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Abstract:
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The United Nations defines community development as "processes by which the efforts of the people are united with those of governmental authorities to improve the economic, social and cultural conditions of communities, to integrate these communities into the life of the nation and to enable them to contribute fully to national progress". The two essential elements in community development, according to the United Nations, arc:
- participation of the people in efforts to improve their living conditions with as much reliance as possible on their own initiatives;
- provision of technical and other services by governmental agencies in ways that encourage initiative, self-help and mutual help and make these more effective. The Malawi government adopted the United
This paper gives an overview of the kind of community development projects that
the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) has supported since its inception in July
1996. The MASAF has tended to subscribe to a demand-driven approach in its evaluation of projects, thereby introducing an element of competition in community development.
This has led to imbalances in socio-economic infrastructure, between those districts whose communities have been unable to initiate their own projects, and those where there is more sophisticated "development-conscious" leadership. Ways in which more equitable and effective grassroots development can be implemented are presented in this paper, where the author believes that nongovernmental development agencies in particular, have a positive role to play. |