INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

MEANING OF COMMUNITY
MEANING OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
EVOLUTION OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
PHILOSOPHIES OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
IMPACT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ON OTHER FIELDS
ASSUMPTIONS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMMUNITY
PROCESS OF COMMUNITY ORGANISATION
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING STRATEGIES
CROSS CUTTING ISSUES IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
ROLE OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
CHALLENGES OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
IMPACT OF COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

MODELS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

MEANING OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MODELS
NATURE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
TYPES OF DEVELOPMENT MODELS
IMPACT OF THE MODELS ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER

MEANING OF COMMUNITY WORKER
ROLE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PERFORMANCE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER
IMPACT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

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COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
MEANING OF EMPOWERMENT
IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
WAYS OF EMPOWERING COMMUNITY
FACTORS NECESSARY FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
IMPACT OF COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

COLLABORATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS AND ORGANISATIONAL NETWORKS

IMPETUS AND RATIONAL
STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING ORGANIZATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
TYPES OF COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
STRATEGIES USED IN BUILDING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY
IMPACT OF COLLABORATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES

MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY
STRATEGIES USED TO SUSTAIN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
ROLE OF VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS IN SUSTAINING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMMES
IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES
CHALLENGES IN SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

MEANING OF LOCAL AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
REASONS OF GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
WAYS IN WHICH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

EMERGING TRENDS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

EMERGING TRENDS IN SOCIAL WORK

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INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Community
The term has been used by different people to mean different things; however in nearly all the definition,
the term exhibits the following characteristics:
(i) Refers to a group of people who shares common cultural traits e.g values, languages, norms,
traditions e.t.c.
(ii) It’s a group of people with common interests, goals, occupations/objectives.
(iii) It’s a group of people who have common kinship ties, which is related on having a common
descent.
N/B:
Community can therefore be defined as an association of people who have come together to pursue a
common interest or goal using established methodologies.
It’s a group of people that share a common geographical territory and are bound by kinship ties.

Development
It’s a multi-dimensional concept that generally refers to the process of transformation leading to better
of living, cultural, social and economic changes and educational transformation and political reforms.

CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community Development is community based approach clichéd at achieving transformation and
development by community members themselves; organizing themselves into groups providing their
own resources and through their own participation and involvement in their activities.
However, the practice of community development emerged and grew in the British colonist and Africa
refers to:-
 The community improvement activities in which people were actively involved.
 These improvement activities were actively carried out on self-aid basis. This is later became the
community development movement.
There are many definitions on community development as discussed below:-
The first definition was provided by the:
(a) Cambridge Conference “encouragement of initiatives in African Society.”
The Conference used the term mass education to imply community development.

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It further defined mass education as a movement designed to promote better living for the whole
community with their active participation and if possible on the initiative of a community. They also
argued that if this initiative is not coming spontaneously (by itself), then some techniques should be
adopted or used for arousing or stimulating in order to serve its active and enthusiastic response.

(b) U.N Definition

They defined community development as the “ process by which the effort of people themselves are
united with those of government authorities in order to improve the economic, social and cultural
conditions of the communities and also to integrate these communities into the life of nation and to
enable them to contribute fully to national progress.”

(c) International Co-operative Administration.

They define community development as a process of social action in which people of a community
organize themselves for planning and action, defines their common and individual needs and problems;
execute these plans with maximum reliance upon the community resources and supplement these
resources when necessary with service and materials from government and non-governmental agencies
outside the community.

(d) Biddle and Biddle’s Definition.

He perceived community development as a social process in which human beings can become complete
to live with and gain some control over local aspects of a frustrating and changing world. It’s a group
method of expanding personality growth, can occur when members or neighbours work together to serve
their growing concept for the good of all.
(e) Clifford Definition 1966.
It’s a system at village level that helps people to work together for a better living.
(f) Christenson and Robinson.
They concluded that community development due to its usefulness as a profession means different
things to people.
Many diverse efforts have been seen as falling under it. The various definition of community
development must contain the following:-
 It must involve actions taken by people to better or develop themselves or their society.

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  Involves a process; by which people’s efforts are united by those of port authorities to improve
the economic, social and cultural conditions of the community.
 It’s an approach that encourages self help and mutual aid by effective use of local resources.
 It’s a process of social action where people organize themselves for planning action.
 It involves development of people’s capacity through awareness creation i.e educating people to
develop their own needs and meet them.
 It also involve a process where man can become competent to deal with and gain control over the
local aspects of the frustrating and changing world.
 Community development should be defined in reference to planned and organized efforts that
allow local people to acquire attitude and skills necessary for democratic participation in solving
a community problem.

THEORITICAL CONCEPTION OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Theoretically, community development can be defined as a process, a programme, a method, an
approach, a movement, a means and end as a movement and as an education.
As a process:
It is seen as work done in stages that allows movement from one state which is less desirable, to another
which is more desirable, for example, from a state where community members rely on the resources
outside community to that state of reliance on their own resources.
As a method:
It is seen as a means of accomplishing some objectives. It is seen as a way of working towards an end
that is desired by the development agencies.
As a programme:
Community development is seen as a set of activities or task whose implementation if properly carried
out facilitates the attainment or achievement of objectives or the programme.
As a movement:
It may be seen as activities carried out by the society and community leaders working together with
others (change agents and governmental authorities) to bring about change or programs.
As means and end:
Community development involves ways of achieving a particular end that constitutes “means”
however, community development is an end since its aimed at attaining a particular goal or an end.
People can thus conclude that community development refers to a mean and end.

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As an approach:
Community development is carried out through a designed policy framework that constitutes clear
strategies on how to achieve a specific goal. It thus constitutes an approach.
As education:
It’s considered an education because the improvement or betterment. It brings about area count through
education of the members of the community. By making, them aware of their local problems and
facilitating them to do something in order to improve their living conditions.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The origin of community development can be traced to a number of sources in the U.S, Britain and
India. Its origin in British colonial territory in Africa; are not quite clear but can be traced to the effects
of universities and international institution.

The origin and growth of community development as a profession specifically looks at (Utopian
community meaning ideal) and this reflects on:-
 Ideal community
 Social welfare
 Agricultural extension work in USA and Britain
 Rural reconstruction in India
 Community development work in British colonial territories in Africa
 Contributions of Universities and International organization towards its development

ROUTES OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community development as a profession appears to have originated from different sources for example:-
1. Dunham in 1970s
He listed 124 types of effort which included:
(a) Utopian communities
(b) Growth of Local Government
(c) Adult education movement
(d) Agricultural extension work
(e) Social welfare programs

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2. Sandern 1970s
He discusses the growth of social welfare work and utopian community as having influenced the
emergence.
3. Pande 1969
Of India, traces the origin of community development to rural reconstruction work; that was done in that
country in the early part of that century.
(a) Utopian (ideal) Community
These communities were based on religious or secular principles. There was a society or one community
known as “New Harmony” which was brought by Robert Owen from another group of religious
oriented man utopian known as Roots Rappiters.
He tried to bull people who are industrious to join the community which was then set together and these
community ownership of goods was done in accordance with rulers “that emphasized”:-
 The community was a non-religious and thus lectures moral issues were given.
 This community later broke apart due to Owens’s inability to spend much time with the people
and also due to retardance of some of its members who did not work as hard as it had been
expected but however Owens’s influence led to emergence of similar community especially in
Britain.

