Community Development and Local Government
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1959.tb00141.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1959 |
| Date | 01 October 1959 |
Community
Development
and
Local
Government
by
EMIL
J.
SADY
Types
of
community
development
programmes
Mosr
of
the
material in this article is
drawn
from a study
of
public administra-
tion aspects
of
community
development programmes which we
are
making
at
the
United
Nations,
and
which reflects a need felt by the
member
governments
and
by international agencies. I
The
study analyses the different types
of
communitydevelopmentprogrammes
and attempts to make such generalizations as
are
possible on
their
public
administration
aspects-including
organization, personnel, planning, finance
and local
government-and
to identify problems for further research.
This
article summarises findings thus far
that
bear
on the relationship
of
community
development to local government in
rural
areas.
The
distinctive features
of
community development programmes
are:
"The
participation by the people themselves in efforts to improve their level
of living with reliance as
much
as possible on
their
own intiative;
and
the
provision
of
technical
and
other services in ways which encourage intiative,
self-help
and
mutual
help
and
make
them
more effective".
This
article relates
to programmes in which one or
more
departments
undertake
to stimulate
and
help communities to do something
about
their
common
concerns.
These
are
the programmes which
are
really significant from the stand-point
of
local
government
and
public administration generally.
These programmes have certain common characteristics or requirements:
(I)
village-level workers or voluntary bodies to serve as catalysts of
community self-help effort;
(2) timely technical
and
material help to make the will to self-help
effective;
and
(3) institutional means such as co-operatives
and
local government bodies
to
maintain
facilities or activities initiated
through
self-help effort.
Three
types of community development
programmes
may
be distinguished.
First, those directed
at
rural
development on a nation-wide scale.
The
pro-
grammes in
India,
Pakistan
and
the
Philippines
are
examples
of
this type which
We
call 'integrative' because they give rise to special co-ordinating
machinery
at
all levels
of
government
and,
in some countries, to
the
establishment
of
new
administrative areas (called 'development blocks' in
India)
in
order
to co-
ordinate
technical services
at
a
point
closer to
the
people.
Second, the country-wide programmes
that
emphazise the strengthening
of
community organisation
and
the
stimulation
of
local self-help effort. Most
of
the community development programmes in the
Caribbean
and
in Africa are'
of this type which, for
want
of
a
better
term, we refer to as the
'adaptive
type'
I
Many
persons
and
agencies have contributed to the study, including
United
Nations
technical assistance
sp~ci.alists
in
c?mmunity
de~elopme~t
who
ar~
,advising governments,
representatives of speclahzed agencI.es.of
~he
United
Nations, administrators of
community
development programmes,
and
specialists
In
local government
and
other
fields in a
number
of countries.
The
author
of this article, having
be~n
involved in assembling
and
synthesizing the ideas of
others cannot claim credit for all the Ideas
that
follow,
but
accepts responsibility for belief in
their validity,
The
views expressed
are
not necessarily those of the
United
Nations.
179
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