Category: Community Development

The Gandhian philosophy of community development was accepted officially and the adaption of the Khadi and village industry programming the nation, village self-sufficiency and the faith in Panchyati Raj, Sahakary Samaj, Gram Samaj, Bhoodan, Sarvodaya, Garmdan, Decentralization, Swadeshi are very important and helpful in Gandhian Community development. The village’s development is the real development.

The community development program is designed to support this voluntary community effort. It consists of a number of individual schemes each of which falls under one of the following broad aspects of rural community life.

1. Agriculture
2. Irrigation and reclamation.
3. Animal husbandry
4. Education
5. Social education
6. Health and rural sanitation
7. Housing
8. Communications
9. Rural Arts, crafts industries

Since a number of department and other units of government are involved in the administration of this multipurpose program, a series of coordination committees and controlling authorities have involved at the national state and district level and separate units called community development plucked have been created within the districts to act as common agencies for all these development departments this arrangement is related to village development.

Gandhi’s Constructive work for Community Development

Constructive work, according to Gandhi must be constructive in nature. It must be directed towards the welfare of the people as a whole. Through this programme evils and miseries can be eradicated. Constructive work includes also many other programmes such as the establishment of hospital construction of roads and bridges, Bhoodan, Gramdan, Basic education, Harijan Seva, Khadi, proper planning, eradication of unsociability, Nai Talim, Swadeshi, and Charkha, etc. Development meant for Gandhi, awakening individuals to their true religious potential, while at the sometimes enabling them to secure a living and to transform society. In this sense, the economic, political and social aspects of life were intimately connected with the spiritual. The constructive program may otherwise and more fittingly be called constructive of Poorna Swaraj or complete independence by truthful and nonviolent means. Some of his constructive works were:-

Khadi

Gandhi ji thought Khadi is very important for community development. Khadi is beneficial for both frame producers and the weavers to get physical exercise conducive to health. The product meets the basic needs of all human beings. The spinners association, under the guidance of Gandhi, introduced a system of certification for khadi, regulating different aspects, such as production cost, sale price, and profit administrative cost. The laborers should get a major portion of the profit.

The revival of the cottage industry alone could have removed the vast under-employment and unemployment in the country. Khadi and cottage industry can give work to many cloth mills to some. Khadi serves labour, cloth mill exploits it besides, and this is a non-violent way of liquidating foreign and national capitalism.

Gandhian Charkha’s scheme is also very important for the community development. Charkha’s scheme is also constructive work by Gandhiji he was thought that the charkha scheme is very helpful and a patent symbol in India’s struggle for freedom wearing khadi became a regular for all Patriotic Indians and a deep symbol of silent non-violent economic resistance. For Gandhi the adoption of khadi the trust of swadeshi spirit, identification with the starving millions.

Other village Industries

Gandhi’s constructive programme also advocated the establishment of other cottage industries. These were hand-spinning, hand-pounding, soap-making, paper-making, match- box making, and oil pressing, etc. All should make it a point of honour to use only village articles whenever and wherever available. Given the demand, there is no doubt that most of our wants can be supplied from our villages. When we have become village-minded, we will not want imitations of the West or machine-made products, but we will develop a true national taste in keeping with the vision of a new India in which pauperism, starvation, and idleness will be unknown.

Basic Education

Primary education is a farce designed without regard to the wants of the India of the villages and for that matter even of the cities. Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. It develops both the body and the mind and keeps the child rooted to the soil with a glorious vision of the future in the realization of which he or she begins to take his or her share from the very commencement of his or her career in school. Congressmen would find it of absorbing interest benefiting themselves equally with the children with whom they come in contact. Let those who wish, put themselves in touch with the Secretary of the Sangh at Sevagram.

‘Adult education will follow in the wake of basic education as a matter of course. Where this new education has taken root, the children themselves become their parents’ teachers. Be that as it may, the village worker has to undertake adult education also.’

Panchyati Raj

Gandhi has been considered a great advocate of the Panchayati Raj in India. He wanted to re-orientate village life through the institution of the panchayat. In his view, villages are the backbone of a nation. Villages of India, according to him, are the real India. In his own words, “if the village perished India will perish too.

Swaraj was the opportunity to shape Indian rural development in accordance with her own traditions and needs. So he remarketed. “To serve our villages is to establish Swaraj. Everything else is but on the ideal dream. Accordingly, Gandhi took keep interest in the development of rural society.

Gandhiji made the Panchayat system a part of his scheme for the reconstruction of the society and emphasized that thought the establishment of proper Panchayat system values of democracy would be attained.

Village Sanitation

Gandhi ji give his contribution to awaking village people about the sanitation. He told them God resides where cleanliness is. If you keep your home dirty this will give an invitation to a lot of diseases. He also aware them not to leave water stop at a place this will give rise to Mosquitoes and then mosquitoes will spread malaria.

Trusteeship

Gandhi’s concept of trusteeship is also an important factor under constructive work for community development. It is the outcome of his labour and capital. He advised the capitates, the landlords and such persons who have surplus wealth; because when the capitalist will be trustee of the surplus wealth then the difference of labour and capital will be done away with. The people will then enjoy all sorts of facilities like nipple food, sufficient clothes, proper education, and medical assistance and will be realized in the best form. Gandhiji got the hint of the idea of trusteeship from Gita. He thought it is essential for economic equalities.

Government Schemes motivated from Gandhian Model for Community Development:

Gandhi did many works for community development such as Panchyat Raj, Gram Swaraj, Sarvodaya, Satyagraha, etc. They are part of Gandhi’s constructive programs. Gandhian constructive work is very important for modern India.

The Community development program was initiated by the Government of India on 2nd October 1952, when work commenced in only seventy-seven blocks scattered over India more blocks were opened from year to year as finance and framed personnel became available. At the present time district in India has most of its rural area under block administration. The Government has launched the following schemes for Community Development:

Agricultural and allied fields

Under this category activity regarding following items are included, (a) reutilization of virgin and wastelands, (b) repairing of old wells, digging new wells and provision of major/minor irrigation facilities, (c) adoption of qualitative high-yielding seeds, manures, fertilizers, use of tractors, etc. (d) provision of credit facilities for the development of animal husbandry, poultry farming, fishery, soil conservation etc. and (e) growth of vegetables and plants etc.

Introduction

Radio or community radio is said to be defined as a radio service that offers third models of radio broadcasting in addition of commercial and radio broadcasting geographic communities and its interest are served through community stations, which are non-profitable and envoke a mechanism for enabling groups, individuals, and communities to share their point of views and experiences in the media world, to become creators and contributors of media. Radio is used as a major communication tool throughout the world, it has the long roots of penetration at the grassroot level of any society and its major objective is to provide information, education, and entertainment. Whereas commercial radio and community radio stations are different as day and night.

According to UNESCO-community radio is being defined as ‘radio run by, for and about community ‘.This broad principle distinguished between state-owned or public service broadcasting, commercial, and community radio. it is non-rofitable and the motive behind it is to ensure public participation at all the possible levels. They respond the priority set bh the community to facilitate issues, confront them, and to reinforce their social development agenda through communications. Its consists of limited members and community radio fill the air and gaps not only in countried development bit also in social development in the western world as well.

A brief history of radio broadcasting in India

In India, Radio Broadcasting began with the information of private radio service in Madras (now Chennai) in 1924. The British Colonial government approved a license to a private company i.e The Indian Broadcasting Company, to inaugurate radio stations in Bombay and Kolkata in the year 1927. However, in 1930 news came out that the company was almost bankrupt but the colonial govermemt took away the two transmitters and the department of labour and industries started operating them as the Indian State Broadcasting Cooperation. However, the broadcasting services were established underway since 1921 when the newspaper such as The Times Of India in collaboration with tge post and The Telegraph broadcasted from its a special program of music at the request of the Governor, Sir George Lloyd who tuned in at Poona.

A separate office of the controller of broadcasting was appointed as the first controller of boradcasting . Jan 1, 1936, is marked as an important landmark in the history of broadcasting in India, and during the same era, the name of the Indian Broadcasjng changed to ALL INDIA RADIO (AIR). There were nine Air stations out of which Delhi , Calcutta, Bombay, Madras , Lucknow, and Tiruchi, came to India, and the remainings such as -The Lucknow, Peshawar,and Dacca stations went to Pakistan. For a long the radio broadcasting has expanded not only in terms of the number of radio stations and transmitters which have made the reach easier but also in terms of the introduction of programmes to suit the chnaging socio-economic requirements of developing nations.

Broadcasting in India has become three-tier system:

1. National Broadcasts.
2. Regional Broadcasts.
3. Local Broadcasts.

The National Channel was inaugurated on 18 May 1988 and is located at the Jawaharlal Nehry stadium , New Delhi.

The capital stations and other major stations are now more than eighty, covering the geographical district in which the stations are located .

Radio broadcasting and early years

The two eminent personalities renamed Guglielmo Marconi and Reginald Fessenden were termed to be the inventors of the radio. Earlier it was to be believed that Telsa was the man who invented it, but after his death in the year 1943, people believed Marconi to be the first inventor.Supreme court however verdict the patents of Marconi to be invalid and awarded the patents to Telsa. A few years later Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary spark transmitter for the very first radio program broadcast from Ocean Bluff Brant Rock, Massachusetts. The radio broadcastinv of music and talk intended to reach a dispersed audience started experimentally around 1905-06 and commercially around 1920-23. Fessendee made his very first two successful transatlantic transmissions, using his rotary spark, exchanging Morse code messages between the stations at Brant Rock and an identical one at Machrihanish in Scotland. Till that time he could only achieve one-way transmissions,as the transmitters could not bridge the distance during daylight hours or in summer so the work got suspended until the next years. Unfortunately, the Machrihanish radio tower collapsed abruptly ending the transatlantic work. Marconi gave another major demonstration of his new high-frequency alternative transmitter at Brant Rock showing his utility from point to point wireless telephony by interconnecting his stations at Brant Rock to the Bell Telephone Network. Later he planned to give the two radio broadcasts on Christmas eve and New year’s event test and verify the alternative transmitter and his very first radio broadcasts. Landmark broadcasts of transmission of ordinary speech and music from Brant Rock to ships sailing along the Atlantic Coast.A repeat broadcast was given on new year’s eve. Most radio broadcast historians assert that radio broadcasting began in 1920 with historic broadcasts of KDKA. Few people heard the voices and music which are produced because of the death of radio recievers at that time.Families gathered around the radio for nighttime entertainment.

The broadcast radio cost $75 but a custom-built radio could cost up to $495. According to an agreement on 23 July 1927, the private Indian Broadcasting Company Ltd CBC was authorized to operate two radio stations: The Bombay Stations which began on 23 July 1927, and Calcutta Station which followed on 26 August 1927. The Golden age of the American Radio period lasted roughly from 1930 through the 1940s when the medium of commercial broadcast radio grew into the fabric of daily life in the United States, providing news and entertainment to a country struggling with economic depression and war. June 17,1936 FM radio was demonstrated to the FCC for the first time on Jan 5 1940 Edwin H Armstrong, demonstrated FM broadcasting in a long-distance relay network, via five stations in five states.FM radio was assigned the 42 to 50 MHz band of the spectrum in 1940. Transistors invented in 1948 extended the life of radio broadcasting. During the late 1940s and early 1950s TV began to displace radio from its role as the primary channel for broadcasting family entertainment. But by 1955,95% of US homes, 1had radios, and average US families owned 5 radios in 1990.

