Community Development Challenges

Community Development Challenges1. IntroductionThe concept of confederacy culture, an recognised and much lauded mechanism for interventionist and participative loving development grew out of the more inappropriate ironies of empire realiseing. The British, after infiltrating and achieving policy-making domination over the Indian grinder continent and vast tracts of Africa, and thereafter ensuring the decimation of local anesthetic anaesthetic anesthetic anaesthetic trade, industry, handicrafts and self authorities beginning(a)s, make its officers busy with action plans and curtain meridians to develop and empower communities in these nations at the local level. Nobody in the British establishment presumably thought of the inquire to find out from the benefiting (sic) confederacy of interests whether they wanted either the destruction and bondage, or the succeeding efforts to help in local development and empowerment.Notwithstanding the rather questionable beginnin gs of the community development effort, the concept has grown over the ages to fabricate an established method for interventionist social development where external agencies, governing bodyal or otherwise, initiate, encourage and help local community development efforts in numerous aras, including social and economic development, fostering a capacity for local co-operation and self-help, with the utilisation of expertise and methods drawn from outside the local community. (Midgeley, 1995) Community development initiatives, time evolution and adapting to the studys of local communities in the UK and the USA, and despite being choose by voluntary organisations alike(p) Rotary International for world long implementation, have also get windn large scale failures in meeting its objectives, especially in the African countries. These failures, especially in areas where they were needed most, led to disillusionment, and a feeling that community development practices were ill foun ded, or based upon impossible concepts, and should mayhap be re officed with other modes of development.Nevertheless, community development efforts remain globally strong and attract many young and wellhead-intentioned people, to work towards transaction of economic and social improvement of underprivileged or deprived communities. It becomes super eventful for community development initiators, practitioners, workers and volunteers, to see to it the principles and values of community development, in set to understand its potential and limitations, the many constraints and challenges that crop up in the development process, and the likely chances of the winner or failure of development initiatives.2. explanationCommunity development has been defined by an official consequence of the UK government as active participation, and if possible on the initiative of the community, but if this initiative is not forthcoming spontaneously, by the use of techniques for arousing and stim ulating it in order to achieve its active and en thusiastic response to the movement. (Smith, 2006) This definition entails an inherent contradiction, that is to say that while community development kit and boodle on the principles of local participation, initiative and self-help at the community level, it also calls for sponsorship by external, mostly governmental agencies, who see it as an avenue for implementing governmental policies at the local level. Development initiatives thus also involve a significant amount of social work, and sometimes, correct activism, in regions characterised by illiteracy, backwardness, poverty, deprivation, inequality and oppression.Community development initiatives are characterised by the presence of two elements, one local, meaning the brisk community, and the other, external, which is represented by governmental agencies, not for profit service organisations like the Rotary, and insular foundations and corporations. British American Tobacco (BAT), for instance, sponsors significant community development programmes for tobacco growing communities in Asiatic and African countries, while Rotary International works on village extension and community development programmes in many nations, in which it has a presence. Non-governmental organisations, however, still need to operate with the help of the local government in many areas, thus making the involvement of the acres in community development a fait accompli.The functioning of external agencies in community development involves a number of phases that commences with the localising of a community and ascertainment of its non-homogeneous(a) deficiencies and needs. This initial assessment is followed by the agency entering the community, obtaining familiarity with the neighbourhood, ascertaining needs, objectives and roles, establishing contact with local people, influence makers and power centres, bringing people together, obtaining agreement on circumstantial object ives, forming and building local organisations to improve local issues like health, education, economy and self empowerment, clarifying goals and priorities, catalysing action, helping in keeping the initiatives going, monitoring progress, and taking corrective action. At all stages external agencies need to work in a catalytic fashion, encouraging, helping, and assisting community work, while refraining. from taking on a peremptory role. Empowerment, and the building and enhancement of local community capacity in various areas that help in development should be the main objectives, as fence to achieving results finished direct control of the development process. (Henderson and Thomas, 2001)Community development drill can be general or specialised. Generic work takes place in a geographically demarcated area, takes up all the issues that lead to social and economic disadvantage, and works out participative programmes to alleviate or eliminate them. The place setting can be