(b) Social welfare work in USA

Social work in USA and Britain emerged and grew, directed at overcoming conditions such as
overcrowding, inadequate housing and sanitation, illness, long working hours and the poor working
conditions.
These conditions were ceased by rapid industrialization, changes in techniques and migration of people
to cities.

In Britain, churches initially undertook social work however, during the 19 th and 20th centuries,
volunteers including students from universities, undertook to reform the living conditions of the poor
especially in the cities. Later on, charity organizations were formed especially in England.

In USA, Smith (1979) noted that the community association movement emerged between the two world
wars to bring together representatives of local branches of national volunteers, society, churches,

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political parties, interested groups and the public at large in discussion of what needed to be done to
improve conditions of poorer areas.
Discussions were conducted in poorer areas in buildings known as community areas.
In USA, social work begun as “relief society” which largely coordinated the giving of aids to the poor.
These were followed by charity organization societies. Both societies sort to coordinate the work of a
large number of private agencies which were involved in providing for the need of the poor and also
provided relief and other services to the poor.
In USA also, these societies sort reforms in official housing courts, established agencies and programs
for the case of dependant children co-operated with the policies, programs of dealing with beggars
which were initiated through social service for gathering data.

(c) Agricultural Extension Work.

This work emerged and grew in the USA. It started with “Agricultural Societies” in the year 1785
which sort to disseminate information to farmers and was followed by short courses called farm
institutes which were organized for farmers in the 19 th c. There also emerged local farmers’ alliance
which sort to pass information on agriculture to farmers.
These efforts were facilitated with the passage of Moril Land Grant act of 1862 by the USA congress
which required each US state to set up a Land Grand College and establish an experimental research
station. These colleges were operated with financial and technical support coming from the federal
government.
Here extension was broadly seen to include instruction and technical aspects of agriculture, home
making, and sanitation as well as social and moral subjects to people both in countryside and in town.

However in Britain, extension services originated around 1890 when an act of parliament provided
grants to country councils for instructions to farmers. Country councils supplemented these grants and
started agricultural colleges that acted as centers for lectures and demonstrations.
Farm institutes were also started as permanent community institutions for training farm boys and girls.
Farmers’ participation in planning and implementation of extension work took place through various
agricultural committees at the county level and through local farm organization.

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Thus Britain extension work was demonstrated through county councils but centred on agricultural
colleges and institutes. It also provided room for farmers’ participation in planning, implementation of
agricultural program.

(d) Rural reconstruction work in India.

Rural reconstruction work in India was pioneered by leading personality in India which included:-
 Rabindranath Tagore
 Frank Lugard Brayne
 Spencer Hatch
 Mahatma Gandhi
All of the pioneers were deeply concerned with the poor conditions of the then 700,000 Indian villagers
and for instance, Mahatma Gandhi held that the salvation of the villagers had to come from the villagers
themselves through their self help efforts.

Brayne on the hand held that the villager and not the government was the central figure in the help of
his/her village.
The construction work in India entailed:-
Improvement in areas such as:-
 Agriculture
 Health services
 Sanitation and Drainage
 Roads
 Village crafts

Frank Lugard Bryne
He argued that villagers and not the government were central of their village.
He had been appointed in 1920 as the deputy commissioner Gartor District in Punjab state. He attributed
part of their poverty to their bad habit that included:-
 Laziness
 Poor hygiene
 Health and Marriage feast
 Costly litigation

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He was further entrusted with the task of planning and implementing a skim that could help improve the
living conditions of the people of the area that was a top down skim where most activities were imposed
and effected through the official pressure.

N.B
Not all the pioneers used the top down technique to impose the idea on the villagers’ contribution.
He also started two schools for rural reconstruction work.
(1) School for rural economy.
(2) School of domestic economy. This school trained women on domestic activities e.g. cooking,
hygiene, illiteracy.
Brayne used propaganda to make people aware of their problems and organized public speeches and
went further to create a District Gazette.

Mahatma Gandhi
He however felt that ignorance was the main problem of the villagers. His main contribution to rural
reconstruction in India was to achieve an enhanced national output. He stated a number of associations
that helped in village development work; he also taught people how to cultivate well and how to
improve their health.
He also managed to organize farmers into co-operative societies.

Rabind Ranath Togore

He was mainly worried about the poor living conditions of people in India. He restated the rural
reconstruction work by assisting the neighbours and family to improve the conditions.
Later he established a training institute for rural work; he trained guides to help improve the living
conditions in the rural areas.
Due to his knowledge and skills in agriculture, having studied it US, he was able to educate farmers on
better agricultural activities.
He also helped funding.

Spencer Hatch
He actually emphasized the necessities of farm demonstrations to improve agricultural practices at rural
level.

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He encouraged this through extension activities.
He also started a training institution to train guiders.
Having learned sociology in the US, he was able to start the first Rural Development Centre in India
which was concerned with rural development.

In conclusion, these early efforts of betterment of community appear to have occurred. Independent of
each other; however in practice this could not have been the case.
It is possible that in both USA and Britain, the development in the welfare field may have influenced
those in agricultural extension and vice versa.This development may have in turn influenced rural
reconstruction work in India.

This earlier efforts at community betterment may also have influenced the British effort, official and
colonial colonies to start the community development work.

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PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
The practice of community development is based on a number of assumptions and principles.
Assumption: These are believes in whose truths cannot be proved.
Principles: Are provable truths upon which we base our beliefs. They can be seen as now being
rules.

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE PRACTICE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

(1) Knowledge in both physical and social sciences passed to the members of the society; a process of
education helps to perfect the society and to meet its needs. The use of both physical and social science
knowledge could facilitate the pace or speed of the process more than the natural process of evolution.

(2)All members of a democratic need to have access to both social and physical science knowledge to
help them improve their lives.
The underlined idea here was that people have to take responsibility for improving their living
conditions.

(3) Community development work has to be entrusted to trained professionals who know what needs to
be done and have the skills for doing it.

(4) Community development is both radical and conservative in nature. Its radical outlook implies
expanding democratic freedom. Its conservative outlook implies working within the prevailing
institutional framework without threatening to change them.