The inception of community radio in India(a brief history of community radio)

Community radio is a serviced radio which provides a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities of interest. Only popular content and the news are locally relevant and broadcasted but these are often overlooked by commercial or mass media broadcasters.Community radio stations are owned,operated and influenced by the communities they serve. They are said to be non profitable and provide a mechanism for enabling groups,communities to convey their own stories, to share their perspective, and experiences, and in media rich world to become creators and contributors. In many parts of the world, community radio acts as a vehicle for the community and voluntart sector, civil society, agencies, NGOs, and citizens to work in partnership to further community development aims n addition to broadcasting. In many Countries such as France, Argentina, South Africa,Australia, and Ireland it acts as a legally defined broadcasts stations. The legislation included phrases for a social benefit such as social objectives and gain to define their agendas. Community radio has developed diffrently in different countries and the term has some different meanings in the UK, Ireland,US, Canada, and Australia, where freedom of speech laws defacto realities differ. With high hopes and expectations, community radio movement in India ushered in the decades of the 90s of the last century. It was freshened as convenient and comprehensive instruments for the development of masses at the grass-root level. At Annamalai University the very first community radio was established with the community radio movement materialization in India.

Though it is well established part of the development communication strategy worldwide to voice the concerns of the marginalized especially underdeveloped and developing societies it is quite recent in India that the agenda of CR is being purchased vigorously, especially after the Supreme Court landmark judgement about declaring the airwaves as public property. At first an NGO operated community radio which was Sangham Radio licensed to Deccan Development Society in Pastapur village Medak District, Andhra Pradesh, and currently, about 150 radio stations have already been established in India. It is to be believed that the campaign of community radio started in the mid-1990s. In February 1995, the government declared that ‘airwaves are public property and the first radio in the campus of community radio was Anna FM which was launched on 1 February 2004 and it was run by Education and Multimedia Research Centre. Some Pioneer organizations such as Voices and Drishti Media have been done during that era and the editing and audio production were done in a small studio. According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ,47community radio stations were operational in India by 1 November 2009,which issued Grant of permission Agreements for 62 community radio stations. The idea was to set up a community radio stations was suggested by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan founder Aruna Roy and late journalist Ajit Bhattacharya and its setup was facilitated by Digital Empowerment Foundation Founder-Director Osama Manzar. The thought behind it was to share the rich collection of audiovisual archives and social messages to drive and social messages to drive all over the world. Most recently on Jan 12 2016, a special event was organized where several activists were invited to give views on pension, ratio, and NREGA.The agenda behind this was Abki Baar Mera Adhikaar.However India has played a vital role in the establishment of community radio stations .

Role of radio in social service

Community radio is usually for the people, run by the people, and owned by the people. It enhances the capacities of local people to work together to tackle social problems including poverty, and exclusion. This is a medium of expressing, and sharing views, thoughts, ideas, problems, and prospects of rural, disadvantaged, and vulnerable, to reach the population with the mainstream population. It helps to avail utilities and amenities for various development aspects of our societies like education, health, water, sanitation,protection from natural disasters, and address social issues at the community level. It may also be useful for the development of particular targets such as elderly women, children. Even radio provides special attention to the fields of education,spreading of literacy, agriculture,rural development, environmental, health, and family welfare as well as science and technology fields. By socializing they covered diverse cultures and languages of various regions of the country by broadcasting appropriate programs. The service just does not rely on this much but the platform stretched over games, and sports, to encourage healthy competition and the spirit of scholarship. They did this keeping in their minds and views of youth. Social issues such as as combating exploitation, inequality,and untouchability have also been said to have justice to such issues.

Radio as an informative medium

Over 90% and above households do have radio service in Africa. Community radio airing in local languages is in most cases the one and the only way for illiterate citizens to access information about health,education,environmental policies.it is listened also to through mobile phones (650 million of sims cards in 2014),mobile phones represent the vast majority of the internet connections in a continent where good conncetions are rare.

Radio for social change is a three-tier project

• raining program- As the media is a fast growing field of work the training program focuses on production and fundraising subject in order to sustain professionally.
• distributive platform- Factual reality based content available on the radio circuit national, local , and community radios on internet via social network.
• network of skilled media professionals- Working on national and international markets ,working to exchange good practices, policies, and methodologies.

Role and functions of radio in society

Radio stations play a critical role in modern society and form a part of critical communication channels that basically works to consume information. During the era of evolution, communication has been an important source of vision that fueled our environment. Through critical thinking and exchanging of information, society is built , living source of standards increased, and communication also facilitates the next inventions.

Some major functions of radio in society are:

• Information
• Education
• Entertainment
• Agenda setting
• Behavioral change agent
• Mobilization of society towards common goals

Information –

Radio is an electronic medium of radio communication.Through news, talk shows, adverts, and other programs radio create awareness in society of what is happening within and outside a given society.

Education –

Through the documentaries, drama, quiz shows, aired on radio. Radio teaches society development and health aspects relevant to day-to-day needs. Documentaries on agriculture health have also impacted on society’s world over.

Entertainment –

Society members are entertained through music and plays. Few radio stations have evening programs. Boredom is killed through radios and occupies people through leisure.

Agenda setting –

Radio presents to society issues yet to become public debates. It provides a variety of options on which to base enlightened decisions. Radio determines what audience will discuss airing it. By talking about a corrupt goverment.Officials and society members are brought on board a call to action.

Behavioral change agent-

Some radio stations represent and stand for society’s values, goals, and culture, for example, a church radio stations promote abstinence, forgiveness, and good morals in society. Also, the content on the radio has an impact in society.

Mobilization of society towards common goals –

Radio can be used for mobilization campaigns like immunization, election, and religious campaigns. It is used as an early warning tool. It can mobilize the society easily.

Community radio and rural development

On 15 August,1947 India became independent and since then tremendous changes have become notified in many fields but abbreviations were needed much more for a developed nation. Problems like poverty,illiteracy, unemployment are increased by the mode of time, though the government is spending millions of rupees in the name of rural development no desired results have been found. The major reason turned out to be the communication gap between government devised policies and common masses as people largely remain ignorant regarding it.According to such a policy, local community media should be promoted to enhance community development. The government has proved to play a vital role in strengthening the Right to Freedom, Speech and Expression. As the community radio is still evolving the possibilities were nearby more than various new forms will be more superior as well as user friendly. However, community radio has proved to be one of the best mediums of communication at the grass-root level. From the major point of view, development refers to the changes from simple form if organization to complex modern ones. Originally men and women lived in small,self-sufficient communities ,and they completely depend on things that are found in their environment. One of the significant social and technological development was the transition from the nomadic way of life to agricultural cultivation in settled communities. So this phenomenon can be concerned as a wholesome economic growth but also the social,spiritual and moral enhancement of the entire nation.

Economists’ point of view on rural development

Economists defined development as growth in terms of structural and technological advancement. In the early stages of developing economies most of their production and labour force in agriculture. Later the service sectors became wider and larger. This service sectors include government defense, construction, transport, finance, insurance, banking as well as work for people who do not produce physical objects such as cars or radios. Thus the accountants, lawyers, teachers, and hairdressers are considered to be a part of the service sectors. Another key feature of development is to eradicate poverty.Entire economies can be poor or they can still grow but in large sections, the people are living their life in poverty. In the second half of the twenty century, development policy makers became accurately aware of the difficulties a large number of countries in the developing world faced most of them were the former colonies of the industrial nation. Situation in the 21st century has been totally changed and denying the fact will be wrong as the media has played an important role in fighting the social evils, illiteracy as well as poverty. Previously the Prime Minister of India Pt. Nehru gave his essence and full confidence in it and took all his possible measures to make Press free from any authoritarian control. Remembering Nehru’sbcottibution to the nation,M. Chalapati Rau once said that’In the period after independence Nehru played a larger part in shaping our thinking about the Press as Gandhi Ji has done before independence’. He was opposed by a powerful section of the Indian Press but he stood for intolerance and accepted that a vigorous, critical press is a vital part of democracy. Media has played a pivotal role in spreading knowledge in traditional societies where education was just a dream. By regularly broadcasting programs on agricultural issues and on various social and moral evils, the media had contributed a lot to bringing multifarious development to the Nation.

Government initiatives in community development through community radio

Government and government officials have played a vital role in the contribution of development through the community radio. They supported the community radio by providing funds and this was highly profitable for digital broadcasting across that period. The Australian government for 40 years has been commercially committed to the broadcast platform and for 2 years this was initiated. The funding assisted to maintain the Metropolitan digital radio services and planned extension of the digital radio to Canberra, Darwin and Hobert. More support of funding was way needed for the regional expansion of digital radio and this directly affected the 803-960 MHz radio frequency band. This support was critical for regional and rural community stations in maintaining essential infrastructure.

According to the United Nations document (1981), community development is “the creation of opportunities to enable all members of a community to actively contribute to and influence the development process and to share equitably in the fruits of development”.

This community participation approach encompasses locally appropriate actions, principles or decisions that contribute significantly to the development of sustainable and equitable social conditions. I have already described in my first essay, the importance of the bottom-up approach to meet the local needs of farmers from the available resources while encouraging entrepreneurship and self-help. Implicit in the community development approach, Amritsar College has established an incubator for entrepreneurship development in Agriculture, first of its kind, in the

Amritsar region in collaboration with Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) of Government of India, by providing training and mentoring support to the budding Agri entrepreneurs for developing self-employment skills. Dewey (1994) emphasizes that “the shared activity makes possible the emergence of shared values and thus give rise to the possibility of a fuller community”.

While dealing with farmers for testing their soil samples, I understood that the asset-based approach, not a one-size-fits-all, is a wise approach to make people participate in the shared decisions that are affecting their lives. Scaffolding this approach is how communities’ perceptions, stereotypes, knowledge, and opinions are managed within the community and general public domain. Efforts to broaden this approach can be found across all over India to support rural communities. As quoted in Sousa (2015), Green and Haines define community development as: “a planned effort to produce assets that increase the capacity of residents to improve their quality of life. These assets may include several forms of community capital: physical, human, social, financial and environmental” (p. 54).

It is important to mention that with ongoing efforts to address the needs of farmers, I realized powerlessness in the socio-economic and cultural development in rural areas of India. One of the farmers I met, stated that “the social environment has been polluted and their children no longer are willing to work on farms”. Moreover, Mijuskovic (1992) mentions this society as a lonely society where the stress is on mobility and no one goes into his father’s business any longer and, promotions are based on their willingness to relocate. As an educator, I understand that to develop the communities, especially the rural communities for a more sustainable future, the methods must focus on individuals to identify the problems and can develop their knowledge, skills and motivation to tackle these problems.

In order to devise adequate answers and motives that lie behind that need, thispaper will explore how the community development social capital practices that build on informal, non-formal and formal learning opportunities can be the primary means to discover a strong sense of community for disadvantaged rural communities.

Overview

India is known as a global agricultural powerhouse. India has great agricultural potentialities because of the warm weather and cheap labour that allows the farmers to grow two to three crops each year, but the socio-economic set-up of rural society triggers the obstacles to realize its full potential. Nearly three-quarters of India’s families depend on rural income. With the growing population, the disintegration of land in inheritance increases. Consequently, the land owned by a family is not enough to support them with intensive farming methods. Moreover, the farmers had to obtain loans to get essential farming supplies and seeds. As a result, one can easily see that feeling on their faces as they talk about their lands and their families. Mijuskovic (1992) states that “the individual’s well-being can only transpire within the context of a supportive community” (p. 150).

Friere (1921) mentions that there are some significant issues due to people’s lack of knowledge. The educators could illuminate the issues coming from the people and it should be possible to begin by creating community development workshops (p. 122). While the people in rural communities often get overlooked by the educators, there is a great need for quality educators in the rural communities where there is a real lack of understanding of policies in keyways. To support rural schools and communities requires a very strong sense of community to make a difference. As quoted in McMillan and Chave (1986), McMillan mentions that sense of community is a feeling that members have a sense of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to being together(p. 9).

