BASIC CONCEPTSWhat is Development?

It is the sustained capacity to achieve a better life for ALL members of society.

It seeks to meet people’s basic needs, promote their economic well-being, and enable them to pursue interests and to participate in social and political processes. It should provide the opportunities for people to broaden their capacity to do and capacity to be.

Understanding the Term “Community”

Community is a term that has a wide range of usage, which

includes the following:

Community can be defined geographically: such as a cluster of households, a small village, or a neighborhood in a town.

Community can be defined by shared experience, such as particular interest groups, ethnic groups, professional groups, language groups, particular hazard-exposed groups, etc.

Community can be defined by sector, such as the farmers, fisherfolk, business sector, etc.

The advancement in information and communications technology gave birth to new forms of communication and arguably to a new form of community.

• Computer-mediated communication leads to formation of virtual communities. Rheingold in 1993 defines virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the (Internet) when enough people carry on those public discussion long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (Rheingold cited in Fernback n.d.).

A traditional concept of community is that a community is harmonious, having a harmony of interest and aspirations, and bound by common values and objectives. This definition implies that a community is homogeneous.

In reality, a community can be socially differentiated and diverse. Gender, class, caste, wealth, age, ethnicity, religion, language, and other aspects divide and crosscut the community. Beliefs, interests, and values of community members may conflict. Therefore a community neednot be homogenous.

What is Sustainable Development?

Environmental, economic and social well-being for today and tomorrow

Sustainable development (Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report)

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

• the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and

• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs."

All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a system that connects space; and a system that connects time.

Recognition of the Need for Community Involvement

Community involvement is essential in the development process because of the following practical considerations:

• Nobody can understand local opportunities and constraints better than the local communities themselves who therefore need to be involved in the identification and resolution of their own issues.

• Nobody is more interested in understanding local affairs than the community whose well-being is at stake.

Therefore the information should be generated in a manner and language that is understood by the community.

There is growing evidence to show that most top-down programs fail to address specific local needs and ignore the potential of local resources and capacities.

Seven sequential steps in PARTNERING WITH THE COMMUNITY: 1. Selecting the Community. This is the process of choosing the partner-community using a criteria.

2. Rapport Building and Understanding the Community. This is basically building the relationship and trust with the local people. As relationship is established, general position of the community in terms of social, economic, political and economic aspects is understood. Deeper appreciation of the community dynamics will happen later, when participatory rapid assessment is undertaken.

3. Participatory Rapid Assessment. Use of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools in community assessment and planning. People themselves identify their assets and work-ons. Use of PRA tools in community assessment invites community participation, lively exchange of ideas, and negotiated decisions between the community and other stakeholders.

4. Participatory Development Planning. This follows after the analysis of the results of participatory rapid assessment. People themselves are involved in the entire planning process.

5. Community Organizing. It is imperative to build a community organization, if there is none yet or strengthen the current one, if there is any. Training the leaders and members of the organization to build their capacity is important.

6.Community-Managed Implementation . The organized community should lead to the implementation of the community plan and motivate the other members of the community to support the activities in the plan.

7. Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation. This is a

communication system in which information flows amongst all

the people involved in the project: the community, the implementing staff and the support agency, concerned government agencies and donors.

Stage 1. Selecting the Community

Factors Influencing Selection of a Community• mandate of the selecting organization – usually based on economic or political necessity

• cost benefit or number of people who will benefit from the project - decision makers will always measure the impact of the project against the funding, staff time and technology utilized in the project.

• profile and the need to be seen - decision makers and program staff are sometimes pressured to do something in a particular locality. People can exert pressure when they claim their rights for basic social services.

Sometimes, an agency or an organization will be pressured in order to be seen. It is important to be seen because visibility, translates to increase in number of votes during election.• personal interests - Motivation to do good is not always driven by the desire to help. There is a need to recognize that human nature acts on something (positively or negatively) because that action will satisfy particular requirements, such as the need to promote his/her self, ideology, or particular belief or political party.

Bottom-Up/Participatory Development Empowerment is an interconnected

cycle of strategies and interventions progressing in different levels and across sectors, and carried out through programs and projects with the following elements:

Welfare: Basic Services, Health, Education, Shelter, Safety NetsAccess: Credit, Resources, Training, Information TechnologyConscientization: Awareness seminars, Advocacy campaigns, Values, Heroism, Peacemaking and Negotiating Skills, Management and Resolution of ConflictParticipation: Leadership, Decision-making, Involvement in all levels and across sectors, Lifelong learning, multi-sectoral voice in the development agendaControl: Self-reliance, Self- esteem, Self-realization, Self-fullfillment

Levels of Equality and Empowerment

WELFARE: Addressing the material and physical well-being of women and men, girls and boys

-improved welfare refers to improved physical and

material conditions of the people.

ACCESS: Ensuring that resources, services, facilities are made available to women and men.

- entitlements that are conferred by the state, market and

kinship.

Levels of Equality and Empowerment

CONSCIENTIZATION: Challenging the existing inequitable conditions

PARTICIPATION: the most visible phenomenon of equality where communities, men and women are involved in the development process.

CONTROL: increased control over the means of production to ensure equal access to resources and the distribution of benefits

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Sustainable Community Development = STEWARDSHIP

where PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT

is key.

The concept of sustainable development has been broken down to distinguish four domains:

• economic sustainability• ecological sustainability • political sustainability• cultural sustainability

Processes in development governance where community participation is essential:

PlanningImplementationMonitoringEvaluation

PLANNINGIn CDP preparation -

IMPLEMENTATION