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PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

(a) Principle of Equilibrium of Poverty (Swarne Poel)

This principle was advanced by Swarne Poel and its advocates that the gains made from the effort of the
poor to free themselves from poverty are quickly lost by their vulnerable conditions. The more the poor
try to create wealth for themselves and free themselves from poverty the more they lose. The loss is
generally a result of global social economic conditions beyond their control and through natural
calamities. These factors generally makes it difficult for the poor to escape from this vicious circle of
poverty which is also known as Deprivation Trap.

This means poverty as phenomena should not be blamed on the victim but on the force of exploitation
from both the local and global society.

(b) Principle of Human Protection

The principle here is that any community development initiative should eliminate poverty and suffering
by meeting physical needs and not neglecting abstract needs otherwise it will be defective. Deprived
people have concrete physical needs such as food, shelter, clothing e.t.c and abstract needs (social and
psychological needs) that have to be met. Abstract needs may include feeling of self reliance, happiness,
self esteem, dignity e.t.c. These psychological needs are promoted when people are recognized as being
capable of making their own decision; however the problem today is that more often than not most
development objectives happen to be physical and concrete.

Community development should therefore be carried out in such away that abstract needs met in the
process of obtaining (providing) physical concrete needs. It must have an integrated approach as
people’s needs cannot be compartmentalized. It encourages the community involvement.

(c) Principle of Participation and Involvement

Community projects will continue to suffer poor sustainability as long as professionals and change
agents continue doing things for the people. Many projects have failed soon after handing over

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especially due to low or non-participation the community due to poor decision making. Participation
means different things to different people.
 According to Bhatnager and Williams “it’s a process by which people……influence decisions
that affect them…..and not simple involvement in the implementation or benefits of a
development activity.”
 Others see it as an effort to involve a community in the implementation of already drawn up
plans.
 Others still see it as community mobilization which may mean soliciting people’s local
contribution in labour, materials e.t.c.
Today more and more actors in community development have realized that improvements in people’s
conditions are not brought from above foreign agencies but by beneficiaries actively participating in the
process to bring about change.

(d) Principle of felt needs

In the heart of every project, there is a recognized need. The need for change must be recognized by
people. The people must accept that there is a problem affecting them.
It’s only when people have a common problem that they can accept the implementation of a program or
project to eliminate it. People will only participate in a project if they feel it focuses majorly on their felt
needs.

(e) Principle of Empowerment

Empowerment is the capacity to manage one own life whether as an individual or as a community.
Empowerment involves influencing and changing public policies that may affect the freedom of choice
towards becoming master f once upon destiny; however the process must guide against compromising
the rights f other members of the community.

According to Chambers “It entails enabling the poor and the powerless to take more control over their
lives and secure better livelihood with ownership and control of productive assets.”

Basically, sustainable projects are those that have invested over the years in the development of people
and organization by on skills, capacity and self confidence to manage their activities.

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Empowerment enables community to develop courage and confidence to overcome oppression and
injustice. This is because it is essentially a political process that seeks to redistribute power in favour of
the poor and the discouraged.

(f) Principle of Ownership

This is the principle of the ability of the people to own the process and the result of what they do.
It implies being responsible whether for the better or the worst. This principle is based on the idea that
people identify with projects and maintain what they have toiled to build.

People must be given the opportunity and power to start their own development, outsiders should only
come in to give support.
Development through mobilization should involve the awakening and activating of people to take up the
responsibility of ownership and manage their own future through their projects.

(g) Principle of Release (As opposed to relief)

The real goal of development is to eradicate poverty. It should help free people from vicious circle of
poverty. It should not temporarily release or alleviate suffering temporarily but should be permanent.

Relief initiatives only make people dependent on their benefactors because their need for relief does not
stop. Relief will only treat the symptom of differ problem. We need an approach that release people
from disease, hunger, fear, powerless.
We need approaches that address the route cause of poverty.

(h) Principle of Learning

Today, it’s widely accepted that the community development circle is born of learning attitude
especially by dialogue by others. This is because no individual knows everything Hope and Timmel
(1984) observed that on many issues the so called experts have been wrong through advice, for instance
have led to greater poverty.

There is a new awareness now that no experts have all the answers.
Chambers observe that power hinders learning. The so called experts, who are often wrong, are those
who have long education and training. They are senior and have professional authority, control of funds,

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and exposition in society. This view of power prevents them from learning. The professional are usually
in touch with their professional colleagues through seminars, conferences. Their learning is more from
above than below the grassroots’ level, the more participation of the community in a project in it bring
about learning.

Community development workers who want to promote local learning or genuine development should
not bring in already packaged procedures, guidelines or models of development to people.
When decision making is removed from people, the idea of collective learning and discovery is
defeated.

Community development worker should instead go to community with nothing to offer to the people
more than themselves and their willingness to get free from the vicious circle of poverty.

(i) Principle of Adaptive ness (as opposed to blue print planning-change in person’s mind)
Blue print is technical, clear and precise and comprehensive but rigid and inflexible.
Here learning is the form of feasibility studies and profiles before planning begins in such scenario,
there is no learning to adapt.
There is no room for ordinary community to make decisions, yet those professional planners those
realities both psychologically and physically.
This principle requires a change of mindset. It requires a willingness to learn and plan with the people as
you go through
It is built on experimentation as opposed to the straight jacket approach bound by strict race. The blue
print planning is also known as straight jacket approach.
It is disjointed, short-term, trial and error kind of planning and implementation.
It joins for each problem will be found within some culturally acceptable arrangement and practices.
Adaptive processes are open to learning from innovations and experiments from other social
environment.

(j) Principle of Simplicity (As opposed to complexity)

It is the contrast, the idea that bigger is better. It is against complexity and sophistication.

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Simplicity however not popular especially from politicians, politically initiated programmes to tackle
especially poverty tend to be big, extravagant and high flying project that attracts attention in complex
and sophisticated community development initiatives, here is limited learning.

They tend to rely more heavily on external expertise and therefore result in minimal use of local
knowledge and skills. This curtails the enhance of local people in sense of self reliance and dignity.
The success of other principles of community development is largely determined by this principle.
There can be hardly a genuine participation, empowerment, adaptive ness, local ownership and in
community development initiative that are complex and sophisticated.
The principle does not advocate that we think small and limit ourselves to small scale operations. It
instead advocates that large project should be broken down into small parts where the learning process
can be enhanced.
It also means that technical aspects should be adaptable to local situations. This involves training the
local people the capacity to understand and control foreign technology.

The guiding principle here is that “the smaller and simpler project; the easier it will be to get along
lasting result.”

Swane Poel (1993) agrees that relatively large project involving large group of people have to be broken
into smaller manageable units to be managed by smaller groups.
The larger the group the more difficult it will be for them to identify a common need and objective.

(k) Principle of Means justifies the end

Today there is a lot of debate in development cycle to establish whether or not its enough to settle down
with the attainment of development goals without necessary having to wrong how these goals were
attained.