Community Development Practices in Punjab, India

There are innumerable approaches to understand community development. Community development includes the approaches undertaken by individuals, informal groups and organizations to support people and community groups to identify and articulate their needs, and to take practical, collective action to address them (Community Development Foundation (2014). The purpose of this paper is to describe the central role that community development practices had on the rural areas of Punjab, India. With a commitment to create a positive change in rural communities and addressing the issues, an initiative was taken by the college to support rural livelihoods and to enhance employability within communities with an understanding that social capital will enhance learning, economic development, social mobility, or community vitality (Wall, Ferrazzi & Schryer, 1998). In this paper, I explore how the community development social capital practices i.e. mutual relations, interactions, and networks that emerge among groups, as well as the level of trust within a group or community, were advantageous for disadvantaged communities.

The various processes followed were:

1. Identification of farmers: To identify the farmers with a zeal for agribusiness and self-marketing who are ready to sell the products like honey, turmeric, pickles, murabba, chutneys, papar waria, pulses, jaggery at the local level.
2. Group formation and their grooming: Attempts to groom the identified farmers with those groups who produce value-added products and in turn, serve as a constant source of motivation to other similar groups.
3. Incubation center for training and capacity building: The purpose of this center (a joint initiative of Amritsar college and ATMA) was to give back-end support and mentorship to Agri-entrepreneurs.
4. Organization of training programs: Different training programs on entrepreneurship development were conducted at Amritsar College Engineering and Technology, Amritsar. The choice of the modules was based on the local demand.
5. KISAN HUT establishment for self-marketing: Display and selling the value-added food products from its Food Processing Unit in its final marketing form, in attractive containers, packets and labelling. The purpose of the Kisan Hut was to instill confidence among the willing entrepreneurs and to send a psychological message to them that “Yes We Can”.
6. Market Linkage: Linking entrepreneurs to market and direct to consumers after ensuring quality. Exhibitions organized by the Amritsar College, ATMA, Amritsar and other national and international fairs allowed them to introduce their products to a wider audience and obtain consumer feedback. ATMA, Amritsar is helping them to take stall free of cost.

Sousa (2015) states that “for a community development perspective to be in place, one view identified assets as those that reflect a social value that is functional for a community rather than an individual or private business”. Being able to recognize as a team is a great achievement of the feeling of acceptance. The initiatives taken to promote Kisan Hut aided to decrease poverty and continually empowering the disadvantaged in the neighboring villages. The potential assets that can contribute to a community’s wellbeing are social and environmental.

Often, too little attention is paid in providing these types of training, the social capital assets are important for preparing disadvantaged as influential workers who can effectively communicate with diverse rural groups as well as support their families. Around 69% of the population of India lives in rural areas. While training, the experienced educated teachers (human capital) emphasized the importance of planning, organizing, directing and coordinating with the basic concepts of accounting and book-keeping by using physical capital from the college and financial capital from the government. The impact of social capital has a positive influence on how the profit can be increased with the help of marketing and branding, resulting in gaining learning skills and abilities that are transferable to a wide range of occupations. This change has shown that the broader support of committed educational institutions can have a great impact on disadvantaged communities in identifying and building local assets for a sustainable community.

Conclusion

The scholarly literature on the importance and connections of formal educational institutions speak unambitiously to its benefits and contemporary best practices. I strongly believe that education provides opportunities for everyone to build capacity and knowledge to make informed decisions about family. I have observed the influential members in the group are those who always acknowledge other’s opinions, needs and values rather than dominating others and ignoring their opinions. Members in a tightly knit community have great influence over the environment that otherwise, not available to them as individuals. It is important to mention here that there is a lot of struggle in rural areas in order to access food and healthcare. McMilan and Chave (1986) explicitly mention that “the feeling of belonging as ‘membership’ of sharing a sense of personal relatedness”. If everyone is struggling together, it helps to build a community to develop intimacy with a strong sense of safety.

The social capital became a ray of hope to the disadvantaged community with a belief to discover their true potential to succeed in life. The common concern of reinforcing each other made them know each other, express themselves, and work together to meet their needs. The disadvantaged community has been provided with a platform to advocate for change in their lives and their community. Through education and empowerment, ‘it’ helps in improving overall holistic development. I would like to conclude this article on a personal note. As a former employee of the Amritsar College, I must say, that educational institutions can have a profound influence on the community to address their social, economic and physical needs. Educating communities can lead to many positive outcomes, such as an improved ability to understand policies, procedures, rights, duties, government schemes, legislation, available benefits, and protection laws.

Education also exposes the masses to information and helps prevent the misinterpretation of information. McKnight (1988) reveals that there is a plethora of resources schools can invest in communities such as facilities that can serve as places that “incubate” community activities. This clearly reflects the reinforcing link to foster a culture based on a strong connection to creating sustainable communities. However, the vital links between experience, work, and education have been weakened as schools have become more professionalized and centralized. I believe that linking schools and communities can serve as a safe, secure and healthy partnership of ‘learning by doing’ towards economic revitalization.

The greatest point to remember within the relationship of formal educational institutions and community is that the institution should be treated as the hub that reflects a sense of collective responsibility. A hub that caters to and serves students, teachers, schools, families, parents, and community.

Social Policy

This essay defines Social Policies in Community Development Programs and its benefits to the communities in the context of developing countries as Papua New Guinea is also developing. Papua New Guinea is challenged by poverty, weak government systems, high crime rates, poor health services, poor education systems as well as poor infrastructural developments including bad road conditions and other issues of a developing country.

Social Policies in Community Development Programs deals mostly with the needs of the people living in a given community. A community may refers to individuals living in small groups or in big social units practicing the same norms, religion, values, identity or sharing basic government services while residing in a common geographical area. Hence, to develop a particular community especially using government resources and programs, we need policies that provide directions to the areas of need of which resources can be utilized for improving the quality of life. Generally, policies are set of principles, rules and guidelines formulated or adopted by an organization to reach its long-term goals and typically published in a booklet or other form that is widely accessible. There are different types of policies including government policies, business policies, company policies, social policies in community development programs etc. However, other types of policies are overlooked in this writing while social policies in community development programs is the central focus.

Social policies in community development programs is usually within a governmental or political setting, such as the welfare state and study of social services. It consists of guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare, such as a person’s quality of life. Social policies in community development programs can also mean to develop set of principles, rules or guidelines that regulates activities of a community-based program funded by government or other agencies to meet the social welfare needs of the people.

Social welfare is described as “the organized system of social services and institutions, designed to aid individuals and groups to attain satisfying standards of life and health”. Social welfare encompasses the well-being and interests of large number of people, including their physical, educational, mental and emotional, spiritual and economic needs. Therefore, social policies in community development programs are important because they serve the purpose of meeting the physical, educational, mental and emotional, spiritual and economic needs of the people living in a community. For instance, social policies of physical needs may include guidelines for delivering healthcare services, sporting activities, addressing law and order issues etc. Alternatively, social policies in education may give directions for administering a school while social policies in spiritual needs may include policies that protect and encourage religious activities or administers a church in a community. Further social policies can be written to guide economical activities like buying and selling of cash crops and other commercial activities that generate income of a community and some social policies can be develop to provide regulations for programs such as marriage counselling, family therapy and related programs that assist individuals to overcome mental and emotional pressures of daily living.

The outcomes of developing social policies in community development programs has adverse effects of positive benefits. The social policies minimizes risks taken in implementing a community program while increases the opportunity of meeting the aims and desired objectives of the program. It raises the morale of the people who initiates the program as well as motivating them to monitor and keep the program operating. Developing social polices provide directions or instructions on how certain tasks can be executed as well as helping the staffs who initiated the program to make right decisions about certain matters. On the other hand, social policies ensures that community programs meet individual and group needs of a particular issue. Furthermore, social policies creates no room for mismanagement of funds or other activities that might endanger the function of the program and it sustain planned activities and make them become productive. It provide ways of communicating with people living in a community where the program is going to be executed.

To conclude, developing social policies in community development programs is important because good social policies enables community-based programs to achieve its purpose and so the social welfare issues of the people can be addressed accordingly. Social policies are developed to be observe and follow; therefore, no policies can be ignored. All social policies must be implemented to serve its purpose for the common good of everyone living in a community.

The importance of policy making for an organization

Having well established polices in an organisation is important for several reasons. Firstly, policies provide the framework or structure of an organisation, which directs the employees of what they are supposed to do or how they should performed a delegated task. For example, polices requiring a person working in a human resource department to keep a paper trail of newly hired employees that have trained gives a proof that he or she is involved in ethical human resources practices. Secondly, having well-written organisational policies is important for internal control. For example, if an organisation have strong policies on ethics, it can help instil the importance of integrity and ethical behaviours in employees. Thirdly, well-written policies provide guidelines that minimizes the economic, social and legal risks taken in managing the organisation and increases the chance to meet the desired objectives, opportunities and benefits of the organisation and the workers. This helps to improve workforce morale, worker retention and job satisfaction in employees. Fourthly, policies serve as a way for top management level to communicate the behavioural expectations of the organisation down to the low management level and other employees. Alongside, organizational policies helps an organisation maintain compliance, which means to maintain a degree of accountability in the eyes of internal and external stakeholders. Moreover, policies hep the manager of an organisation to manage his or her staffs and other obligations. Furthermore, well-written organisational policies build the learning culture of an organisation. Simply refers to creating a learning environment in the organisation by encouraging and motivating the employees to learn new concepts in addition to their job knowledge. This includes determining which policies each employee should read and creating a process for updating policies throughout the year. Additionally, policies help employees know what is expected of them with respect to standards of behaviour and performance and set rules and guidelines for decision-making in routine situations so that employees and managers do not need to ask senior managers every time what to do. Finally, policies help employees to adopt a consistent and clear response across the organisation, which continually refer to situations involving employee interaction as well as promoting fairness and equality along with having accepted methods of dealing with complaints and misunderstandings to help avoid favouritism in the organisation.

Implementation the policy in project proposals

Generally, a policy is used to write a project proposal. However, not all policies can be written into project proposals depending on the type of polices they are because some policies are written to observe and follow like company policies on integrity and other work ethics. On the other, a social policy is developed to address the needs of the people living in a community. That means planned activities are written into proposal with other necessary elements of a project to seek funds before executing the project. For example, good water supply for people living in Madang town is a social policy in community development that can be used to write up a project proposal, as it requires funds and other elements to implement the policy. This policy can be implemented into a project proposal through writing the planned activities of what should be done during certain period of timeframe in a sequential order so that the policy is achieved through meeting its intended objectives.

Thus, before writing a project proposal the most important step to take is to identify the needs of the people and contact the potential funders to know if there are funds available for the type of project you are planning to execute. If there are funds available than you may request them for providing you with the criteria or requirements they have for the project you are trying to implement. After receiving the format of the project, you may write the project proposal. The proposal should contain a short and descriptive title with a cover sheet signed to hold accountable for the grant funds as well as a table of content that provide the listing of what is in the proposal. It should have a well-written executive summary to show the reader the purpose of the project, outline its descriptions and show how the project can contribute to the achievement of the national development. Furthermore, it is important to include the statement of the issue with the goals and objectives and complete description of the project. Project descriptions should have work plan activities along with timeframe marking each activity as well as identifying resources (both human and physical resources) required to manage the project. Project description should also include budget and actual quotations of the items and materials required to implement the project. Other necessary elements include geographical description of the project site, how project will be monitored and evaluated and provide ways on how the project will be sustained in the future. After completing writing the project proposal, you may submit it to the office of the donor you are seeking financial assistance from and wait for their response.

Challenges of community development policy

There are many challenges facing the communities in our contemporary societies today especially with people living in rural and urban communities. Some of the problems they faces in everyday living are:

1. Law and Order issues – law and order issues include crimes such as abortion, murder, euthanasia, shop and bank robberies, spreading of firearms, willful setting fire to properties, misappropriation of public funds and other social issues that are affecting the peace and harmony in the communities we are living. For example, in 2014 World Bank reported that crime was increasing in a number of “hot spots” in Papua New Guinea, including; Lae, Port Moresby, Madang, East New Britain, West New Britain, Western Highlands and Enga.
2. Weak Governance – Inadequate skills and weak capacity in the public service are the most critical inhibitors to development in PNG. A key feature of weak governance in PNG is corruption.
3. Poor Health Services – PNG is classified as a low middle-income country in the Pacific countries. Close to 90 percent of the population live in rural areas and access to these widely scattered communities is often difficult, slow and expensive. Violence against women and achieving gender equality remain major challenges. The major health problems currently affecting PNG according to the World Health Organization are:

• Communicable diseases, with malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoeal diseases, and acute respiratory disease the major causes of morbidity and mortality.
• A generalised HIV epidemic driven mainly by heterosexual transmission.
• Rates of infant and child mortality are high compared to other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
• Maternal mortality remains very high.

