Community development through external aid in rural South Africa : Welverdiend Village : a case study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This thesis investigates the reasons for failure of community development programmes inrural South Africa. It traces the origin of community development from the end of theSecond World War up to the present and states that South Africa has realised thatcommunity development is an important tool to bring about a more equitable distributionof wealth. It takes a look at the implementation strategies of development at a broadlevel, the influence of international aid agencies and traces some of the reasons for thehigh failure rate of projects.There is a growing trend towards non-governmental organisations becoming moreand more involved in the development field. They have evolved from being small grassroots organisations to large structures that provide a service to the community that neitherthe government nor the private sector can. They plan, raise funds, facilitate, coordinateand implement development projects and they have proved to be highly successful.The focus of study is the need for, effect of and implementation of communitydevelopment activities in rural South Africa. It also states that development has shifted itsfocus from purely economic considerations to a more people-centred approach where thefundamental concern is people and their needs. This is a more humane way of looking atdevelopment and the underlying thought in most development activity in South Africatoday is based on humaneness.It is, however, found that many development initiatives are unsuccessful inachieving its aims completely. It analyses theories on community development and findsthat contemporary theories have analysed the reasons for the high failure rate ofcommunity development activities and that most theories have recommendedimplementation strategies by placing people and their needs as priorities.This paper argues that though the people centred approach is most appropriate,certain crucial factors have been missing from these theories. The cause for concern isthat there is lack of planning for sustainability and planning for transfer of ownership ofprojects in such a way that the people involved in the project have a stake in its success.As a result there is lack of motivation on the part of project implementers to carry outprojects successfully which is leading to more and more failures of development projects.A thorough study and analysis of certain community development projectsinitiated at Welverdiend Village in South Africa has been carried out in this study. Abackground study of the Village is carried out and it is found that the 'liJ.lage is similar instructure to other similar villages. The analysis of projects draws one to the conclusionthat there are three crucial factors that improve chances of success of projects.The paper concludes that the key to the success of community developmentprojects are the plans put in place for sustainability, transferring ownership of projects toa group of people or to an individual and ensuring that project participants have a stake inits success or stands to loose something if it fails.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University