Some believe that good development will not have taken place where targets are attained without
minding the place where large / attaining these goals. They contend that the process of development is
more important than the attaining to the development to the development target

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Project planned without community development denies the people a precious learning effort and the
capacity building project planned without denying the people a precious learning effort and the capacity
building.

It also robs them from their sense of self dignity and self worth. Such projects planned from above deny
the community bonding that takes place through collective project management. Project planned and
implemented for people by outsiders result in low self-esteem on the part of the people.

It also leads to low sense of ownership and therefore the sustainability of the project compromised.
People will not take pride and responsibility in maintaining projects improved to them.

PHILOSOPHY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Philosophy comes from a Latin word meaning love of knowledge. Knowledge is brought by willingness
to learn.
The underlying philosophy of community development is not the typical classroom education but the
practical education aimed at solving problems.
The change accomplished come from action when e.g. local villagers are assisted by community
workers to realize that they can do something about the need they achieve psychological, social and
physical growth, practical and tangible e.g. school, water projects e.t.c.

ASSUMPTIONS BASED ON THE PRACTISE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

 Knowledge is both physical and social science passed to members of the society through the
process of education helps to perfect the members of the society to meet their needs.
 All members of a democratic society need to have access to all physical and social science.
 Community development work have to entrusted to train professionals who know what to be
done and who skills in doing it.

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 Community development is both radical and conservative in outlook.
 Community development seeks to develop or strengthen local organization, group and
community leaders.
 Community mobilizes and uses its own monetary resources.
 Community entails the creation of awareness through participation, it enables community to
achieve psychological, social and physical growth, and all this will enhance sustainable
transformation of development.

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COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
For any entity to be referred to as a community; it must have:-
 Geographical Location
 People as its members
 A culture
 Personal Traits
 A time of existence

1. Geographical Location
This is the area, territory or place where the community is located. The area may be large or small. It is
surrounded by boundaries which are known by members of the community and its neighbours.
The communities normally have a locality name, the pattern of life.

Geographical location enables us know the pattern of life of a particular people, which is influenced by
environmental factors and resources such as food, minerals, topography, soil e.t.c. which in turn
influence settlement pattern that permit survival within an area.

2. People
These are members of a community who are gradually replaced by biological process of reproduction.
Their number or population size is normally known. It is also important to now their age, structure, sex
ratio e.t.c.
Such demographic factors influence the quality and quantity of social intervention.

3. Culture
The culture of a community encompass of values, norms, traditions and beliefs system.
The knowledge of this help to develop work, appreciate the behaviours and conduct of that community.
Some communities are known to be less inclined to experiment, new ideas whose concepts are not clear
to them. Other communities may be enlightened and more innovative than others.

4. Personal Traits
This should be seen broadly in terns of psychological attribute. Some members of the community may
be introvert (inwardly withdrawn) while others extrovert (outwardly withdrawn).

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5. Time
Time is one of the scarce resources in planned change activities. It therefore needs to be utilized
effectively.
It helps to show how long a community has been existing in a particular place. This may have a bearing
on people’s values and perception of life.
The study of population of a time may provide guidelines in planning for a community. It is also
important to know the periodic occurrences in a community like their festivals and ceremonies.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
It can be seen as a group of individuals in a given situation who mutually agrees to work together for
attainment or achievement of given objective.
Organizations can be formal or informal.

Informal Organizations
They gather for meetings but do not have officials.
Such groups may be considered as action groups. They normally spring up to carry out an activity and
break up as soon as the job is done.
This may also refer to the relationship between people in an organization based on personal attitude,
emotions, prejudices, likes, dislikes e.t.c.
Characteristics of Informal Organization
1. Informal relationship are unplanned, they arise spontaneously.
2. The formation is a natural process.
3. Reflects human relationship.
4. Are based on common taste, problem, religion, culture, beliefs, values, norms e.t.c.
5. Membership is voluntary.
6. A person may be a member of several information groups at the same time i.e. there can be
overlapping.

Formal Organization
They have chosen officials, hold regular meetings, and deal with specific problems in which their
members have some interest, have chosen to achieve.

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Generally, therefore formal organizations can be defined as system continuously co-ordinated activities
of forces of two or more people.

Characteristics of Formal Organization

1. There is record-keeping in the meeting.
2. There are rules and regulations to guard it.
3. They have structures based on division of labour and specialization.
4. Their structures concentrate on the job to be done and not on the individual who performs the job
(impersonal).
5. The organization does not take into consideration the personal sentiments or feelings of the
organizations’ members.
6. They have authority and responsibility relationship.
7. Have a relatively long period of survival.
8. Sometimes have specific classes of members.

PROCESS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

This is the process whereby individuals in the community come together with the aim of meeting
common goal or solving a common problem. The process of community organization has involved
several changes. These changes are seen in its methods e.g. from being confined to social planning and
staffing at the national level or through national agencies to extensive grassroots’ organizations and
participation.
From being concerned with existing welfare service to more emphasis of social development and service
provision through the community.
Changes from being largely based on consensus to the acceptance of conflicts; there can be increased
activities involved in work without even the loneliest stakeholders.

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Challenges of Community Organization
1. Hijacking from above.
Strong top-down sponsorship of groups by external government honours has tended to weaken
allegiance of the leadership and staff.
Group leadership tends to pledge its loyalty to the sponsor as opposed to the membership. As a result
such an organization is governed from above.

2. Heterogeneous Membership which threatens Harmony.

In order to be effective, instrument of transformation, organization should be formed of homogenous
membership. The poor rural will participate more effectively where membership is homogenous thus
avoiding the danger of domination by a few powerful elements in the membership.
Common interest among homogenous bring them together.

3. Non-democratic political environment.

This contradicts the process of empowerment and participation. The absence of minimum democratic
provision that would enable people to freely associate as citizens of a society spells doom for the hope of
genuine organization.

4. Large projects are difficult to manage, this can compromise on quality and unity of purpose.
Is a process that should be dealing with humble and small scale initiatives by the people?
To accomplishing small scale initiatives, community can gain experience the practical management of
organization details; similarly, for organization to be effective, they should be made up a small and
manageable size of membership.

The target group, the more difficult it will be for them to identify a common need.
Similarly they further away, they live from each other, and the more difficult it will be for to come
together for collective action.

5. Lack of Resources (raw materials, lack of knowledge and skills).

6. Poor leadership.

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MODELS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

A Model.
Is anything with good qualities that one or others can imitate.
The model of community development is therefore those methods employed by community
development workers to bring about change to community and others should emulate or try to emulate.

Community has certain strategies or methods which a community development worker could employ to
bring about planned action for social change.
These are the planned process in which community (individuals/ groups) arrive at chosen objective.

Social Action Model.

Social action has been defined as all the efforts that involve two or more members of the social system.
This action or effort can be negative or positive.
Koller defined it as “an undertaking of collective action to mitigate (bring down) or resolve social
problem.