Poor Education services

According to a case study published in 2001, over 500,000 children aged 6-12 do not go to school and it is estimated that half the adult population cannot read or write while more boys than girls go to school and complete basic education. Additionally, more classrooms are needed and teachers need more training as well as management and financing from a national government to school level needs strengthening.

Increasing Population

The country had a post-Independence population of 3.5 million and growing at a healthy rate of 2.8 percent, which means it increased by 98,000 taking into account the death rate. Over the last 40 years, the rate according to World Bank estimates has never gone below 2 per cent and PNG’s population is now over 8 million. In 2013, World Bank figures have the country’s population at a conservative 7.3 million. Needless to say, there are a lot more students, many of them bright and capable keen to learn and better themselves, but they are faced with a range of challenges one of which is the limited number of spaces available while many of the sick patients are dying due to shortage of medical supplies and equipment.

ABSTRACT

Organizations do not operate in a vacuum, their surrounding environment is their host community and every organization has corporate social responsibilities to such host communities. These support programmes carried out by small/large scale businesses go a long way to prevent crime, cause employment, clean-up, beautification, recycling, and restoration of the community’s environment etc. These support programs are strategic towards the development of these communities. Hence this paper explores strategies of community relations towards a rural development.

INTRODUCTION

Community relations refers to the various methods companies use to establish and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the communities in which they operate. The underlying principal of community relations is that when a company accepts its civic responsibility and takes an active interest in the well-being of its community, then it gains a number of long-term benefits in terms of community support, loyalty, and good will.

Organizations are recognized as good community citizens when they support programs that improve the quality of life in their community. Some other examples of programs might include scholarship programs, urban renewal projects, performing arts programs, social and educational programs, children’s activities, community organizations, and construction projects.

According to Norman R. Soderberg in his book Public Relations for the Entrepreneur and the Growing Business, small businesses can become involved in their communities in any number of ways. Some recommended routes toward increasing community involvement include: taking an active interest in community problems; sponsoring youth activities; participating in local government; joining business and service groups; purchasing materials and supplies from local companies; encouraging community education and culture; making offices or other facilities available to community organizations; supporting local charity drives; and taking part in civic activities.

Soderberg stresses that for a small business, community relations should involve more than just an annual contribution to the United Way. Instead, the small business owner should become personally involved in the effort, and should encourage employees to participate as well.

These support programmes carried out by small/large scale businesses go a long way to prevent crime, cause employment, clean-up, beautification, recycling, and restoration of the community’s environment hence there is a sustained rural development.

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Studies conducted regarding the economic contribution to rural community through community relation that involves their participation in different forms of activities for their family and societal development. Such economic activities include Agriculture, Trade transaction, food processing, hairdressing and weaving, Sewing and Knitting, and handcraft and creative art. Women benefits compared to men are little regarding Education, Employment opportunities, personal income, Assets and land tenure. Community relation and their role in economic structures is an indicator of the modernization of the national economy and economic development, community relation strategies should be based on a more active participation of individuals, community and societies at large in economic activities.

STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

There are many problems that militate against community relations for a rural development such as problems of coordination, lack of trained or professional workers, flexibility of rural development agencies, lack of funds, lack of people’s participation etc which tend to impede rural development.

Mordi (1988) asserted that inconsistencies of agencies and other organisations in charge of rural development have complicated the administration of rural development in

Nigeria. Several ministries are accorded and assigned with responsibilities duplicated amongst other agencies which have become so fluid that the name and responsibility assigned may not be the same in the next few months and this demonstrates the trial and error syndrome in the Nigeria rural development administration.

Ijere (1987) stated that there is the neglect of community structural approach. A structural approach uses existing organisations as much as possible in dealing with problems and people. It calls on the resources of existing institutions and works through them. Where these are not available, it builds structure models such as leadership committees for the projects or communities involved but the usual pattern in Nigeria has been to impose as much imported schemes as possible whether they are related to the cultural and sociological life of the people or not. They appoint new local leaders where such leaders already exist not making use of youth organisations, age grade and women groups in the initiation and implementation of programmes.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this research include:

1. To find out how community relations contribute to rural development.
2. To identify stratagems for significant contribution of community relation to rural development.
3. To find out the how community relations generate their income for rural development projects.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Different scholars have defined the concept of rural development to mean different things. Hence this paper shall draw from the wealth of their ideas.

Rural development could be seen as a development process embracing the efforts of individuals, self-help groups, non-governmental and governmental organizations, collective thinking, collective action and participation. Each of these groups identifying with different roles towards increasing the social and economic well being of the people and the advancement towards the nation’s growth and to make the efforts of these groups effective and acceptable, the people’s identified felt-needs must be priority projects (Dube, 1986).

Igbozurike (1977) defines rural development as a regional resources mobilization system in which the conceptual initiatives and responsibility rest with the occupants of the region concerned. The term is also seen as an educational process and activities in rural communities, which embody the principle of self-help. In developed countries, e.g. United Kingdom, a professional expert is employed by the local educational authority to assist and promote the activity. This idea is echoed by Bail (1974) who saw community development as the method by which people in villages are involved in helping to improve their own economic and social working conditions and thereby become effective working groups in programmes of their national development. In order words, it emanates from a mutual agreement among a group of people to mobilise their cooperative efforts to embark on programmes that would improve their socio-economic life.

Bail (1974) is of the view that rural development is an educational process, which seeks to create improved opportunities for local people to satisfy the human, economic, social and psychic needs. This view was supported by Brainwell and Baker (1975) when they said that rural development is an educational process. It is not better road, better bridge, portable water or effective sanitation, it is something of the spirit more than on the material.

Ugboh (2004) sees rural development as a process of people learning how to help themselves attain an improved standard of living by building better communities, taking one step at a time.

Anyichi (1995) sees rural development as the process of rural modernisation and the monetisation of the rural society leading to its transition from traditional isolation to integration with the national economy.

It involves, adopting one or more approaches in bringing about development in economic, health care and social welfare of members of a community (Osuem 1999).

The aims of rural development should be to increase the self sufficiency of the rural dwellers and raise their standards of living. It enables the people, through group action, become competent to control their living conditions. It is a process of not only increasing the level of per-capita income in the rural sector, but also the standard of living of the rural population (Fakoya, Apantaku and Oyesola 2001).

COMMUNITY RELATION STRATEGY FOR EFFECTIVE RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Community members are becoming more involved with the public policy process. An effective community relations program should include a robust outreach strategy. Surrounding communities must be educated on the merits of a project in order to garner public support. Those who neglect to do so will often encounter red tape, public opposition and project failure. These Strategies will work with you to craft a Strategic Community Relations Plan (SCRP) that will aid you in achieving your public policy goals.

PAC MANAGEMENT

A Political Action Committee (PAC) is a tool used to raise and save money to influence political races and ballot measures by directly contributing to campaigns or administering independent expenditure races on behalf of a candidate or issue.

PACs do not buy votes or guarantee policy decisions from elected officials, but rather secure a seat at the table when decisions are being made. In politics, if you are not at the table you are on the menu and a well-run PAC is your insurance policy to remain in business. With a properly run PAC you can help influence policy through electing leaders who are sympathetic to your mission, guide decision making, and impact ballot initiatives.

The first step to effectively influencing change is hiring a firm with a track record and experience managing all sorts of PACs, and PEAR Strategies has just that. With experience guiding local, state, and federal PACs for candidates, organizations and concerned citizens at a high success rate we can help you form a strategic plan for success that will take your advocacy to a new level. Running a successful PAC is more than just raising money and writing checks. A successful PAC is accepting a new culture for your organization and understanding the most effective ways to build a war chest and utilize the resources in an effective manner to become a power player in the political arena. Creating and utilizing effective Independent Expenditures is an art; whether it’s targeted mail, video, or radio PEAR has the resources and experience to impact any audience.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Pear Strategies understands the holistic approach that is essential to meaningful economic development. With experience working with Economic Development Agencies, Workforce Investment Boards, Business Improvement Districts and an array of other economic development organizations, in a variety of capacities, we have a unique understanding of the comprehensive process required to complete a project or strategic plan.

PEAR Strategies can manage your project at any level by integrating advocacy, outreach, and planning. By building coalitions early and gaining the support of key stakeholders we can help navigate the regulatory and public opinion challenges. The investment of time and capitol on major economic development projects is substantial and it starts with building consensus. Don’t spend your resources on costly legal and permitting battles. Through research and ingenuity these investments can be minimalized and the process can be more streamline. Our proactive approach is the right way to ensure that your project comes to fruition.

THE OLD FASHIONED VIEW OF COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Traditionally, employers have tended to regard their relationships with home communities as being extensions of their employee relations. The idea was that employees who were treated decently would go into the home communities singing the praises of their employer. In this traditional viewpoint, employers felt that their dollar payroll, their local tax payments and their occasional loan of a facility for a meeting discharged their community obligations, (Centre, Jackson, Smith and Stansberry, 2008).

They explained that their attitude seemed to say, “Look what we are giving: jobs, taxes, meeting facilities and charitable donations.” Employers who held this view tended to assume that with little more than a snap of their fingers they would be provided the practical necessities for efficient operations; streets, sewers, water lines, power and telephone, police and fire services, recreational areas, health care centers, schools, shopping centers, residential areas, cultural and religious facilities, and all the rest. The viewpoint tended to say, “These are what we are entitled to in return for what we give. The community owes use these.”

However, this attitude has changed. Employers now know that they must have more than a general concern for the efficiency and adequacy of community services for themselves and for their employees. They have learned that they must become involved in specific community decisions and actions concerning fiscal policies; honesty in public offices; attracting new businesses and holding older ones; planning for the future; and generating the enthusiasm of volunteers in the charitable, culture, fellowship, educational, recreational, business and patriotic endeavours. In general, they must apply the collective talents of the organization to the community in which it operates. The combination of these concerns involves having representatives in the policy-making structure of the community, sometimes directly and openly, sometimes behind the scenes.

Centre, Jackson, Smith and Stansberry (2008) say that: “Community relations, as a public relations function, is an institution’s planned, active and continuing participation within a community to maintain and enhance its environment to the benefit of both the institution and the community”.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE

Since the 1960s, various governmental strategies were implemented into the development of the rural areas in Nigeria. Still, despite colossal amount of money invested and numerous professional agencies created – it has not provided much effect on the rural development. Each and every planning period of rural life in Nigeria remained unchanged since 1960.

The First National Development Plan 1962-1968 prioritized Agriculture as the main branch for the country`s development, but this plan provided only 42% of the capital budget to Agriculture. The Second National Development Plan 1970-1974 prioritized reduction of differences between rural and urban development, but the plan was only partially executed. The Third National Development Plan 1975-1980 implemented the “Integrated rural development” in the framework of the Agricultural Development Programmes sponsored by the World Bank.

Since the early 1970s, rural development has involved a strategy of improving rural and agricultural sectors of the economy.

FOUR ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY RELATIONS

First, put media relations in its place. Concentrate much less on media – and instead go direct. Go around the media and directly to the stakeholders who matter most. (Don’t ignore editors and reporters, but treat them as a separate strategic audience.) Clients and bosses expect to see their mission vision and values exposed and introduced to the public through earned and controlled media, but by itself media relations is a waste of time if you are after ideal community relations. By going directly to stakeholders who matter most, you’ll identify issues and concerns important to them and also support the second element: identifying and developing the key audiences most interested and supportive of your goals.

