Community-based Rural Development Research Articles

Towards a New approach to community-based rural development: Lesson learned from Indonesia

Towards a New approach to community-based rural development: Lesson learned from Indonesia

Analyzing poverty reduction and community development programs of Pakistan: outcomes, challenges and lessons learned

Pakistan is the home to a large number of poor, constituting about one-third of its population. The government of Pakistan launched several poverty reductions and rural development programs to increase the productivity of the rural poor through agricultural growth and other human-resource-related measures. This study has reviewed 14 community development programs by dividing them into five major phases, i.e., Rural Development Programs, Land Reforms, Employment Creation Schemes based on Direct Credit, Human Development Programs, and Poverty Alleviation Programs. The present study has demonstrated that the country, since its inception, been struggling for poverty reduction by introducing multi-dimensional approaches from time to time. Despite numerous efforts, the poverty rate remained at around 30.0% of the population during the last five to six decades. This article overviews the incidence and leading causes of poverty, major poverty reduction, and community-based rural development programs carried out in Pakistan with the assistance of international and national agencies. It further debates the country’s experiences with poverty reduction, achieved targets, challenges faced, and lessons learned. This study provides significant implications for future initiatives to acquire tangible results in poverty reduction and rural development.

Experienced Well-Being in the Rural Areas of the Srem Region (Serbia): Perceptions of the Local Community

The sustainability of rural settlements in Serbia has become the main focus of strategic rural development planning. Although it is still difficult to measure the quality of life of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia, preliminary results show that it is necessary to go beyond the GDP as the only or one of its most important indicators. A multidimensional approach and analysis at the local level is necessary for more comprehensive insight into quality of life in order to avoid erroneous or simplified conclusions. Striving to provide more detailed insight into the attitudes and needs of the local population, this research uses a qualitative approach. Subjective measures of how people feel and function in everyday life can predict future reactions, many of which are in the domain of the interests of local public services. The aim of the research is to apply measurement indicators through six dimensions of well-being in order to determine to what extent the inhabitants of rural communities are satisfied with some indicators and how they assess their own well-being. The research results illustrate the importance of understanding the needs of the local population and the perception of overall life experience in monitoring balanced rural development. The research can be adapted and applied to any rural community. Thus, only by developing a participatory approach can one strive for community-based rural development.

Community-based rural development. The potential of a shrinking village with agriculture vocation

Aging population and migration trends raise diverse issues for most of rural villages, from social exclusion to dismissed buildings and decline of public facilities. In particular, those areas that are more dependent on agriculture are facing stronger challenges, as rural exodus has gradually left behind elder residents who rarely have the necessary mobility and motivation for intensive land work are at particular risk for isolation. The lack of job opportunities and the shortage of agriculture workforce are therefore closely connected: the first one is generally the main push factor of migration; the second one represents the effective consequence of youth massive migration from rural context. The paper investigates the possibility for rural community to be an active player in inverting the trend of shrinking villages. It tries to identify a set of possible actions at neighbourhood scale that, starting with the initiative of local people, can lead to effective rural revitalisation and new social and economic value. This work takes the form of an exploratory study: the Albanian village of Jorgucat is presented as an emblematic case study that epitomizes the issues of most low dense, depopulated settlements with a land-related nature and agriculture vocation. The proposed strategies have a special focus on community engagement, the introduction of innovative public facilities, the promotion of unconventional uses of the land and new working methods. Diverse tangible actions are presented: for each of them, the applicability to Jorgucat context is explained and the reference to a similar up-and-running project is described. Finally, the text argues that some valuable initiatives of rural development might start from local people themselves rather than as a response to government policy, and suggests possible opportunities for transformations and innovations at neighbourhood level.

English

Life is supposed to be a great teacher, but in the development field lessons have never been learnt because errors of decades ago continue being entrenched today, by more enlightened people. This paper deploys critical theories of rural development and community participation to explain why communities resist development projects. One such incident is community resistance to a donor-funded mega irrigation project in Nyangavi, Guruve, in Northern Zimbabwe. The community felt that the poverty alleviation project was imposed on them. The resilient ‘modernisation’ thinking countered by people-centred ideas of development in Guruve promotes active participation of rural communities as subjects rather than objects of development. Resistance in this paper is underscored to highlight the lack of fit between rural development policy and the actual implementation on the ground and underscores rural communities’ agency as masters of their own destiny. National governments have explicit rural development policies that can help rural communities drive economies. However, these policies are ignored, for expedience purposes as officials futilely fast-track change that is meant to improve the standard of living of the poor. There appears to be selective use of community participation policies to suit certain conditions. This kind of development characterises most of Africa and development of billion-dollar projects throughout the world.    Key words: Community-based rural development, community, community leadership, decentralisation, development, engagement, human rights, irrigation, land reform, militant leaders, mobilise, modernisation, participation, policy, resistance, rural development. &nbsp

The relationship between rural branding and local development. A case study in the Catalonia's countryside: Territoris Serens (El Lluçanès)

The aim of this article is to analyse the relationship between a rural branding strategy and a local economic development action through the case study of Territoris Serens in El Lluçanès (Catalonia, Spain). This initiative is framed within the process of economic restructuring which has taken place in rural areas in recent years, with local economic activity moving away from production and towards consumption. In this context, strategies of marketing, branding and communication take on a crucial role in making rural areas more visible and facilitating their economic diversification. Through the analysis of documentary sources and the results of a focus group, the article shows how the place branding strategy implemented in this case transcends the traditional functions of facilitating the promotion and marketing of place, becoming a fundamental part of a bottom-up process of local economic development and taking on a notable role in the internal, collective definition of a competitive territorial identity, the revaluation of endogenous local resources and the promotion of community-based rural development. We thus posit that the interplay between processes of locally defining place identity and economic development strategies leads to a restructuring of local economic activity in ways that serve local communities and values, thus contributing to sustainable, long-term development.