Social action rest on the recognition that people can improve the society through collective action.
Tropman and Elrich (1970) saw social action as taking place even in situation where force is used:
according to them social disobedient and other disruptive military are also social actions.

Social action implies a disadvantaged segment of the population that needs to be organized so as to
make demands on the larger segment for resources and treatment according to social justice and
democracy.

Social action terms and making changes in communities by pressing for redistribution of power,
resources, decision making or general changes in basic policies.
In third world countries, where small ruling elites lawfully monopolize decision making, civil
disobedience and other forms of disruptive military may not be tolerated.

The procedure through which social action can be brought about may include the following models
(types):-

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(a) Induced social model.
(b) Spontaneous social action model.
(c) Quasi-stationary equilibrium.
(d) Social advocacy.
(e) Diffusion of Innovation.

Induced social action model.

This is the model which is largely used by outside agent to effect change in communities. It was initially
developed by Beard and Bohlen. In this model, social action is seen as occurring in stages/ steps. These
stages may include:-
 The exploratory / initiation stage.
 The organization stage.
 The discussion.
 The group decision making stage.
 The planning action stage.
 The action stage.
 Evaluation stage.
 Subsequent action stage.
(1) Exploratory / Initiation stage.
This starts as soon as a change agent comes into a community. The agent visits the members of the
community either in their homes or public gatherings. Where the agent is not invited to meet members
he/she may invite him/herself and introduce or present the type of assistance he/she is willing or able to
offer.
The agent in discussion with members should then look for ideas that suggest for potential co-operation
or local initiative. Noticing through the discussions whether people want to improve themselves or are
apathetic.
The agent here familiarizes with local area, leadership potential, resources, and needs.
The agent also identifies the local groups or organization and their goals, act in ties, leaders e.t.c.
The agent identifies groups and organizations that influence the community from outside such as
governmental or non-governmental agencies.

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He also gathers information about the physical environment and other social-economic condition of the
community. The agent gathers information about local practices and the history of the community/
including the development projects that have succeeded or failed in the community before.
The agent should try to understand the political, ethnic and religious factors hat may lead to failure or
success of development initiatives.
This stage may last from a few days to several months depending on the people’s attitude and the skills
of the change agent.

(2) Organization stage.

This is the stage where those members of the community who feel concerned are invited to a meeting for
further discussion on the problems or needs of the community.
They may then invite other members of the community, their friends and relatives to subsequent
meeting.
Those who came to these meetings constitute:-
“Basic nuclear action group.”
At this meeting, staring committee may be chosen or elected. The group may then be formulated through
a constitution or by law or to remain informal.

(3) Discussion stage.

It begins when the agent encourages widespread discussion of the problem affecting the community. It
helps in development of discussion skills especially among members of the committee who will know
how to present and explain ideas.
Members of the community involved are likely to increase their awareness.

(4) Group decision making stage.

Decision making becomes necessary when there is need for concerns among members of the group. The
decision may be made in a community wide meeting, here the proposed action is brought to the attention
of members of the group and community who may be unaware or shown little interest on what was
being discussed.
It is also an opportunity for further discussion of the problem during and after the meeting.

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(5) Planning for action stage.
This entails a detailed examination of the problem by the management committee or a specially chosen
task force. Alternative solutions may also be examined in details.
The goals to be achieved are also set in this stage. The resources needed and their sources are also
agreed upon. The programming of activities in terms of who does what, where its done, how it is done is
agreed.
The costing of the project is also done i.e. budgeting.

(6) Action stage.

Here the community members carry out the activities as it was planned.
The type and nature of activities will vary from project to project to project; but they will generally
include:-
 Obtaining resources.
 Seeking sources for help.
The implementation may vary from a few hours, day, weeks, and months’ e.t.c.
This calls for active involvement of group through contribution of money, materials and other activities.

(7) Evaluation stage.

Evaluation may be done at every stage of implementation. It reveals the progress made and the
conditions met. Here mistakes can be rectified and conditions taken into consideration during the
subsequent stages of implementation.
An overall evaluation is needed at the end of the process. Members need to be assisted by the agent to
carry out this evaluation (participant evaluation). This gives them a chance for self criticism and learning
from experience.

(8) Subsequent action stage.

Biddle and Biddle emphasized/ enforced this stage in what they termed the new project stage / the
continuation stage. In this stage members of the community take on more (new) project along the lines,
following the experience gained in the first project.

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On the basis of experienced gained they are likely to move faster as they complete one project after the
other.

Spontaneous Social Action Model.

This is also nuclear theory of social action. It was postulated by Wilken. According to this model an
idea is first concealed by an individual.
Wilken saw spontaneous social action as taking place through steps.
(a) Job step.
(b) The I step.
(c) The we step.
(d) The Group step.
(e) The Do step.

(1) The job step.

This is where some problem is identified by at least one individual who interprets it as a job to be done.

(2) The I step.

This is where individuals has to think of the job with various dimension and convince others to be
willing to invest time and energy and in some instances, financial resources and reputation to get it done.

(3) The we step.

This is where the individual to others about the task to their interest and to get their help.
Those who will be interested in the task serve as the local spark plugs. They will motivate others to be
interested to the task.

(4) The group step.

At this point a general concern for a problem has been identified; and there may be need for group
discussion. The formation of the group and its decision creates the need for action to start.

(5) The do step.

This begins when members organize themselves for action as agreed by the group members.

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Quasi-Equilibrium Social Action Model.
The model was developed by Lewrey who noted that it is more suitable where work is done in group
especially in a crisis situation.
The model is based in the assumption that:-
1) There are positive forces in a situation that supports given level of behaviour and negative forces
which oppose the given level of behaviour.
2) When the positive and negative forces are bound, the state of equilibrium is reached.
3) Change in the level of behaviour can result when the positive forces are strengthened or new
positive forces are added.
Lewrey believed that change could be brought about in three steps:-
1) Unfreezing (discovering) – they discover they have a problem.
2) Moving – altering the negative forces and strengthening the positive forces.
3) Freezing – stabilizing the situation at a new level of behaviour.

N/B. I t involves strengthening ideas that lead to positive change of development and weakening the
ideas that are barriers to transformation.
The negative forces may include:-
 Cultural barriers
 Persons opposed to the problem.
 Lack of resources.
The change agent is therefore suppose to increase positive forces by making them aware, soliciting for
resources, by educating.

Social Advocacy Model.

This model is based on the fact that disadvantaged people in a particular society need to be mobilized
and organized to get power and resources so that the can be moved, meaningfully and democratically
involved in development.
Here agent identifies a particular disadvantaged group of people in a society with their problems. He
then appeals for support in terms of resources contrast to the problem.
This is very common in rural areas where external agencies or enlightened person identifies problem and
looks for help from various sources so as to facilitate the combination of the need.
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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKER.
These are the key players in community development work and are generally referred to as change
agents, field agents or community mobilizers.

