Editing Community development (section)

=== In the "Global South" ===
Community planning techniques drawing on the history of utopian movements became important in the 1920s and 1930s in [[Eastern Africa|East Africa]], where community development proposals were seen as a way of helping local people improve their own lives with indirect assistance from colonial authorities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=David|date=1984|title=Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Conservation in East Africa during the 1930s|jstor=722351|journal=African Affairs|volume=83|issue=332|pages=321–343|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097622}}</ref>

[[Mahatma Gandhi|Mohandas K. Gandhi]] adopted African community development ideals as a basis of his South African Ashram, and then introduced it as a part of the Indian [[Swaraj]] movement, aiming at establishing [[economic interdependence]] at village level throughout India.  With [[Partition of India|Indian independence]], despite the continuing work of [[Vinoba Bhave]] in encouraging [[grassroots]] [[land reform]], India under its first Prime Minister [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] adopted a mixed-economy approach, mixing elements of socialism and capitalism. During the fifties and sixties, India ran a massive community development programme with focus on rural development activities through government support. This was later expanded in scope and was called integrated rural development scheme [IRDP]. A large number of initiatives that can come under the community development umbrella have come up in recent years.

The main objective of community development in India remains to develop the villages and to help the villagers help themselves to fight against poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, etc. The beauty of Indian model of community development lies in the homogeneity of villagers and high level of participation.

Community development became a part of the [[Arusha Declaration|Ujamaa Villages]] established in [[Tanzania]] by [[Julius Nyerere]], where it had some success in assisting with the delivery of education services throughout rural areas, but has elsewhere met with mixed success.  In the 1970s and 1980s, community development became a part of "Integrated Rural Development", a strategy promoted by [[United Nations]] Agencies and [[World Bank Group|the World Bank]].  Central to these policies of community development were:
* [[Literacy|Adult literacy]] programs, drawing on the work of Brazilian educator [[Paulo Freire]] and the "[[Each One Teach One]]" adult literacy teaching method conceived by [[Frank Laubach]].
* Youth and women's groups, following the work of the [[Serowe Brigades]] of [[Botswana]], of [https://web.archive.org/web/20091125064832/http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ERICSearchResult&_urlType=action&newSearch=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_1=au&ERICExtSearch_Operator_1=OR&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_1=%22Van+Rensburg+Patrick%22&searchtype=authors%7CMr Patrick van Rensburg].
* Development of [[community business ventures]] and particularly [[cooperatives]], in part drawn on the examples of [[José María Arizmendiarrieta]] and the [[Mondragón Cooperative Corporation|Mondragon Cooperatives]] of the [[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque]] region of Spain
* [[Compensatory education]] for those missing out in the [[Education|formal education]] system, drawing on the work of [[Open educational resources|Open Education]] as pioneered by [[Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington|Michael Young]].
* Dissemination of [[Alternative technology|alternative technologies]], based upon the work of [[E. F. Schumacher]] as advocated in his book ''[[Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered]]''
* Village nutrition programs and [[permaculture]] projects, based upon the work of Australians [[Bill Mollison]] and [[David Holmgren]].
* [[water resources|Village water supply]] programs

In the 1990s, following critiques of the mixed success of "top down" government programs, and drawing on the work of [[Robert Putnam]], in the rediscovery of [[social capital]], community development internationally became concerned with social capital formation.  In particular the outstanding success of the work of [[Muhammad Yunus]] in [[Bangladesh]] with the [[Grameen Bank]] from its inception in 1976, has led to the attempts to spread [[Microcredit|microenterprise credit]] schemes around the world. Yunus saw that social problems like poverty and disease were not being solved by the market system on its own. Thus, he established a banking system which lends to the poor with very little interest, allowing them access to entrepreneurship.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gebremariam|first=Yilma|date=2010|title=Review of Small Loans, Big Dreams: How the Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World|jstor=20642514|journal=Eastern Economic Journal|volume=36|issue=1|pages=142–144|doi=10.1057/eej.2009.19|s2cid=154904885}}</ref> This work was honoured by the 2006 [[Nobel Peace Prize]].