Third, involve members of the community at every level. People want to be involved. Don’t think one-way communications does the trick. Find people among your supportive audiences who can act as ambassadors with new audiences in the ‘outer’ circles. Give your ambassadors the tools and responsibility to build new (and strengthen existing) local relationships – and take the time to hear what they are learning in the community! It can be a long slog, but investing time and attention here will result in stronger and sustained community relations.

Opinion leaders represent the fourth element of effective community relations. No matter how strongly you feel about the merits of your issue, the public will seldom if ever act on its own. Members of the public are moved, inspired and motivated by people they see as open-minded and trustworthy. Finding opinion leaders takes time, but by ‘working your network’ you’ll begin developing a short list of names that seem to surface again and again – these are the people who “get around’, who are active in their community and relied upon for advice and direction. Concentrate on individuals who are interested in your issue. Don’t ignore the political leaders, but don’t rely on them either – set political opinion leaders aside as a separate strategic audience.

CONCLUSION

Rural development is a process that is not merely continuous but takes place principally through definite structures and strategies used by the local agencies to execute developmental projects such that the various institutions in the community have hands in any given community project even if one is formally charged with the initiation and co-ordination of development projects as it does not exclude exchange of information and resources, bargaining between and among interest groups outside and within the community.

All elements of community relations towards a rural development depend on research, listening and two-way communications. Effective management (and consistent evaluation) will result in a strong program benefiting your organization as well better serve the community in which you operate.

REFERENCES

1. Anyichi, D (1995) “Models of Rural Development in Nigeria; with special focus on ADPS” in Eboh, E.C., Okoye C.U, and Anyichi D. (Ed) Rural Development in Nigeria. Concepts, Processes and prospects. Enugu: Auto century publishing Co
2. Bail, G.A (1974) “Nature of Rural Development proceeding” Priorities in Rural Development. University of Guelph Canada.
3. Baker, J. (1975) Peoples Participation in Development Administration in India Uppal Publishing house New Delhi
4. Dube, D.C. (1986) India Dwelling Villages: Human Factors in Community Development. Roultedge and Kegan Paul, London.
5. Ekong, E.E. (1977) “The Administration of Community Development in Nigeria” A
6. Critical Appraisal and suggested alternative. The Quarterly Journal of Administration. Vol. XI No.3 Pp.154-155.
7. Fakoya, G.O. Apantaku, S.O. and Onyesola, O.B. (2001) “Contributions of Local Associations in Community
8. Ijere, M.O. (1987) Rural Development in Imo-State: The Problem of Implementation at the Grassroots. A paper presented at the N.T.A. Workshop in Aba.
9. Mordi, A.A. (1988) “Theoretical Approaches to Community Development. An over view” A Seminar paper published by centre for Development Studies. University of Jos.
10. Osuem, C.E. (1989) “Adult Education and Community Development” in Samuel Chukwuka Enyibe, Curriculum Fundamentals of Adult Education. Essays in Comparative Education. Onitsha: Innouson Pub. Ltd.
11. Ugboh, O. (2004) “Role of Local Leaders in Rural and Community Development in Delta State”. Unpublished: Ph.D Thesis, Dept of Ag.ext, Futo.
12. Soderberg, Norman R. Public Relations for the Entrepreneur and the Growing Business. Probus, 1986.

Rural communities are often characterized by a rural way of life. In contrast to urban areas, rural communities are relatively far from the big cities and are found out in the country. Communities like these have a low population density and small population size that engages in farming and other agricultural activities. Prevalent problems that arise from rural communities and their need to protect their natural areas are usually as a result of human activities, activities the locals practice themselves. These activities include things like poaching of animals for consumption; use of skins and commercial sale of the meat, illegal fishing, use of plants for; construction materials and fuel woods, and encroachment. Rural people’s use of natural resources serves as a significant economic opportunity for them especially since many rural communities are in third world countries with high poverty levels. Along with poverty often comes factors such as lack of self-improvement opportunities, high vulnerability to diseases and disasters, exclusion from decision-making and a lack of capacity to defend community interests. Urban areas that depend on goods and services from these rural areas, also challenge these areas by engaging in some of these activities which undermine the management of resources in rural regions. These types of activities are particularly essential for these urban areas to satisfy their growing consumerist lifestyles, which they mostly do in the context of global trade (Boer & Baquete, 1998).

With the prevalent problems that arise from the exploitation of some of these rural communities, there is a need to protect some natural areas within these regions. This paper highlights the relationship between natural protected areas and local rural communities as a focal point for maintaining the benefits of sustainable rural and local development strategies. This relationship is critical in maintaining and designing effective conservation strategies, especially in rural communities that are exploited often. The following areas were considered in this research and will serve as key examples for this study: Liwonde National Park, Malawi, Wildlife and Protected areas in Ethiopia, Mount Cameroon Region of West Africa, Nyungwe Forest Reserve, Rwanda and Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique. The key aims of the study include:

Major aims: The research’s major aims are to understand the activities challenging protected areas in rural regions; identifying and describing some of the socio-cultural problems faced by these local African communities, and briefly; pointing out the local people’s perception on conservation activities and how they respond to these activities.

Specific aim: The research provides a description of how the attitude and participation of people from local communities in East Africa greatly influenced the conservation and preservation of some of their natural heritage areas.

Ayonghe (2012) examined the management of protected areas within rural communities in the Mount Cameroon Region of West Africa. Using the qualitative methods of field observation and interviews, Ayonghe found that there is need to protect some areas in these communities and be managed properly for the well-being of the population. This ideology remained after controlling for demographic and confound variables, such as ethnicity, socio-cultural features, political factors and income dimensions. After sampling households in about seven of the village communities, the study found out that even though the local people of the area exerted high pressures on their resources, there was still a strong will to collaborate with the government in the protection and conservation of their forest. This was particularly important since the local people consider the forest one of their main source of survival. This equally led to increased collaboration of local communities, enabling them take part in the process of decision-making.

Boer and Baquete (1998) analyzed that through the participation of locals from the Maputo Elephant Reserve, southern Mozambique this has helped in the development of a resource management plan which improved the relationship between the Reserve and the local population generally. The aim of the study was to improve the understanding of the local people’s use of natural resources and perceptions of the Reserve’s impact. After carrying out interviews in four different villages, it was recorded that on average 60% of the household exploited resources, 71% valued plant resources less and 21% haunted a range of animal species. The use of these resources went mainly into commercial purposes to improve their economic status. Even with efforts to sustain livelihoods, 88% of respondents answered positively towards the plan to improve the management and conservation of their reserve.

Although this research seems outdated, it touches on matters relevant to the study of parks in developing countries. It also provides useful information that champions some of the causes for lack of proper national park initiatives in developing countries.

Dearden, Rollins and Needham (2016) in chapters 2, 7, 10 and 15 of their book discuss the issues rural people in developing countries face because of the existence of parks. Each chapter touches on the fallacy that indigenous societies in rural areas of the world live in harmony with nature and their natural areas. Much of this work take a global view of the plight local people face with the engagement of their parks and reserves. In their view, the bodies that treat these national parks do not have clearly defined terms of what conservation of nature implies. They also present the idea that the way nature is viewed in these rural regions, can be traced to historical processes that have occurred within these societies.

Novelli, M., & Scarth, A. (2007). Tourism in Protected Areas: Integrating Conservation and Community Development in Liwonde National Park (Malawi). Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development,4(1), 47-73. doi:10.1080/14790530701289697

The paper introduces some of the theories, concepts and debates that exist in the literature surrounding protected areas, conservation, local communities and tourism, with a focus on less developed countries, and then explores the concepts in the context of Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The paper introduces some of the theories, concepts and debates that exist in the literature surrounding protected areas, conservation, local communities and tourism, with a focus on less developed countries, and then explores the concepts in the context of Liwonde National Park, Malawi The paper introduces some of the theories, concepts and debates that exist in the literature surrounding protected areas, conservation, local communities and tourism, with a focus on less developed countries, and then explores the concepts in the context of Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The paper introduces some of the theories, concepts and debates that exist in the literature surrounding protected areas, conservation, local communities and tourism, with a focus on less developed countries, and then explores the concepts in the context of Liwonde National Park, Malawi. According to Novelli and Scarth (2007) in order to explore the implications of tourism and protected areas in Liwonde National Park, a qualitative research and field research approach was adopted. This involved face-to-face interviews so as to create an interactive setting between them and the participants. As one of Malawi’s smaller national parks, it was the strong desire of the locales to make the park self-sustaining whilst also generating revenue for this purpose. Novelli and Scarth (2007) also mention that even though the economic benefits of tourism are not extended to bordering communities, the principles of local support highlighted in the study remains rather helpful in conserving the park and fostering community development. Nonetheless, a major critique would be that further research is needed to assess the changes of community attitudes and behaviors over time and reassess them of the top of the tourism scheme implementation.

Tessema, Lilieholm, Ashenafi and Leader-Williams (2010), examine community- protected area relationship and how it could be improved through the involvement of communities in co-management arrangements of conservation initiatives. Using household surveys, they found that despite local tensions, most respondents of the survey held positive views toward wildlife and nearby natural areas. Giving the ongoing ties between the local people, protected areas and wildlife, future conservation efforts included active participation of the local communities in gaining local support for wildlife conservation. The thesis of the paper provides insights into the ideological importance of local residents, the way the people relate to their landscape and some of the issues involved in decision-making with private sectors. We shall see that these network of connections are necessary in order to implement successful conservation policies.

The value of resources and landscape heritage in rural areas have not been included so much in local and socio-economic development. With high poverty rates in these areas, the relationship between parks and poverty is still one of the main issues on the global protected areas agenda (Dearden, Rollins & Needham, 2016). In many cases, the creation of protected areas to conserve biodiversity in rural regions causes the obstruction of future land-use options as a means to alleviate poverty. The people in these rural areas give relative value to the use of these natural resources. According to Dearden et al., 2016, locals usually harbor a justified sense of resentment towards parks because they would rather engage in unsustainable resource extraction to maintain their livelihood and to ensure future economic opportunities.

Boer & Baquete (1998) examined the cause for locals’ use of natural resources in the Maputo Elephant Reserve (MER) located in Southern Mozambique and the casual attitudes towards these natural resources. It was recorded that about 60% of the households in the community exploited more than two different resource categories (Boer & Baquete, 1998). 71% of the households who valued the animal and fish resources less, used plant resources instead (Boer & Baquete, 1998). Plant resources were used specifically for purposes that had the highest relative values. Among 21% of the households, antelopes, hippopotamuses and elephants were valued highest out of all the animal resources (Boer & Baquete, 1998). These animals were mostly used for the commercial sale of meat, consumption and use of the skins to make other products. Based upon this research, the common use of the reserve was mainly for commercial purposes by the rural people. It was also stated that this part of the world has a history of armed conflict and have faced open abuse and exploitation of their natural resources especially during the civil war which lasted from 1978 to 1992 (Boer & Baquete, 1998). According to Boer & Baquete (1998), animal population reduced drastically during the civil war, and during this time the MER was managed by the National Forestry and Wildlife Department which had lost its control as a result of the war. In Mozambique, the prolonged civil war meant that the forest reserves never received any significant protection from opportunist logging companies. It was reported that some natural habitats such as the Northern Mozambique forests were lost due to commercial exploitation and heavy logging (Boer & Baquete, 1998). They also found that after the civil war ended in the 1990s, this deforestation also accounted for a reduction in the population density of large mammals due to lack of food.

Dearden, Rollins & Needham (2016) have also examined from an international viewpoint, some of the socio-cultural problems faced by local communities in regards to protecting their natural areas. They disclose that many of the challenges rural regions face when trying to protect their natural areas is due to the fact that there is no consistent definition of the term ‘protected area’. A “national park” in one country might have moderate biodiversity objectives and be devoted to protecting local culture and way of life whereas, in another country, it could be the soul representation of nature conservation with strong prohibitions against interventions in natural processes (Dearden et al., 2016). A good example is seen with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. This park forms the heart of a protective designation but is also surrounded by other types of protection lands governed in co-operation with both private sector and community partners (Dearden et al., 2016).