Change Agents.
Rogers and Shoe Makar view change agents as professionals who influence inventions, decisions in a
direction viewed as desirable. The main function is to seek the adaptation of new ideas but they may
also attempt to slowdown or prevent certain innovation. They are seen as community helpers or as
persons or groups that help to facilitate the process of change in a given community.

The term change agent is based on the idea that most socio-economic changes that take place in a
community are planned.
Some examples of change agents in Kenya include:-
 Workers in the public service agencies e.g. health, cooperative development, water e.t.c.
 Those employed by parastatals e.g. Kenya Tea Development agencies, Care International, World
Vision, Family planning association of Kenya.
 Most of these agents are employed as public health officers, community nurses, and project
managers’ e.t.c.

Roles of Change Agents.

1. They serve as communication link to the agency system on the one hand and the client on the other
hand.
2. They are seen as mediators between the agency and the community.
3. They are encouragers, guiders, brokers, activists and advocates who speak on behalf of the
community.
4. They help awaken members of the community and make hem feel discontented with their situation.
5. Through discussion, listening and asking questions, they help people see the nature of discontent,
their causes and organize them for action.
6. As guiders, they help community move in the direction it has chosen.
7. They may suggest alternative causes of action, but the choice of any of them and the means of
attaining the goals are left to the community.
8. Agents take the initiative rather than waiting for community members to come to them.

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9. As advisers or consultant agents, they may not get involved in the day to day community work but
may be experts in health, agriculture e.t.c.
10. They act as advocates committed to the aspirations and desires of community members.
11. They bring about social cohesion.

Factors influencing the performance of Community Development workers.

1. The Community.
A change agent has to understand a community in terms of its physical environment, social, economic
and cultural conditions including its history and experience of development program (through a baseline
survey)

2. The People.
These are the members of community who are gradually replaced through biological reproduction.

3. Culture of the people.

This comprises the community values, traditions, norms and the belief system which needs to be known
by the change agent.

4. Personality Traits.
The characters of members of a community need to be understood by community development worker.

5. Time.
As any other resource, it is scarce and should be planned and is used to maximize for change activities.
The change agent also needs to know a community in terms of time.

6. Community leadership and power structure.

The local power structure should be identified and enhanced to avoid failure programs which often
results from negligence of such structures.

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The Impact of Change Agent or Community Development Worker on Community Development.
1. Improved standard of living among the people whom they work with.
2. They led to the improvement of social services.
3. They encourage social cohesion.
4. They create job opportunities.
5. They promote social justice since they advocates for the rights of individuals.
6. They motivate people to be self reliant.
7. They increase community awareness.

Challenges facing Community Development Workers.

1. Hostile or extreme environmental conditions.
2. Insecurity in some areas.
3. Embezzlement of funds.
4. Inadequate resources (material and human).
5. Lack of sense of ownership.
6. Political interference/ influence.
7. Political instability.
8. Lack / poor participation.
9. Culture of the community.
10. Resistance to change.

Ways of managing the challenges of Community Development worker.

1. To reduce resistance to change, the development workers should create preliminary sensitization to
communities to make them accept the change.
2. The development worker should solicit for more funds from donors (external and internal) and even
engage in other fundraising activities so as to reduce the problem of adequate funds.
3. The development workers must ensure that he/she involves the community in planning so as to
prevent lack of ownership.
4. The government should provide adequate security to development workers in communities.
5. The development worker should ensure that the development plans are at per with the culture of the
community.

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COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT.

Empowerment refers to giving a lawful power or authority to individual groups, institution or

community to act.
It’s a process that involves people gaining strength, confidence and vision, towards positive changes in
their lives either individually or with others.
The people are given authority in determining their own destiny.

Importance of Community Empowerment.

1. It promotes optimum use of local resources and abilities i.e. the sills, talents, experiences and
technology.
2. It increases the scope of attaining social justice, equality, basic human rights and freedom.
3. It promotes social cohesion and restores social fabrics (links) in decision making process as regards
development.
4. The community is able t develop and sustain community development programs.
5. It enhances people’s political awareness which enables them voice their views and concern.
6. Empowerment enlightens people and the community to be able to deal with their problems more
effectively.
7. Empowerment generally improves people’s living standards.

Ways of Empowering the community.

1. Formation of social groups and organization
2. Creating effective leadership.
3. Sharing new ideas especially through networking.
4. Through exposure.
5. Through education.
6. Through exchange programs or inter community visits.

Methods of Empowering the community.

1. Training.
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This can be done to equip the community with necessary skills and knowledge on how they carry out
certain activities that will help improve their living standards.

2. Participation.
Community members’ involvement in development programs broaden their capacity and equip them
with necessary experience as well as employment.

3. Mass Media.
This can be used to reach out to many people by giving them information about given activities.

4. Demonstration.
The use of demonstration and practical work equips people with skills which enable them to carry out
their own work.

5. Education.
It provides the community with knowledge and widens their scope of operation in particular activities.

6. Seminars and workshops.

These provide the opportunity where individuals are taught in specific fields resulting in increased
confidence.

Factors that effects / necessary for community empowerment.

(a) Skills and capability of change agents.

Because they are the key players in empowerment process, agents should have relevant skill to stir the
empowerment process.

(b) Attitude of the community.

A community may have positive/ negative attitude towards a new idea or even the agent. This means the
community may accept or reject the change.

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(c) Leadership.
Effective leadership is necessary to guide people through the process.

(d) Government policy.

If the government policy should be designed to facilitate development through community
empowerment.

(e) Cultural values.

Negative cultural values may be detrimental to an empowerment initiative.

(f) Community unity.

This offers the requisite community effort to achieve community development goals.

(g) Resources and infrastructural facilities.

The availability / otherwise of adequate local resources as well as developed infrastructural facilities
impact on community empowerment.

(h) Community based organization and other institution.

Social institutions in the community help to stimulate ideas and eventually program for community
empowerment.

Impact of community empowerment in the community.

1. It promotes optimum use of local resources and local capacity such as skills, talents, experiences and
technologies.
2. There is wider scope of attaining social justice, equality, basic human rights and freedom with
empowerment.
3. Empowerment promotes social cohesion and restores social fabrics in decision making processes that
regard development.
4. Through empowerment the society is able to develop and sustain community development projects/
programs.
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5. Empowerment enhances people’s political awareness which enable them voice their views and
concerns.
6. Empowerment enlightens people and the community to be able to deal with their problems more
effectively.

COLLABORATIONS, PARTNERSHIPS AND ORGANIZATION NETWORK.

To collaborate is to work together towards achieving a common and desirable goal.

Partnership is the coming together of different entities to achieve a particular goal.
Organizational collaboration is therefore the coming together of organizations with other partners to
achieve a desired goal.