eit her urban or campestral. While rural development has gained ground in recent years and is attracting more funds, community development is an equally critical requirement in the slums and underbellies of the worlds metropolises, which continue to be haunted by gang overlords, prostitution, substance abuse, and domestic help violence, as well as lack of educational facilities and poor housing. work community work deals with specific groups within a region, namely issues like homelessness, unemployment, child prostitution, substance abuse or ethic issues, or with set issues like transportation, housing, public health or sanitation. (Hickey and Mohan, 2004) A USDA publication states that community development initiatives are best achieved through the creation of disdain initiatives, sustainable community development, community-based partnerships and building and initiating long-term strategic plans. (Key principles of community empowerment, 2002)This obscure situation demands grea t understanding, perception and ability from community development workers. These attached men and women are expected to handle a myriad functions that acknowledge identifying community issues, needs and problems, developing new community based programmes and resources, and evaluating and mentoring existing programmes. They also need to be outgoing, possess excellent communication skills, and be able to empathise with members of the local community, qualities that help in obtaining cooperation and help from government bodies, community organisations, and various sponsors, as well as in raising public awareness on relevant issues. Community development practitioners are also expected to provide leadership, co-ordinate programmes, facilitate and promote community self help, encourage and increase local participation, and challenge inappropriate political and social structures. Administratively, their functions entail formulation, development and finalisation of strategies, recruitmen t, motivation and training compensable and voluntary workers, networking extensively to build contacts and raise funds, liaising with interested voluntary groups to build new programmes and services, mediating and negotiating with opposing parties, planning, attending and co-ordinating meetings and events, overseeing, optimising and administering limited budgets, preparing reports, and carrying out other postulate administrative tasks. (Community development worker, 2007)3. ConclusionCommunity development demands enormous integrity, stamina, maturity date and compassion from practitioners, workers and volunteers. The inherent difficulties in working in alien locations in non-structured working environments and inherently dynamic and changing conditions pose significant challenges. In addition, the inherent contradictions of being human catalysts for social smorgasbord in conflicting environments, of being change agents, at once part and yet lucid from the community, instil fee lings of inadequacy, and sometimes even rejection, in communities where intervention may not be welcomed by significantly substantial members of the community.Community development projects develop to unearth local problems, resource limitations, and unsatisfied needs, and work towards their objectives through local participation and empowerment. Yet community participation often fails, once the operate agency withdraws, and much of the gains of community development are lost in the following years. Most agencies working in community development, e.g. the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and Rotary International, as well as governmental and private agencies feel this to be a major problem. Situations like this, as well as apprehensions of development of such situations, result in implementing agencies having to stay on in particular communities or with specific projects, much after their need has diminished, and their services and skills required elsewhere. (Bhattacharya, 2 004)This often happens because of confusion in community development objectives and the undertaking of roles, in excess of actual needs, by development agencies. This factor, when feature with the role assumed by development agencies in mobilising funds, often results in producing feelings of inadequacy and helplessness in the community. It strengthens attitudes that magnify community problems, link the victor of programmes with the expertise, infrastructure, and fund mobilising ability of the agencies, and works towards disempowering the members of the community, instead of increasing their capacity to track their problems. This overstretching by development workers establishes and ingrains a sense of reliance of the community on the agency, which consequently tends to negate the essence of the development programme. Development practitioners need to understand the delicacy of their roles and the thin line that they must necessarily tread upon if the community is to become truly empowered. A greater appreciation of the necessity for producing change agents in the local community, rather than donning the mantle themselves for perpetuity, and the need for engaging local people, so that they can help communities create a common dreaming of a fair and sustainable future, becomes extremely important for the long-term success of community development programmes.Community development practitioners play extremely important roles in todays grossly inequitable society, and with their grass stock developmental programmes, have been instrumental in improving lives across the globe. A better appreciation of the values and principles of community development will possibly help them in improving the results of their efforts.BibliographyBen-Meir, J.,2006, March/April, Win the War of Ideas through Community Development. The Humanist, 66, 5+.Bhattacharyya, J., 2004, Theorizing Community Development. 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