When Empowerment Disempowers: A case study of Ghana’s Community- Based Rural Development Projects

This paper argues that the term ‘empowerment’ is too complex a concept to be simply ‘inserted’ into development project designs without prior and precise conceptualization. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in 2010/2011 and using Ghana’s Community-Based Rural Development Projects (CBRDP) as a case study, the paper outlines power struggles that occurred between Traditional Chiefs and Local Government Officials over the right to manage the projects. The analysis shows that the mal-application of ‘empowerment’ in the CBRDP’s design impacted negatively on the projects. As the project’s officials did not envisage the feuds there was no strategy in place to monitor and manage unintended outcomes. The paper provides a theoretical and empirical basis for policy-makers and program officials to consider more carefully the politico-cultural contexts of ‘development’ beneficiaries rather than focusing on positivistic and normative terms, such as empowerment, which seems to characterize many development projects at the global level.KEYWORDS: Empowerment, Local Government, Chieftaincy, Development policy, Community-Driven Development.

Engaging a specific, not general, public: the use of ethnographic film in public scholarship

Ethnographic filmmakers have long considered and debated the role of ethnographic films as tools for public scholarship. Perhaps because of their presumed accessibility, ethnographic films have been seen, on the one hand, as ideal media to convey anthropological material to the general public. On the other hand, they have been seen as specialized films that should not conform to mass media conventions or audience preferences. In my research on community-based rural development in the southeastern United States, I collaboratively create films to share my research with wider yet specific audiences including the participating and surrounding communities, development organizations and nonprofits, and extension agents and local government officials. This article will explore the process of engaging specific public audiences as a tool for both ethnographic research and an effective means to insert my research into relevant conversations about issues of rural development.

Opportunities and obstacles of areabased partnerships in rural Hungary – main features of the operations of leader local action groups based on a nationwide survey

Based on the results of our questionnaire survey, our study presents the major operational features of LEADER LAGs established in Hungary in the second half of 2007. Our national survey indicated that most of the partnerships established do not have experience in the implementation of community-based rural development programmes and there are no traditions and practices for development cooperation, which may cause problems as the success of programme implementation highly depends on the preparedness of local society, on the cooperation of local people. The survey indicates that the development of areas covered by LAGs is hindered by so-called soft factors characterizing human resources (rural people and communities). Therefore human resources are not only factors of the rural economy but areas for development as well. Having examined the tasks of LAGs,it can be established that they deem it to be their principal task to grant support funds.Inouropinion, performance of this task is obviously necessary but far from sufficient to fulfil their catalyst role expected in local developments. For this purpose, it is essential for action groups to play a proactive role in organizing and thereby increase the capacity of local communities, a prerequisite for implementing a LEADER programme. In accordance with the basic principle of subsidiarity, rural development should be implemented locally, managed by local communities, and decisions should be made at local levels in a decentralized manner. At the same time, the survey points out that LAGs operate under strong government influence and control, leading to the conclusion that the Hungarian practice of the LEADER programme is characterized by decentralization without subsidiarity. In the present structure, the activities of LAGs are predominantly financed from central resources.Administration is the primary goal of their financing, which restricts their effective and efficient operations, thereby the successful implementation of the LEADER programme. It is unquestionable that LAGs need to be centrally financed since their operation is fundamental for programme implementation, but this requires more than acting in their present role of distributing resources. In order for action groups to fulfil their real roles to boost local developments, they need to recognize their mission; and from the financing and regulatory side, they must be enabled to complete the tasks expected from them and their function.

Community-based Rural Development and the Politics of Redistribution: The Experience of the Gurage Road Construction Organization in Ethiopia

Community-based Rural Development and the Politics of Redistribution: The Experience of the Gurage Road Construction Organization in Ethiopia

Tensions, Contradictions and Inconsistencies in Community-Based Environmental Education Programmes: The Role of Defective Educational Theories

This paper is derived from a PhD study conducted in rural Uganda. The study used Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology to explore how educational methods employed in community-based environmental education programmes were empowering communities to respond appropriately to environmental challenges. A community-based rural development programme by Volunteers Efforts for Development Concerns (VEDCO), a local NGO in central Uganda, was used as a case to critically explore the community-based environmental education processes. The programme aimed to empower smallholder farmers economically and socially through training in sustainable agriculture, land use and management, agric trade and microfinance. Through a critical analysis of the different educational processes this paper exemplifies how contradictions, inconsistencies and tensions in educational theory undermined practice and affected the character of the programme, its implementation and outcomes at community level. It further demonstrates how the conscious shift in thinking and actions towards more transformative educational practice created tangible positive results. The paper also engages some of the key assumptions of critical theory and their application in a community-based context, and raises the need to go beyond the simplistic uncritical adherence to such assumptions as it leads to further ‘instrumentalisation’ of education and the accompanying processes.