The impetus / rational for collaboration (why).

These are reasons for collaboration:-

1. It provides members of partnership with support and encouragement to work towards achieving a goal
which is challenging.
2. It facilitates formation of masses needed to heighten voices critical in influencing decision.
3. Partners address problems which may be challenging to individuals.
4. Encourages the exchange of ideas and information through common publication, seminars, workshops
and even common data bases on line.
5. Provides some safety nets/ umbrella bodies to handle delicate issues.
6. Coordinates the use of resources hence avoiding the duplication of the efforts.
7. Facilitates joint projects that could be too costly and complex for organization work done.
8. Links people of diverse backgrounds, discipline and profession.

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Nature / features of partnership.

1. Freedom and independence.

In partnership the maintenance of independence is encouraged so that organizations do not lose their
identity when partnership is formed.
2. Voluntary as parties forming the partnership is free.
3. Bonds of collaboration are built on mutual trust.
4. Tend to focus on specific objectives.
5. Partners have different skills, talent and it’s their objectives that unify.
6. Relationship often involve helping each other
7. Existence is based on free information flow and where some members try to be protective over some
issues, tension might be created leading to a compromise on internal team work.

Factors to consider when forming partnership.

1. Choose partners who can be trusted.

Long term partnership require trust and may choose to collaborate with a known partner with whom one
has worked with before.

2. Find the right balance.

The more the collaboration project is the greater the chance that it will serve for a long time; however,
the more partners included, the longer, slower and risky the structuring.

3. Put house in order before entering into a partnership.

Make sure there is support in your organization before sharing.

4. Strive to understand the working structure, policies and objectives of other partners.
Variation is reporting, inflexible policies or partner patronizing attitude can limit the effectiveness of
partners’ contribution towards achieving common objectives.

5. Try to understand the position of members before joining partnership.

6. Try to understand the financial management before joining the partnership.

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7. Establish the partnership arrangement for promoting partners’ participation in decision making. It
helps to avoid the danger of being isolated.
8. Avoid paper partnership/ Electronic partnership.
Members must take time for face to face discussions otherwise; one will be there to update other
members. They should not only communicate through e-mails or phones.

Challenges to collaboration and partnership.

1. Lack of clear objectives especially when the partnerships are created in a hurry. This can create
internal and external manipulation. It is also difficult in such situation to evaluate performance
effectively.
2. Ineffective management styles; partnerships whose decision making is overcentralised and
bureaucratic tend to have problems in coordination especially if partners cover a wide area.
3. Domination; certain member partners may tend to dominate others especially if they are the sources
of maintenance. This is common where donors are involved.
4. Members disparity; partnership may bring together members with diverse cultural values, norms and
ways of doing things; this could lead to misunderstanding and in turn compromise team work.
5. Limited resources; when resources are limited then the operation will be inadequate.
6. Competition and mistrust; this is often a problem where there is a weak internal structure and
guiding policies with each other.
7. Incidence of misinformation; ideally partners should freely make available to other partners correct
into regarding the working with others. This however not be the case and therefore misunderstanding.

Strategies used in building and strengthening partnerships.

1. Partnership should be organization working towards the same goals.
2. Meet potential partners e.g. by attending their meeting / inviting them to your meetings.
3. Assist potential partners with their special interest.
4. Bring other people’s attention to work.
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5. Share all the vital information with them.
6. Get the partners interested in your objectives, discuss your ideas and objectives with them.
7. Be open to their ideas.
8. Ask them to do something useful to reach your objectives.
9. Start the partnership on a small scale.
10. Do for the others as much as they do for you.

Intervention measures to challenges in partnership.

1. The role of different members of the partnership should be clearly spelt out.
2. Self interest should be avoided and different interest should be negotiated.
3. The goals should be clear and common to all members.
4. Planning should be jointly carried out.
5. There should be a conflict resolution approach in place.
6. The partnership should be realistic about the resources.\

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 THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.

Government: This is a body charged with the responsibility of ruling a country; a nation or any other
territory to lay down rules and regulations and ensuring they are adhered to.
In Kenya, government is carried out at two levels:-
 Central government.
 Local government.

Central Government.
The central government is the unity government which covers the entire country.
It is divided into three (3) main branches, namely:-

i. The Legislature.
This is the parliamentary arm of the government. It makes or end laws governing various areas of life in
the country.

ii. Executive.
It comprises of - President.
- Civil servant
- Cabinet.
It carries out the functions that are being laid out by other arms of the government.

iii. Judiciary.
This consists of the court and the court system. Its main function is to interpret laws rather than
judgment whenever laws are broken or appear to have been broken.
It also recommend punishment to be meted/ award to be given following judgment based on law.
Local Government.
These are also known as local authority.
They operate as councils and are made up of councilors who are elected to represent wards or are
nominated. They also include chief officers seconded by various central government ministries e.g.
education officer.

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There are several councils or local authority in Kenya on the basis of the areas they cover and population
size e.g. city council, urban, county, town councils e.t.c.

Powers of Local Government.

1. Enacting by laws with the approval of the Ministry of Local government.
2. Levying local taxes.
3. Issuing business permits.
4. Inspecting public health.
5. Approving housing plan.

Functions of Local Government/ Authorities.

1. They construct and maintain roads.
2. They provide water and sanitation services.
3. They establish and maintain social amenities e.g. hospitals, dispensaries, security lights e.t.c.
4. They regulate business.
5. They control and maintain land use.
6. They provide housing.
7. They regulate and supervise the learning institution such as nursery schools and adult education.
8. They regulate the use of natural resources such as sand, quarry.
9. Some are responsible for management of game reserves.

Specific Areas of Government involvement in Community Development.

1. Self help Group.

The government encourages the formation of self-help group so that community involve themselves in
planning and implementing their own community development initiatives.

2. Policy on Women Program.

It’s the Government to promote the position of women e.g. through organization like Maendeleo ya
Wanawake, the Women Bureau.

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3. Policy on the Youth.
The Government has come up with various arrangements to help promote development of the youth e.g.
the national youth service, youth polytechnics, 4k clubs.

4. Policy to the Aged.

The government supports agencies that deals with the aged e.g. through national security funds, the
government help the workers to save for the old age.

5. Policy on Social Welfare.

There are policies aimed at rehabilitating the maladjusted individuals in the society.

6. Administration of community development programs.

The government monitors the various community development activities through the Ministry of
Gender, Culture and Sports.

7. Provision of Security.
This enhances donor confidence.

8. Policy on Population.
The government educates people on the need for small families.

9. Provision of Resources.
Especially skilled personnel e.g. teachers, doctors, who assist on community development activities.