Even with these challenges and differences, rural communities are still finding ways to understand their relationship with their natural areas. Most locals approach this strategy with respect to their beliefs and principles guiding the natural areas. These beliefs have led to the creation of protected areas in many developing countries. Precisely, national parks and reserves in East Africa are finding new developmental and conventional management strategies to protect their natural areas, whilst also fostering strong community involvement.

The first case study to be examined is the wildlife conservation project in Ethiopia. According to Tessema, Lilieholm, Ashenafi & Leader-William (2010), it was observed that natural resources in Ethiopia have been sustainably managed through a wide range of common property resource regimes. This enabled early conservation efforts to focus on creating protected areas prohibited from the killing of wildlife without official permission. Additionally, the policies and strategies developed from community participation at the federal level also led to protection from private sectors. These private sectors who now effectively manage most of the protected areas at the local level. The first step that enabled them to create a sustainable and collaborative resource management system was understanding the local people’s attitudes towards wildlife and conservation (Tessema et al., 2010). They asked and encouraged participants to express their views about wildlife in their respective protected areas, how they believe wildlife should be protected, their feelings regarding their local protected areas and their desired relationship between with these protected areas (Tessema et al., 2010). Community leaders invited key informants to participate in certain focus groups by making use of local well-trained translators to ensure that all participants were able to express their views freely. The strong support showed by both the community leaders and the local people resulted in 100% participation in the focus groups (Tessema et al., 2010). During the final assessment, results showed that the villagers held positive views towards wildlife. To build on these gains, the local people proposed that firstly, transparency within their local communities and private or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) be improved. Secondly, because they viewed wildlife as an important part of their lives, they expressed sympathy for extirpated wildlife and supported conservation of the remaining wildlife populations through both government and NGO support (Tessema et al., 2010). Thirdly, they requested that locals be employed as part of the staff for those private and non-profit national parks (Tessema et al., 2010). It was noted that conflicts and misunderstandings arose because park staff were not local to the area (Tessema et al., 2010). Thus, it was with this positive attitude and contributions that the locals as well as private reserves were able to establish a legal framework under which communities can collaborate with a clear understanding of partnership rights and responsibilities on issues regarding their protected areas (Tessema et al., 2010).

The next case study looks at a similar incidence in the rural communities of Mount Cameroon, a protected region in Central Africa. The Mount Cameroon region is located in the South West region of Central Africa and is the highest mountain in both the West and Central African region (Ayonghe, 2012). The mountain itself is also an active volcano (Ayonghe, 2012). Despite being an active volcano site, the surrounding vegetation, crater lakes and waterfalls still makes it a popular tourist destination and provides useful information regarding plants and animals of the region such as bananas, rubber, oil palm, tea, snakes, monkeys, rats and antelopes (Ayonghe, 2012). Indigenes of the mountain state that despite the possibilities offered by the mountain region, some species of primates and several other wild animals all native to Cameroon are endangered (Ayonghe, 2012). This is particularly true in the Limbe Wildlife Centre (LWC) where many orphaned primates whose families were killed for bush meat have also been illegally taken out of their natural forest habitat. According to Ayonghe (2012), the LWC never buys or sells animals but instead are funded through donations. Over time, the LWC with collaborative efforts from the indigenous people, the government of Cameroon and the Pandrillus foundation have since sought strategies to secure the long-term survival of endangered species. The focus was mainly on promoting awareness on conservation by creating workshop, research and recreational services. The Mount Cameroon forest became a protected area not only because there was a need to protect endangered animal species from illegal hunters but also to control the harvesting of plant species (Ayonghe, 2012). It is for reasons like this that the Mount Cameroon National Park is still ongoing with developments aimed at protecting the park. In the interviews carried out to inform the locals on conservation activities, results showed that many of the locals believed that the reserve not only prevented the destruction of their natural resources but also offered other services. These services include serving as a tourist attraction which in turn brings about economic development of the community, conservation activities which prevent bush fires typically common on Mount Cameroon and finally, activities which serve to define hunting areas and sustainable off-take (Ayonghe, 2012). These and many other perspectives have been acknowledged by the local community of Mount Cameroon and are still being implemented to protect the natural resources till this day.

The next case study analyzes similar community-based management strategies implemented in the Nyungwe Forest Reserve, Rwanda. It is currently one of the largest tracts of forest remaining in the Albertine Rift highlands of East-Central Africa (Masozera, Alavalapati, Jacobson, & Shrestha, 2006). The Nyungwe Forest Reserve (NFR) contains more than 295 bird species and 13 primate species with very little agricultural resources (Masozera et al., 2006). The substantial loss of the reserves’ forest cover is due to poor soils and steep slopes. The NFR has also suffered long years of colonial exploitation and while the prohibition of clearing the forest (for agriculture) existed, forest conservation legislation during the colonial period gave leeway to other forms of exploitation (Masozera et al., 2006). This meant that mining and timber harvesting under a system of government-controlled permits were granted. Despite these circumstances, local members of the reserve have since sought ways to strengthen the conservation of the NFR. According to Masozera et al. (2006), the community based management approach to the NFR, recognized the basic needs of the local people in and around the area. This approach increased the local access to the reserve as a way of engaging the people in natural resource management (Masozera et al., 2006). It also incorporated their ideas, experiences, values and capabilities in order to influence forest management planning. In the study Masozera et al., also mentions the key roles of stakeholders in the planning and management of the reserve (2006). They explained that involving key stakeholders allowed all the necessary conditions for sustainable conservation of the reserve to be considered and addressed accordingly. Even in the face of effectively planning and maintain their forest reserve, the local community representatives expect that the community based management approach will in succession improve their well-being.

The last case study focuses on Liwonde National Park, Malawi. The major difference between the locals represented in this study from the other studies is that the locals in this region used the global demand for nature-based tourism in conserving and protecting their natural area. Tourism, in truth, is integral to many of the world’s protected areas. This case study provides evidence to suggest that if developed carefully, tourism can generate revenue in a non-extractive sustainable way. According to Novelli & Scarth (2007), it is estimated that about 85% of the population in Malawi live in rural areas. This would suggest that the economy of the country is not buoyant. Protected areas have the potential to generate economic benefits to local communities through the sustainable use of natural resources in a variety of ways. This is why one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) proposed by the Malawian government was to identify natural resources located in their rural areas and uncover potential economic benefits from them. It was within this framework of the MDG that the touring of their natural areas was suggested. It was also proposed that as opposed to other economic sectors, tourism will reduce poverty rates and also help in “game preservation” (Novelli & Scarth, 2007). Tourism within this park serves as an environmentally friendly way of developing counties where protected areas are becoming more popular destinations, especially for wildlife tourists (Novelli & Scarth, 2007). However, it has been established that support from the surrounding local communities is desirable to achieve this. Within the Liwonde discourse, the attitudes of the local people towards wildlife tourism revealed no negative concerns. The key goal of the agenda was to ensure that tourism became a tool for conservation management rather than becoming only a site for tourism business. The only noted concerns were related to the lack of sufficient economic gains from the park, rather than resentment towards tourism specifically (Novelli & Scarth, 2007). Considering the potential economic benefits of tourism to local communities, protected area tourism offers certain but limited opportunities to local people (Novelli & Scarth, 2007). Tourism can help finance community development while providing tangible park benefits, as long as the local interests of the people are acknowledged. Although further research is needed to determine what happens when community attitude changes over time.

The relationship between rural communities and their protected natural areas is a very complex one. These protected areas are under constant threat of exploitation, degradation and lack of development strategies and thus, there needs to be sustainable management designs which will help protect these areas. These management designs can only be implemented effectively when there is an understanding of the impact of these natural areas on the locals as well as their complex relationship with the rural community in general.

References

1. Ayonghe, A. N. (2012). Rural communities and protected area management in the Mount Cameroon Region of West Africa. African J. of Economic and Sustainable Development,1(2), 146. doi:10.1504/ajesd.2012.046972
2. Boer, W. F., & Baquete, D. S. (1998). Natural resource use, crop damage and attitudes of rural people in the vicinity of the Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique. Environmental Conservation,25(3), 208-218. doi:10.1017/s0376892998000265
3. Dearden, P., Rollins, R., & Needham, M. (2016). Parks and protected areas in Canada: Planning and management. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.
4. Masozera, M. K., Alavalapati, J. R., Jacobson, S. K., & Shrestha, R. K. (2006). Assessing the suitability of community-based management for the Nyungwe Forest Reserve, Rwanda. Forest Policy and Economics,8(2), 206-216. doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2004.08.001
5. Novelli, M., & Scarth, A. (2007). Tourism in Protected Areas: Integrating Conservation and Community Development in Liwonde National Park (Malawi). Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development,4(1), 47-73. doi:10.1080/14790530701289697
6. Tessema, M. E., Lilieholm, R. J., Ashenafi, Z. T., & Leader-Williams, N. (2010). Community Attitudes Toward Wildlife and Protected Areas in Ethiopia. Society & Natural Resources,23(6), 489-506. doi:10.1080/08941920903177867

The value of small businesses is often underestimated because they are small. But in fact, this absolutely does not mean that they have little influence. Small businesses have a huge impact not only on the national economy but also on the economy of their communities.

Small businesses are as unique and individual as their owners and span a variety of industries. They fuel the American dream and allow people to pursue their passion. Small businesses also enable people to achieve financial independence, create employment opportunities and encourage innovation.

While small businesses may not generate as much revenue individually as large corporations, they are still vital to the success of our economy. They help improve competition in areas that may be stale in innovation and growth and offer greater diversity in the economy. Small businesses also offer diversity and innovation to our economy, and the revenue they generate has a huge impact. We may not hear as much about small businesses in financial news, but according to the Small Business Administration, 54 percent of US sales come from small businesses. That leads to a big impact on the stock market and our GDP.

The sheer amount of small businesses in the US means there is an opportunity for a lot of jobs. In 2018, there were 30.2 million small businesses, making them 99.9 percent of all businesses in America. Small businesses are the driving force behind job creation in this country, accounting for 64 percent of net new private sector jobs and more than 49 percent of private sector employment.

Today, 8 million small businesses are owned by minorities, and 9.9 million small businesses are owned by women. And according to recent research by Thumbtack, technology is helping women and minorities achieve equal pay in the expanding local gig economy. They found that for their community of small business professionals, the strongest growth was found in home improvement, including a 73 percent growth in the number of handywomen. Thumbtack also states that while the majority of small businesses are owned by men, female owners make up 40 percent of small businesses in their online community.

Because many small businesses operate locally, their hiring of local people can have a huge impact not only on the local economy but on the overall health of a community and its people. Small businesses’ impact on the community cannot be ignored! Not only do local businesses help members of the community with more job opportunities, but small businesses also support other small businesses too. They tend to support other local businesses to purchase supplies or for financing, keeping more of that money in the local community. And many people love to shop locally, helping the local economy. The First National Bank of Omaha’s 2018 Shop, Buy Give Survey found that 69 percent of Americans prefer to support local retailers. Not only are local shoppers supporting members of their own community, but they are also able to purchase unique products that may not be found in a big box store. Additionally, one Chicago study found that for every $100 a person spends at a local business, $68 will stay in the community, compared to only $43 for every $100 spent at a chain store. Small businesses also contribute to the identity of the local community where they operate. Many small business owners participate in local organizations by sponsoring teams, participating in community events, and donating to local nonprofits. So, it’s not just an impact on the local economy, it’s also about being a member of the community and improving that community on many levels.

In summary, small businesses have a large impact on the economy, both nationally and locally. Small businesses account for more than half of sales in the US. Small businesses create jobs and allow minority groups and women to be part of the business world. They also have a big impact on their local communities, from the local economy to that community’s identity. Despite their small size, small businesses are really ‘big’.

