Community Development: A Cross-Examination

of Theory and Practice Using Experience in Rural

Malawi

Reported by:

Ronald Alfred A. Garvida

Kennith Gregory Dillena

 Community
Development
It underscores the
indispensability of local needs,
aspiration, and local resource
mobilization
Concept of “locality”
People
 Community
Development
Participation in community
development is not a magic pill for
rural development.
Participation provides instances
for appreciating opportunities
and challenges of Community
Development
 Community
Development
CHALLENGES/OPPORTUNITIES
Absence of projects that are community- driven.
There is no participation that is truly voluntary.
Vulnerability to poverty and lack of resources at
community levels defeat efforts towards genuine
community development.
Society, participation (independent power/collective
power of individual) group work,
 History of Community
Development
(1950s) Anglofone Africa C.D is partly based on
colonial tradition of “self-help”- the main British
Strategy.

During colonial time, CD was based n coercion and

control.

Implemented “Master Farmer System” but

eventually failed.
 Home Grown
Development Case Study
The Youth Week Initiative
Rural communities were engaged in the construction
of social infrastructure.
Primary and secondary schools were required to
suspend classes to participate in public works project.
Top-down approach. Brink of local gov’t initiative and
the rise of elitist involvement. (early 1970s)
Multiparty advocates branded the practice thangata
(colonial practice of forced labor).
 Home Grown
Development Case Study
Piped Gravity Water Supply
Chingale, old capital of Malawi requested the gov’t to
extract water from the mountain for domestic use.
The gov’t provided pipes while the community
supplied voluntary labor. Completed within a few
months.
The success was credited to the fact that it was
INITIATED, PLANNED and IMPLEMENTED by the
community.
Total cost was very low due to the utilization of
voluntary labor.
 Home Grown
Development Case Study
Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF)
Gov’t initiative to provide social
infrastructure in rural areas thru required
community participation.
The gov’t provides all the manufactured
materials
 Success of Community
Development depends on:
Partnership with rural people
Participation
Absence of adequate mechanism for horizontal
mechanism
Failure to synergize local initiative with national
development programs
Community Development fails in situations where a
compromise cannot be reached. (Traditional leadership
vs. Modern leadership)
 Conclusion
Community Development is not economic, technical or
infrastructural problem.
It is a problem of matching the external support offered
by rural development agents with the internal
characteristics of rural systems. (Should put the last first).
In theory, the role of the central government should be to
inspire local initiatives to improve community welfare.
In practice, top-down planning and implementation of
development projects instead of bottom-up ‘development
thru negotiation’.