10. Building and Maintenance of Infrastructure.

E.g. roads, electricity, which facilitates the prices of community development.
11. Linking the community with external donor agencies.
12. Building and maintaining social amenities e.g. training institutions, hospitals, schools e.t.c.
13. Ensuring equitable and fair distribution of resources e.g. the CDF funds.
14. Making policies that enhance community development.
15. The government decentralizes the service to the grassroots’ level e.g. the constituency level.

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16. The government provides the legal framework within which the development agencies e.g. NGOS
enter and operate.
17. The government provides land and sites for communities to locate their projects.

Reasons for Government involvement in Community Development.

1. The government provides security.
2. Some activities need government supervision.
3. Some programs are so big that only the government may provide the required logistics.
4. Some activities are too costly that only the government may have resources to implement them.
5. Some require International Networking hence the need for government assistance.

SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS.

Sustainability
Is the ability of projects to continue meeting the goals for which they were conceived and are being
implemented; it’s about project being able to reach its objectives now and in the future.
Project sustainability is therefore a key element in community development project because once
initiated, a project should serve the community now and in posterity.

Strategies used to sustain Community Development.

1. Bottom up approach.
Is where the community themselves play a major role in the program starting from needs, identification,
decision making, designing and policies process e.t.c. until the process is complete. In this way
community feels part and parcel of the project and will participate fully in its sustainability.
Also expands communities’ knowledge and experience making them more capable of sustaining
programs.

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2. Having effective leadership structure.
Strong effective leadership is capable of organizing material resources and people in a community. Such
leadership also gives directions and makes wise decisions that are necessary for programme
sustainability.

3. Proper use of locally available resources.

Programs that are based on locally available resources, manpower materials and use them economically
have proved to be more sustainable.

4. Sense of ownership.
Ideally, the community should have a sense of ownership in the program right from the initiation stage.
This tends to attract more interests from the community members in the routine operation of projects. It
is them that they can more willingly provide their resources and skills.

5. Security.
It protects property and people.
Encourages positive attitude towards work hence community mobilization towards participation
becomes easy.
It ensures peaceful workmen for people and also ensures the preservation of program properties.

6. Developing skills personnel.

Where technical know how is required, skills and knowledge are important in sustainability. The skills
and knowledge of personnel can be developed through training, seminars, and workshops for members
of the community.

7. Educating people on the Benefits of the Project.

If the people are well educated on the benefits of a project, they are more likely to support it by
sacrificing their time and resources which will encourage the sustainability.

8. Identifying problems and causes/failure.Community members should help identify problems and
their solutions in program as they continuously tackle their problems, their sense of ownership of the
program, uses and with it, the probability of sustenance.

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9. Promoting the sense of belonging and responsibility.
Community members should be made to have a sense of responsibility for the program so as to work
towards the success of sustainability.

Importance of Sustainability of Community Development projects.

1. It creates self reliance to the community since community manages and sustains their own project
instead of relying on outsiders
2. It helps sustain future generations; a well sustained project is able to serve many generations to come.
3. Improve living standards for members of the community. Sustained projects create positive change in
the lives of the community.
4. Development of confidence.
Sustained projects help individuals build confidence in holding community development projects.
5. It’s a channel through which other development activities can be sustained; through sustained
projects, development projects or partners will have confidence in a community and support other
programs with the community.
6. Sustainability improves the community capacity, knowledge and skills. It increases the community
capacity to handle other project in future.
7. It leads to proper utilization of local resources. Sustained projects ensure there is little waste of
resources.
8. Sustainability creates a sense of ownership and belonging members of the community feel they own
the project and are capable of protecting it.
9. It promotes unity among members of a community that have successfully maintained a project are
more likely to be united.
10. It creates employment.

Challenges of sustaining Community Development projects.

1. Lack of skills and knowledge.
2. Inadequate funds.
3. Poor leadership.
4. Rejection by the community.

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 5. Insecurity
6. Natural calamities
7. Political influence
8. Biasness
9. Poor infrastructure
10. Lack of unity which may hamper collective effort.

Role of Change Agents in sustaining community development projects

i. Acts as linkage between donors and community members to help raise some funds.
ii. Provides training facilities to improve knowledge and skills of community members.
iii. Help identify good leadership structure and strengthen them through training to avoid failures in the
projects.
iv. Mobilize community members to participate in the initiatives of development projects.
v. Ask the Government to provide security for the developed projects.
vi. Initiate projects according to the weather conditions.
vii. Train community members on new ideas and benefits of sustainability of development projects.
viii. Request the Government to help put up the infrastructure to facilitate the sustainability of projects
e.g. good drainage system during drought for farmers.
Factors that promote sustainability of community development projects
i. Good leadership structure to effectively guide people on the benefits of sustaining projects.
ii. Community unity; for example, when the community members are united the development projects
will be sustained.
iii. Community attitude; community members may have positive or negative attitude towards the
development projects; positive attitude leads to sustainability of development projects.
iv. Availability of good skills and knowledge; when community members have good skills and
knowledge about the benefits of sustainability of development projects, the projects will be
sustainable for long.
v. Availability of good infrastructural facilities, the availability of otherwise leads to unsustainable
development project e.g. good drainage system for irrigation.
vi. Adequate funds which will lead to good maintenance of development projects.
vii. Good political influence which will be ideal to facilitate and maintain the sustainable development
projects e.g. political leaders providing water and sanitation services.

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viii. High security levels which promote the sustainability of development projects against theft cases.

EMERGING TRENDS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.

Emerging Trends in Social Work.
(a).Pertaining to community based development.
1. Today there are procedures to facilitate wider participation in social services.
2. There has been greater decentralization of Government decision making which has boosted
community based development activities.
3. There are legal framework which allows people’s participation.
4. Social workers today help to shape local leadership skills since they are more who run non-
governmental projects.
5. There are increased community ownership development programs since they are involved through
participation.
6. Communication and understanding especially among rural community has been enhanced.
7. Job opportunities have been created.
8. There has been improved technology hence leading to improved living standards.
9. There has been the promotion of innovation and the use of locally adaptable skills.
10. It has been an improvement of provision of services such as health, education through hospitals,
colleges, schools, dispensaries e.t.c.
11. There has been provision of funds and other resources by both governmental and non-governmental
e.g. this has helped in humanitarian intervention and as well as project implementations.
12. Training is most available to the community development and social work professionals. Today
communities are more dependent instead of relying on only hand outs provided by social workers.

(b). Pertaining to empowerment as a basis for Social Development.

1. Rural people’s internal capacities have been strengthened at local levels.
2. There is promotion of gender public awareness.
3. The rights of immigrants, refugees and IDPS (internal displaced persons) have been guaranteed
through education services, health care and other capacity building programs.
4. There is provision of information to individuals, families and groups.
5. There are today legal policy and framework which increases people’s participation.
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6. There are appropriate procedures and methods which facilitate wider participation in social services.
7. There is promotion of innovation and use of locally adaptable skills.
8. Job opportunities have been created for community members.

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m.

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