The motivation and inspiration of learning Social Work and Community Development that attracted me most was the perception of how can we get to advocate the village people in terms of basic knowledge on understanding the fruits of life or how should we live our lives in our day to day livelihood. By reflecting back to my home province and seeing most of the teenage girls becoming mothers without getting married and they do not realize the negative aspects of underage pregnancy and boys taking drugs and homebrew without going to school to get a formal education to have a better future sustain their lives and for their families.

This issue is becoming a major concern in all parts of Papua New Guinea and there are not many community workers here in Papua New Guinea in addressing this issue. As me I see that it is really big need to go out there to reach the community at the grass roots level to help them to understand issue and prevent it from happening over again and to help those who are affect by the issue.

For me now as a Competent community worker I really have to work around the clock to help them to understand how life works and what is life to help the people find their full potential as human being. By showing them that you care for them, helping in whatever little ways you can to assist the needy and also must listen to what options of the people that they say in their views of life, must be prepare open heartedly to welcome any negativities or positivity’s from the community. Be creative in creating opportunities for the teenage groups to take part in sporting activities and other organized program that are set by the community worker. Community worker is able to help the client’s participation in problem solving and having self-awareness as a social worker that can determine and have confidence in the people.

My interest is to advocate the people and bring change into the community from the village level to the people. E. J. Niederfrank (1959, n. d, p. 304) claims that “In the context of adult education, community organization is thought of in terms of community councils, surveys, improvement associations, public health education, or similar programs in which citizen participation is a major aim.” This refers to me as bringing the communities together to work for the betterment of the community and for themselves to strengthen their livelihood. In organizing the community setting by helping to improve the health and education level of the community.

Community Development is very important and it is a need in the world and also a need here in Papua New Guinea because it helps to empower and motivate every individual in the community to work together with any basic skills they have to change their communities.

Community Development can come in different forms by address the social issues and also bringing basic services to the people which the Government had failed to provide for them. Being a community worker is by having to set your values in the way of conduct that you have towards the people and yourself, must be well equipped with the Attitude, knowledge and skills, that can define you as good community worker in terms of attitude and behavior towards the people.

Community Development requires a wide base of data and information and models or theories that you have make use of it to work with the information and data provided in a community but before all this to happened you must have to conduct a survey to collect information and data to address the social issue that is affecting the specific community take note that different communities have their different social issues not all communities are similar to each other.

Some Community Development activities or programs are often organized in two categories long term and short term programs like workshop for the community or projects that can help benefit the community. This can help people from the grass root level to participate with each other in all stages of the development process by meeting basic needs through self- reliance.

Community Development is import because they support human dignity and also empower individuals, groups and families. The social worker helps them to find the right path of those who have lost their way while growing up in the society due to those some social issues in the community. A community worker is known as the agent of change which he or she works closely with the community leaders to bring positive changes to the community which shows and promotes the compassionate world for all and care for the family matters and educate and empower people through advocacy.

This can help the people to see the reality that has been affecting and also helping them to have the courage to confront the issues and problems of the society to standard as a community to settle the social issue in one common understanding. Some of the code of conduct that a social or community worker should follow are the values of being a social worker is by respecting the community leaders solve dispute within the community showing respect for the religious beliefs of the people and maintain their culture and traditions. Narakobi (1983, p.5) claims that “Melanesian Voice will coincide with the Christian or other religious truths; in other instances, it may coincide with logic but it will not always be in line with both. It is both. It is not meant to coincide with these, because ours is a unique human experience.” This means that we have to consider the cultural backgrounds of the people that we are working with so that with have to come to a common understanding that community workers are there to help the community and not there to spoil the community and the people of the community.

The importance of Leader in Community Development is to help the people identify the struggles from the community and other social issues and climate change factors that are affecting the community to help address those issues in the community to help advocate the people. Before planning and organizing the program (Kopi, 2010) claims that “As part of the planning process, it is a good idea to assess the knowledge, skills and attitude of community members, identify gaps and create a training plan to respond to the gaps.” After the planning process you are able to roll out a program in the community and there are set of principles that have to be followed to run a project in the community. Sustainability meaning how you would like to sustain the operations or function of the project with people weather a long term or short term project.

Participation is one of important part of community development if everyone in the community take part in the project to help themselves the project would be more interesting and helpful to the people if there is no proper participation the project will not function like it was planned it will turn the different way around. Always give chance to the community to ask questions or make suggestions in what they think about the program or how they feel about it and taking considerations of the local knowledge and the understanding of the people and the use of local talent.

Community Development is about social change to the community by individual and groups working together to strength the development in community. This practice is often carried out by Non- Government Organizations, Church agencies and Government Departments to address the social issues or need of the people through basic services, workshops or aids. Social workers and community workers are trained and skilled to help the people from the grass roots level to bring development to their door step to advocate the ones that are illiterate to make them understand why and how the social issues arise by doing awareness.

By doing this awareness whether in a big or some way it can at least show little changes in the community in the way or conduct by using the resources that they have wisely and thinking critical that if any challenges may come in the way they are able to manage it rather than letting it to destroy the people or they can prevent it before occurring in the community by avoid conflicts from happening.

Papua New Guinea needs more social workers to be trained to go out in the field to help to address the social issues like, rape, kidnapping, robbery, murder and other petty crimes that affecting the development of the communities, villages, towns, cities, and the country as a whole. The Government of Papua New Guinea needs to work together with the Non- Government Organizations and Church agencies to address this issues that can help to promote and shape the future of this country.

Reference

1. Community Development (2019). Week eight: Attitude, Skills and Values [ppt]. PG303 dwu eLearning hub Retrieved from: https://learninghub.dwu.ac.pg/course/view.php?id=1866
2. E. J. Niederfrank and L.W. Cole (1959) Education for Community Development Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1169036?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
3. Narakobi, B (1983). The Melanesian Way Retrieved from http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/resources/1983-Bernard-Narokobi-Melanesian-Way.pdf

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number four is quality education. Education and its quality impact everyone. The big picture impact that this issue addresses is the assurance that all people complete free, equitable, primary and secondary education available to them. To ensure that both genders have equal opportunities and access to quality education, we can eliminate gender disparities in education by ensuring equal access to all levels of education. Building and upgrading education buildings and facilities that are sensitive to everyone would provide safe, nonviolent, effective learning environments for all. Would also like to achieve a higher number of scholarships available, particularly in less developed communities worldwide.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of quality education could definitely impact Colorado and our education system. According to Education Week’s annual quality counts, Colorado ranks 21st in the country and has an overall average of C (Colorado Public Radio). This is about average, and there is always room for improvement. There is an issue with ensuring equal opportunity and access to quality education based on ethnicity or race in my community. Some of the school facilities in my community could use a much-needed upgrade. At my middle school, they are forced to use ‘temporary’, attachment classrooms outside the building. I say temporary because that’s what they said when I went there and they remain to this day almost 5 years later.

Quality education has a very diverse group of people who are directly impacted by this. Part of the people impacted by this problem are the kids and adults who are not being educated to their full potential. The teachers are affected by this as well, with the higher-end teachers not taking jobs at the lower schools. The government is a stakeholder in this as well and the success of quality education goes hand in hand with government reform.

Education has the potential to become the most powerful incentive for development in the future. In order to have better schools, we need to make funding a priority. Let’s ask ourselves some questions. Does money matter in schools? The answer to this question is yes. Measures of per-pupil spending are directly associated with improved or higher student outcomes. The size of the effect is large in some studies and smaller in others, but in the direct relationship between financial resources and student outcomes money and funding are important. The next question is: do schooling resources that cost money matter? The answer to this question like the one before is yes. These resources include more competitive teacher pay, smaller class sizes, early childhood programs, and much more. These resources are associated with student outcomes and success.

Having fewer meaningless tests means that there will be more time to learn and enjoy school. They say that standardized tests are for ranking teachers, students, etc., but this may not be one hundred percent true. Comparing and ranking schools does not get us anywhere, forcing us to have the same issues and problems the education system has today. This is a fool’s game to compare, student to student, teacher to teacher, and school to school.

To have better schools the community has to get involved and engaged. The vision of the school must change, and it must change to include the community. There are so many opportunities for experiential learning outside of school in the community. Needs to be a way to connect curriculum beyond the classroom by attracting people and asking questions.

For this plan to be successful, we must find a way to reach our stakeholders. A great way to connect and create bonds is to go to the people who are most relevant and matter most. Get teachers and people of the community involved and go knock on people’s doors, visit senior centers, local businesses, and engage in conversation. Let them communicate what they wish and hope for the education system to improve. Encourage them to mentor and support the idea of a better education system. Also does this with the very students who are in the schools; ask them what ideas they have and get them involved.

Kids today are always asking questions like, “Why am I learning this?”, “What relevance does this have?”. We should ask ourselves how can we connect common curriculum in the real world. There must be a plan to connect the curriculum outside of the classroom. One approach would be to work with local business and subject matter experts with the goal of connecting the classroom to the real world and incorporating engaging learning experiences in and out of the classroom. Consider using project-based learning and try matching students with subject matter experts, businesses, and community organizations with the common goal of making education more relevant and incorporating real-life examples and scenarios.

Not only should math, English, and science be taught, but it is necessary to add a curriculum that will prepare kids to step into adult careers. Teach kids about taxes, credit, loans, and much more. Schools should cater not only to traditional job-ready skills like reading, writing, and arithmetic but also find sanctuary in the woodshop and other trade courses. This curriculum would allow some students to really find out what path they want to take. This is a great opportunity and should not be wasted.

In order for people to know what community resources are available to them, there should be a visual map to represent where and what the various skills members of our community have. The community resource map would point out the materials that people can supply to others, the time that can be invested, and how it connects to the school curriculum. Use this network to raise awareness for children and families by promoting resource sharing and collaboration. For example, use libraries as school-community partnerships and student learning, allowing them to be a connection point outside of school.

In order for my plan to be possible and successful, a few things have to happen. First, the government has to be open to changing its policy on school funding and not allow for cutting in the budget. This has been a problem before and will continue to be a problem. Education should not be the scapegoat, if the budget is low and money should not be taken, it should be given to this category. In order to get national attention on this matter, people could peacefully protest and present this issue during political debates, or maybe even go viral on the internet somehow. Second, Colorado should do away with meaningless standardized tests like CMAS and PARCC. Getting rid of standardized tests is a problem, but I may have a solution. If the Colorado State Government wants to still partake in these tests a way for students and parents to protest is to ‘opt out’, if enough students do not participate the Colorado State Government may just scratch the tests. Lastly, for my plan to be successful the community must get involved and participate. The community must expand its vision of schooling to include the community, reach out to all stakeholders, try to connect with the curriculum and create a community resource map. The community is the heart and soul of this project, and community involvement would allow for this project to succeed. This is an important issue in our community, and to get support, we would have to inform and the public and get them interested in this topic.

In 5-10 years, if my plan for better education is put into effect, I think that there will be significant results and more success in schools. By making funding a priority, fewer meaningless tests, and use of community engagement, our schools would be better. Schools would be able to afford textbooks, updated facilities, and everything else that is needed. Funding would permit more competitive teacher salaries, allowing for schools and school districts to recruit a higher-quality teacher workforce. This will also allow for smaller class sizes, making more time for students to have one on one with teachers. Funding overall would make the schools better and allow for a more successful youth. Less meaningless tests and standardized tests allow for more time to learn in school. If schools did not have to take so many standardized tests would be much better off. Engaging the community with this issue and involving them in schooling would allow students and community members to bond and become more involved in creating a safe and integrated community. On the local level, this plan would allow for all students to thrive and be successful. No student would be left behind. This plan would have significant results, in my opinion, in the following years. The desired outcome that I would like to see is for all kids to have the opportunity and the privilege to be able to go to school and learn to their fullest potential.

