Linking youth development, community development and social change: Experiences from a rural Eastern Cape village

Abstract

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2, which is “Achieve Universal Education”, puts emphasis on increasing enrolments and keeping children at school until they complete primary education. But the question continues to arise of the kind of education to which children are being given access: Is access commensurate with quality? This article seeks to argue that for MDG2 to be realized, there is a need for sustainable reforms that ensure that access to education commensurate with quality. One of the key conditions adopted at the Dakar meeting in ensuring that children acquire quality education was ‘respect for and engagement with local communities and cultures’ that is the localizing of ownership and responsibility for education. This article explores a particular effective rural community organizing initiative through review of organizational documents and collection and analysis of qualitative data. The study finds this approach for community organizing being effective at producing impacts at multiple levels because it weaves together youth development, community development and social development and changes them into a unified organizing cycle. The interplay between community development, youth development, social development and social change is discussed in relation to the growing field of efforts to engage parents and communities as owners and guarantors of education.