participation forms the basis of community development
 Community development is directed at promoting better living for people,
especially disadvantaged communities
 The success of this approach is not reflected in changes in national economic
growth figures such as gross domestic product (GNP)
 Economic growth figures only give us average standards of living in a country
 Through active participation people can determine whether there is real
improvement in communities
 Community development is based on community projects
 Residents must participate in defining the content
 Community based organisation (CBO’s) are the vehicle through which
community participation takes place
 These CBO’s can take different forms, such as farmers unions, youth clubs,
project committees
3. Educative Process
 Community development must improve the ability of people to deal
with challenges confronting them
 Community development becomes a learning process:
i) People learn technical skills, eg farming, brick-making, sewing,
knitting
ii) People acquire administrative skills through community
development
- They learn to keep records, conduct meetings, manage time
and people
 People learn to resolve their own conflicts and solve problems
together
 They learn to become self-reliant and work together
MAJOR ROLE-PLAYERS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

1. Local people are the main actors in the development of their communities
 They must be in the forefront of shaping and determining the direction of their own
development agenda
 CBO’s are the primary actors in community development
2. Governments are also role-players in the development of local communities
 The cooperation of government and support is necessary for its success
 Government can provide financial assistance, technical advise, and training
3. NGO’s - their strength lies in organising the communities and influence
government policies towards community development
 NGO’s also give financial support to communities
 Private business enterprises fall in this category which finance community projects
MAJOR ROLE-PLAYERS CONT…
4. Another major actor in community development is the community
development worker (CDW’s)
 This person is also referred as the group organiser, group animator or
change agent
 CDW’s also act as consultants to local people
 The main function is:
i) Encourage group formation
ii) Facilitate access of the people or their CBOs to outside
resources
iii) Act as a source of relevant info which is not available to local
people
 A change agent must be someone selected from the members of the
community or employee or government or an NGO
 Change agents need to trained properly for their jobs
PROBLEMS IN IMPLENTING COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
 The widespread failure of community development programmes was
due to financial problems, caused by aid withdrawal
 Most of the benefits of development tendered to go to the rich and
not the poor
 The failure of government to decentralise decision-making power was
another factor
 Development projects were taken in national government
 Communities never took an interest in ensuring the success of these
projects which they see as government projects
 Failure of governments to provide trained community workers
 Financial constraints and lack of understanding concerning the role
played by the CDWs
 The problems never fulfilled the promise of alleviating poverty
RELATED DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
 In 1960s community development programmes in the Third World lost its
popularity
 Attention was turned towards the ‘green revolution’ as a strategy to
overcome rural poverty
 Green revolution strategy focused on the enhancement of agricultural
production by improved seeds, fertilisers, advanced machinery and other
technological innovations to farmers
 Farmers could not afford these inputs and they did not benefit from
green revolution
 New strategy overlooked the issue of equitable distribution of the
benefits of development and need for participation of the poor people
 The failure of the green revolution to address the problems of the Third
World poverty led to a re-emergence of strategies similar to comm. dev
in the 1970s
RELATED DEVELOPMENT CONT…
 These were basic need approach (BNA) and integrated
rural development (IRD).
 The BNA says that the goal of development is to ensure
that the basic needs of the majority of poor are satisfied
 Basic needs include psychological needs such as food,
shelter, clothing, education and health
 Problems such as inadequate education, health, transport
facilities make it difficult for the poor to play a
meaningful role in development
 The social and political factors affect economic
production
 Both the BNA and IRD emphasise peoples participation in
development
UNDERDEVELOPMENT
 Very easy to focus on characteristics of development
 For example we know that underdevelopment is usually characterized
by: low per capita incomes, low literacy and educational attainment,
lack of basic services- water and power
 But how do we EXPLAIN underdevelopment?
 Old view that absence of development caused by certain physical
environments, particular cultural traditions and value systems-
environmental and cultural determinism
 Lack of natural resources certainly impediment to development
UNDERDEVELOPMENT CONT…
 Instability and other adverse internal situations- political factors
 Some truth to this as extended periods of turbulence are not
conducive to development- central African nations with tribal rivalries
and ethnic cleansing
 Poor physical environment- lack of rainfall, poor soils also may pose
barriers to development
 High Birth Rate> Large Families> Poverty> Low Output Per Worker>
 Low Productivity> Poor Health>Inadequate Housing
 Remedy > massive aid
CONCLUSSION
 Of the poor in South Africa:
 72% live in rural areas mainly in the Eastern Cape, Free State, North
West, Limpopo & KwaZulu-Natal
 Poverty predominant among Blacks (61%) followed by Coloured’s
(38%), Indians (5%) then Whites (1%).
 There is a clear relationship between poverty & the size of the
household, large households with many dependents are generally
much poorer.
 Female-headed households poorer than male-headed
 Poverty in SA has a strong rural, race, gender bias.
(Black, rural women bear the brunt of poverty in South Africa).