Another alternative to "top down" government programs is the participatory government institution. Participatory governance institutions are organizations which aim to facilitate the participation of citizens within larger decision making and action implementing processes in society. A case study done on municipal councils and social housing programs in Brazil found that the presence of participatory governance institutions supports the implementation of poverty alleviation programs by local governments.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Donaghy|first=Maureen M.|date=2011|title=Do Participatory Governance Institutions Matter? Municipal Councils and Social Housing Programs in Brazil|jstor=23040659|journal=Comparative Politics|volume=44|issue=1|pages=83–102|doi=10.5129/001041510X13815229366606}}</ref>

The "[[human scale development]]" work of [[Right Livelihood Award]]-winning Chilean economist [[Manfred Max Neef]] promotes the idea of development based upon fundamental human needs, which are considered to be limited, universal and invariant to all human beings (being a part of our human condition).  He considers that [[poverty]] results from the failure to satisfy a particular human need, it is not just an absence of money. Whilst human needs are limited, Max Neef shows that the ways of satisfying human needs is potentially unlimited.  Satisfiers also have different characteristics: they can be violators or destroyers, pseudosatisfiers, inhibiting satisfiers, singular satisfiers, or synergic satisfiers. Max-Neef shows that certain satisfiers, promoted as satisfying a particular need, in fact inhibit or destroy the possibility of satisfying other needs: e.g., the [[arms race]], while ostensibly satisfying the need for protection, in fact then destroys subsistence, participation, affection and freedom; [[representative democracy|formal democracy]], which is supposed to meet the need for participation often disempowers and [[social alienation|alienates]]; commercial [[television]], while used to satisfy the need for [[recreation]], interferes with understanding, creativity and identity.  [[Synergy|Synergic]] satisfiers, on the other hand, not only satisfy one particular need, but also lead to satisfaction in other areas: some examples are [[breastfeeding]]; self-managed production; [[popular education]]; democratic [[community organization]]s; [[Preventive medicine|preventative medicine]]; meditation; educational games.

==== India ====
Community development in India was initiated by Government of India through Community Development Programme ([[Community development block in India|CDP]]) in 1952. The focus of CDP was on rural communities. But, professionally trained social workers concentrated their practice in urban areas. Thus, although the focus of community organization was rural, the major thrust of Social Work gave an urban character which gave a balance in service for the program.<ref>Siddiqui, H.Y. (1997). Working with communities: An introduction to community work. New Delhi: Hira Publications.</ref>

==== Vietnam ====
International organizations apply the term community in Vietnam to the local administrative unit, each with a traditional identity based on traditional, cultural, and kinship relations.<ref name="Yen 329–340">{{Cite journal|last1=Yen|first1=N. T. K.|last2=Luong|first2=P. Van|date=2008-07-01|title=Participatory village and commune development planning (VDP/CDP) and its contribution to local community development in Vietnam|journal=Community Development Journal|language=en|volume=43|issue=3|pages=329–340|doi=10.1093/cdj/bsn018|issn=0010-3802}}</ref> Community development strategies in Vietnam aim to organize communities in ways that increase their capacities to partner with institutions, the participation of local people, transparency and equality, and unity within local communities.<ref name="Yen 329–340"/>

Social and economic development planning (SDEP) in Vietnam uses top-down centralized planning methods and decision-making processes which do not consider local context and local participation. The plans created by SDEP are ineffective and serve mainly for administrative purposes. Local people are not informed of these development plans.<ref name="Yen 329–340"/> The [[participatory rural appraisal]] (PRA) approach, a research methodology that allows local people to share and evaluate their own life conditions, was introduced to Vietnam in the early 1990s to help reform the way that government approaches local communities and development. [[Participatory rural appraisal|PRA]] was used as a tool for mostly outsiders to learn about the local community, which did not effect substantial change.<ref name="academic.oup.com">{{Cite journal|last1=Yen|first1=N. T. K.|last2=Van Luong|first2=P.|date=2008-06-05|title=Participatory village and commune development planning (VDP/CDP) and its contribution to local community development in Vietnam|journal=Community Development Journal|language=en|volume=43|issue=3|pages=329–340|doi=10.1093/cdj/bsn018|issn=0010-3802}}</ref>

