AF-SOOMAALI

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. Com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment ranges from small ini­tia­tives within a small group to large ini­tia­tives that in­volve the broader com­mu­nity.

Ef­fec­tive com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment should be:

  • a long-term en­deav­our
  • well-planned
  • in­clu­sive and eq­ui­table
  • holis­tic and in­te­grated into the big­ger pic­ture
  • ini­ti­ated and sup­ported by com­mu­nity mem­bers
  • of ben­e­fit to the com­mu­nity
  • grounded in ex­pe­ri­ence that leads to best prac­tices

Com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment is a grass­roots process by which com­mu­ni­ties:

  • be­come more re­spon­si­ble
  • or­ga­nize and plan to­gether
  • de­velop healthy lifestyle op­tions
  • em­power them­selves
  • re­duce poverty and suf­fer­ing
  • cre­ate em­ploy­ment and eco­nomic op­por­tu­ni­ties
  • achieve so­cial, eco­nomic, cul­tural and en­vi­ron­men­tal goals

Com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment seeks to im­prove qual­ity of life. Ef­fec­tive com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment re­sults in mu­tual ben­e­fit and shared re­spon­si­bil­ity among com­mu­nity mem­bers. Such de­vel­op­ment rec­og­nizes:

  • the con­nec­tion be­tween so­cial, cul­tural, en­vi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic mat­ters
  • the di­ver­sity of in­ter­ests within a com­mu­nity
  • its re­la­tion­ship to build­ing ca­pac­ity

Com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment helps to build com­mu­nity ca­pac­ity in or­der to ad­dress is­sues and take ad­van­tage of op­por­tu­ni­ties, find com­mon ground and bal­ance com­pet­ing in­ter­ests. It does­n’t just hap­pen – ca­pac­ity build­ing re­quires both a con­scious and a con­sci­en­tious ef­fort to do some­thing (or many things) to im­prove the com­mu­nity.

Com­mu­nity

Of­ten when we think of com­mu­nity, we think in ge­o­graphic terms. Our com­mu­nity is the city, town or vil­lage where we live. When com­mu­nity is de­fined through phys­i­cal lo­ca­tion, it has pre­cise bound­aries that are read­ily un­der­stood and ac­cepted by oth­ers. Defin­ing com­mu­ni­ties in terms of ge­og­ra­phy, how­ever, is only one way of look­ing at them. Com­mu­ni­ties can also be de­fined by com­mon cul­tural her­itage, lan­guage, and be­liefs or shared in­ter­ests. These are some­times called com­mu­ni­ties of in­ter­est. Even when com­mu­nity does re­fer to a ge­o­graphic lo­ca­tion, it does­n’t al­ways in­clude every­one within the area. For ex­am­ple, many Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties are part of a larger non-Abo­rig­i­nal ge­og­ra­phy. In larger ur­ban cen­tres, com­mu­ni­ties are of­ten de­fined in terms of par­tic­u­lar neigh­bour­hoods.

Most of us be­long to more than one com­mu­nity, whether we’re aware of it or not. For ex­am­ple, an in­di­vid­ual can be part of a neigh­bour­hood com­mu­nity, a re­li­gious com­mu­nity and a com­mu­nity of shared in­ter­ests all at the same time. Re­la­tion­ships, whether with peo­ple or the land, de­fine a com­mu­nity for each in­di­vid­ual.

De­vel­op­ment

The term “de­vel­op­ment” of­ten car­ries an as­sump­tion of growth and ex­pan­sion. Dur­ing the in­dus­trial era, de­vel­op­ment was strongly con­nected to in­creased speed, vol­ume and size. How­ever, many peo­ple are cur­rently ques­tion­ing the con­cept of growth for nu­mer­ous rea­sons – a re­al­iza­tion that more is­n’t al­ways bet­ter, or an in­creas­ing re­spect for re­duc­ing out­side de­pen­den­cies and low­er­ing lev­els of con­sumerism. So while the term “de­vel­op­ment” may not al­ways mean growth, it al­ways im­ply change.

The com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment process takes charge of the con­di­tions and fac­tors that in­flu­ence a com­mu­nity and changes the qual­ity of life of its mem­bers. Com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment is a tool for man­ag­ing change but it is not:

  • a quick fix or a short-term re­sponse to a spe­cific is­sue within a com­mu­nity;
  • a process that seeks to ex­clude com­mu­nity mem­bers from par­tic­i­pat­ing; or
  • an ini­tia­tive that oc­curs in iso­la­tion from other re­lated com­mu­nity ac­tiv­i­ties.

Com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment is about com­mu­nity build­ing as such, where the process is as im­por­tant as the re­sults. One of the pri­mary chal­lenges of com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment is to bal­ance the need for long-term so­lu­tions with the day-to-day re­al­i­ties that re­quire im­me­di­ate de­ci­sion-mak­ing and short-term ac­tion.

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