Rural Development Areas in Swaziland: The Politics of Integrated Rural Development

Abstract

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a comprehensive strategy for rural development emerged as the most likely means to achieve objectives of balanced economic growth, more equitable income distribution, and a commitment to meet the basic needs of all sectors of LDC (lesser developed country) societies. This new strategy came to be known as integrated rural development (IRD). IRD generally refers to a package of goods and services that are provided to a targeted population in a designated region. This article examines integrated rural development in general and as it came to be applied in the southern African state of Swaziland. We examine Swaziland's Rural Development Areas and argue that, in order to understand the social and technical constraints which limit the effectiveness of IRD programs, one must also examine the fundamental political contradictions between the IRD approach and the nature of national and local level political elites who are affected by integrated rural development activities. The key to an understanding of why problems have developed with Swaziland's Rural Development Area (RDA) program lies in the nature of the intraclass competition which has evolved in that country since independence. There are two district loci of socioeconomic and political power in Swaziland. One source of influence is based upon the allocation of land while the other is related to links with critical Swazi organizations, public and private. Over the last twenty years, a deadlock has developed between land-based Swazi traditional elites who have dominated Swazi politics since before the colonial era and an emerging organizational bourgeoisie.' The nature of the deadlock is such that Swazi political leaders have felt compelled to centralize control of the Rural Development Areas in a manner which is nonthreatening to aristocratic interests. Traditional elite influence in Swaziland at the local level is linked to the land allocation