The village/[[Commune (Vietnam)|commune]] development (VDP/CDP) approach was developed as a more fitting approach than [[Participatory rural appraisal|PRA]] to analyze local context and address the needs of rural communities.<ref name="Yen 329–340"/> VDP/CDP participatory planning is centered around Ho Chi Minh's saying that "People know, people discuss and people supervise."<ref name="academic.oup.com"/> VDP/CDP is often useful in Vietnam for shifting centralized management to more decentralization, helping develop local governance at the grassroots level.<ref name="academic.oup.com"/> Local people use their knowledge to solve local issues.<ref name="academic.oup.com"/> They create mid-term and yearly plans that help improve existing community development plans with the support of government organizations.<ref name="academic.oup.com"/> Although VDP/CDP has been tested in many regions in Vietnam, it has not been fully implemented for a couple reasons.<ref name="academic.oup.com"/> The methods applied in VDP/CDP are human resource and capacity building intensive, especially at the early stages. It also requires the local people to have an "initiative-taking" attitude. People in the remote areas where VDP/CDP has been tested have mostly passive attitudes because they already receive assistance from outsiders.<ref name="academic.oup.com"/> There also are no sufficient monitoring practices to ensure effective plan implementation. Integrating VDP/CDP into the governmental system is difficult because the Communist Party and Central government's policies on decentralization are not enforced in reality.<ref name="academic.oup.com"/>

[[Non-governmental organization]]s (NGO) in Vietnam, legalized in 1991, have claimed goals to develop [[civil society]], which was essentially nonexistent prior to the [[Đổi Mới]] economic reforms.<ref name=":052">{{Cite journal|last=Gray|first=Michael|date=October 1999|title=Creating Civil Society? The Emergence of NGOs in Vietnam|url=http://www.michaelgray.ca/writing/articles/VNGO.pdf|journal=Development and Change|via=School of Oriental and African Studies, London|access-date=2018-05-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180507085221/http://www.michaelgray.ca/writing/articles/VNGO.pdf|archive-date=2018-05-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> NGO operations in Vietnam do not exactly live up to their claimed goals to expand civil society.<ref name=":222">{{Cite journal|last=Mercer|first=Clare|date=2002|title=NGOs, civil society and democratization: a critical review of the literature|journal=Progress in Development Studies|volume=2|pages=5–22|doi=10.1191/1464993402ps027ra|s2cid=154384357}}</ref><ref name=":052" /> This is mainly due to the fact that NGOs in Vietnam are mostly donor-driven, urban, and elite-based organizations that employ staff with ties to the Communist Party and Central government.<ref name=":222" /> NGOs are also overlooked by the [[Vietnamese Fatherland Front|Vietnam Fatherland Front]], an umbrella organization that reports observations directly to the Party and Central government.<ref name=":052"/> Since NGOs in Vietnam are not entirely non-governmental, they have been coined instead as 'VNGOs.'<ref name=":052"/> Most VNGOs have originated from either the state, hospital or university groups, or individuals not previously associated with any groups.<ref name=":052"/> VNGOs have not yet reached those most in need, such as the rural poor, due to the entrenched power networks' opposition to lobbying for issues such the rural poor's land rights.<ref name=":222" /> [[Authoritarianism]] is prevalent in nearly all Vietnamese civic organizations.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Wischermann|first=Jorg|date=July 2013|title=Civic Organizations in Vietnam's One-Party State: Supporters of Authoritarian Rule?|url=https://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/publication/civic-organizations-in-vietnams-one-party-state-supporters-of-authoritarian-rule|journal=GIGA Working Papers|volume=228|via=German Institute of Global and Area Studies}}</ref> Authoritarian practices are more present in inner-organizational functions than in organization leaders' worldviews.<ref name=":02" /> These leaders often reveal both authoritarian and libertarian values in contradiction.<ref name=":02" /> Representatives of Vietnam's NGO's stated that disagreements are normal, but conflicts within an organization should be avoided, demonstrating the one-party "sameness" mentality of authoritarian rule.<ref name=":02" />