1. Introduction

The climate is changing and the steadily growing human pressure on the Earth is considered the main driver of environmental change. In this new geological epoch defined by some scientists as the Anthropocene (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000), questions about future sustainability have therefore became crucial. Several scientists have studied the anthropogenic interactions with the surrounding environment as Rockstöm et al. (2009) and, more recently, Steffen et al. (2015), developing quantitative limits to abide in order not to compromise a sustainable future for human beings.

In this changing environment, climate change is considered to manifest at two different temporal scales, in slow and long-term changes in climatic conditions, rainfall patterns and increased temperatures, and in rapid and short-term changes with increased likelihood of extreme weather events and ecosystems’ degradation (Tompkins and Adger, 2004). Moreover, climate change is not foreseen to affect equally the whole planet. The tropics areas, where most of the developing countries are located, are considered the most exposed to climate change externalities (IPCC, 2014) with adverse effects going to exacerbate the vulnerabilities already in place (Godfray et al., 2010). Most the countries are dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services (ES), considered the “benefits that people obtain from ecosystems” (MEA, 2005, p.40), the most are considered vulnerable (Tompkins and Adger, 2004). Therefore, in order for the populations of these countries to manage to cope with the climate change externalities, they are required to increase their resilience, improving their adaptive and transformative capacity in terms of human and ecological systems at multiple levels (Tompkins and Adger, 2004).

The aim of this essay it to critically examine the relevance of the resilience concept in development theories and practices and, focussing on developing countries, to analyse two different resilience approaches for poverty reduction. The paper starts unpacking the resilience concept and its application in development (section 2). Section 3 examines the application of resilience building for poverty reduction with reference to one case study in Mozambique (section 3.1) and one in Trinidad and Tobago (section 3.2) and section 4 draws the final conclusions.

2. Resilience in development

Development, after decades of studies, is still a concept that suffers of a broad and not precise definition (Willis, 2011). Likewise, the concept of resilience suffers the same loose definition (Norris et al., 2008). It started getting momentum in the mid 1960s and it is now widespread in different sectors comprising, among others, development and climate change adaptation (Béné et al., 2012). The term resilience was firstly adopted in scientific studies (Norris et al., 2008) with the first most prominent author to apply resilience thinking to the ecological system being Holling (1973). Since then, as Norris et al. (2008) shows, resilience has been applied at several levels of analysis comparing social and ecological systems, or individual and community levels, with several scholars proposing their definition. Analysing resilience and development, Arnall (2015) differentiates between ecological science and medical science applications of the resilience concept. While the former considers the structure and functions of social-ecological systems to external shocks, the latter focuses on the capacities of individuals to curb shocks. (ibid.). Independently from the point of view taken, either ecological and medical sciences consider resilience a dynamic rather than static concept (Brown and Westaway, 2011). Nowadays, three among the most prominent frameworks that incorporate resilience thinking are the Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015b), the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction (United Nations, 2015a) and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC, 2014).

While analysing the relevance of resilience in development, weight need to be given to the concept of scales, considering the temporal and spatial dimensions and cross-scale dynamics (Cash et al., 2006). As Arnall (2015) comments, there has been a progressive shift in resilience studies among different levels of spatial scales, from individual to community to national and its measurability at different levels is fundamental. Likewise, Brown and Westaway (2011) analysing social-ecological systems emphasise the need to analyse the cross-scale dynamic changes of surrounding environments.

Drawing from the definitions proposed by several scholars, Norris et al. (2008) define resilience as “a process linking a set of adaptive capacities to a positive trajectory of functioning and adaptation after a disturbance” (p.130). Therefore, their definition connects with the dynamic properties highlighted above where resilience is seen as a process that enhance adaptive capacities to reach a final adaptation (ibid.). This finds agreement with Arnall (2015) who critiques the conservative definition of resilience to maintain the status quo focussing on the need to apply the resilience concept more dynamically in order to promote adaptation and transformation. Figure 1 shows a framework of resilience proposed by Béné et al. (2012) which emphasizes the systematic steps of the resilience building.

Figure 1 Resilience framework (Béné et al., 2012)

Therefore, building resilience is considered the process that brings to adapted outcomes (Norris et al., 2008) and as a way to change the conditions that generated the stress (Arnall, 2015) in order not to return back to the same stage after the disturbance ends (Tompkins and Adger, 2004) but to get to a new transformed situation (Béné et al., 2012).

In order to understand the concept of resilience, and its relevance with development, it is necessary to unpack it further. As Brown and Westaway (2011) show, resilience is more than an inclusionary set of individual features and, as noted above, a cross-scale analysis need to be adopted. While considering a community, is fundamental to acknowledge the high degree of heterogeneity between the different members in terms of, among other things, gender, affluence, social position and ethnicity (Titz, Cannon and Krüger, 2018). Therefore, different individuals have different capacities, capabilities, levels of agency and power and all of these peculiarities are determining their adaptive capacity and resilience.

In this framework, agency is considered the ability of people to individually make their own choices and it is a milestone in the recognition of the power of people to engage with their surrounding environment in order not to be merely passive but become active actors (Brown and Westaway, 2011). Therefore, as Norris et al. (2008) emphasize, the concept of agency is at the foundation of individual and community resilience when robustness, redundancy and rapid accessibility are turning capacities into adaptive capacities. Moreover, the community itself need to build its own resilience as a set of resilient individuals does not mean a resilient community as a whole (Norris et al., 2008).

While analysing the adaptive capacity at the community level, it is important to consider the context specificity of the location and how the adaptive capacity is unevenly distributed (Brown and Westaway, 2011). As Norris et al. (2008) show, worse-off individuals, and worse- off communities among different societies, are considered the most vulnerable to external disturbances and less capable to absorb or cope against shocks. Therefore, social and context-specific disaggregation need to be conducted in the process of determining the resilience of individuals and communities.

From the analysis presented above, it is clear that the broad applicability of the concept, with different units of analysis, contributed to the increased popularity of the term in development (Norris et al., 2008). Moreover, considering the heterogeneity of disturbances affecting people, the adoption of a resilience approach can support in systematically analyse the event in a multi-scale and across-sector perspective (Béné et al., 2012). Furthermore, the aim of the resilience concept is to enhance the coping, adaptive and transformative capacity of individuals and communities in a conceptualization of resilience as a process rather than an outcome (Béné et al., 2012; Norris et al., 2008). In turn, this works toward an interdisciplinary conceptualisation of resilience in social-ecological systems with the overarching aim of future sustainability which underpins the same aim of sustainable development (Folke, 2006). However, for this to be the case, a dynamic application of resilience thinking and building need to be adopted in order not to limit it to coping or adaptation, but to embrace a full transformation process (Béné et al., 2012; Arnall, 2015).

3. Resilienceforpovertyreduction:ResettlementvsAdaptivemanagement

Having analysed the relationship between resilience and development, the discussion now deepens its focus on the relation between resilience and poverty reduction. As for development and resilience, poverty has also suffered of a loose definition and measurements. In its broad sense, the MEA (2005) considers poverty as a lack of well-being which, in turn, is related to security; access to basic material for good life; health; social relations; freedom of choice and action. However, Daw et al. (2011) criticise the generalisation of human well-being proposed by the MEA (2005), emphasizing the need of its disaggregation in order to capture the social differentiation in a context-specific fashion. Focussing on poverty, Willis (2011) shows how different measurements have been deployed in the last decades and the adoption of the Multidimensional Poverty Index in 2010 is seen as a step forward to measure its underpinning complexity. It is also recognised that worse-off people are generally more exposed to poverty and are therefore more vulnerable to be caught into poverty traps due to external stressors (Brown and Westaway, 2011). As Wisner, Gaillard and Kelman (2012) show, vulnerability can thus be considered a function of political, economic and social structures’ failure to support people, coupled with an individual lack of availability and access to different endowments. Therefore, a linear and simple conceptualization of poverty would oversimplify the concept whereas a more nuanced classification is needed.

In the process of discussing the relation between resilience building and poverty reduction, Béné et al. (2012) clearly state that the former is not sufficient to ensure the latter and, therefore, cannot fully replace poverty reduction interventions. Following the same dichotomy that characterized top-down and bottom-up development, in the following sections two contrasting resilience-building approaches are going to be analysed. The first is a top-down governmental resettlement program in Mozambique meanwhile the second approach is a bottom-up co-management of natural resources study in Trinidad and Tobago.

3.1. Forced resettlement in Mozambique

The first resilience approach analysed is the forced resettlement conducted by the government of Mozambique of thousands of farmers from the Lower Zambezi river valley to highland areas as a way to improve the resilience of local farmers after the floods of 2007 that affected their houses and agricultural fields (Arnall, 2015). The resettlement was supplemented by livelihood enhancement activities conducted by different NGOs for the displaced people and a withdrawal of government provided social services in the low-land area to discourage people to remain (Arnall, 2015). Although the programme was conceived to diminish the vulnerability of affected population reducing their future risk exposure, improve their well-being and reduce their poverty (Arnall, 2014), considering resilience as a process rather than an outcome, it is noted how the resettlement practice disrupts people’s local livelihoods and capitals (Arnall, 2015).

As Barnett and O’Neill (2012) highlight, resettlement plans that do not consider people willingness to move, preference over destination and final outcomes, are having high chances to fail. Moreover, resettlements can cause maladaptation instead of adaptation outcomes with consequent environmental and social degradation (ibid.). In the case study presented by Arnall (2015), land governance, viability of livelihoods and local power structures are seen as main challenges for the displaced people. The redistribution of land to displaced people done by local authorities and following the local wealth structures can also be seen as a power-over domination of local elites which give rise to the elite capture phenomenon (Arnall et al., 2013).

Differentiating between pre-reflective and critical strategies, Arnall (2015) shows the difference degrees of agency that individuals and groups can exert in continuing with similar activities or try to adopt diverting strategies (Figure 2). From the analysis of these four groups of stakeholders, it can be seen that commuters (Individual/Pre-reflective) have not increased their resilience and have potentially worsened their vulnerability due to the continues movements and withdrawal of social services in low-lands. By contrast, negotiators (Collective/Pre-reflective) increased their coping capacities to absorb future distresses. Conversely, rule-breakers (Individual/Critical) and campaigners (Collective/Critical) have increased their resilience through the transformative capacity and increased agency (Arnall, 2015).

Therefore, from the evidence presented above, it can be seen how top-down resilience building can supplement poverty reduction programmes but the failure of embracing local preferences and social differentiation can hinder the intended outcomes or, in certain cases, increase the vulnerability of affected populations. Therefore, resettlement should be considered only when in situ resilience would not be possible (Barnett and O’Neill, 2012). Local adaptation may also entail the unavoidability of weather events and, as Arnall (2015) shows, early warning systems can support resilience building. However, in the event that resettlement becomes unescapable, social systems, economic and livelihood recovery strategies and host-community contributions need to be considered for a smooth implementation (de Sherbinin et al., 2011).

Figure 2 Different outcomes of resettlement for different actors (Arnall, 2015)

3.2. Adaptive co-management of natural resources in Trinidad and Tobago

Although not a silver bullet, a bottom-up approach of resilience building focussing on the engagement and participation of the grassroots in the management of natural resources can be an added value to reduce the vulnerability end enhance the social end ecological resilience (Tompkins and Adger, 2004). However, for the participation to be effective, the principles guiding the process need to recognise the different degrees of participation and the incorporation of the local stakeholders in the different stages of the process (Willis, 2011). Acknowledging the foundation of participations on power and control, Arnstein (1969) differentiates between authentic participation, with agency and empowerment outcomes, and manipulative participations or other forms of tokenism where the power and control is not devolved to the participants but kept by few influential stakeholders. Moreover, participation need to consider the different levels of bargaining power of the different stakeholders involved in order to limit the exertion of power of the already powerful (Cooke and Kothari, 2001). Thus, the marginalised groups within the different communities, often excluded from the decision-making process need to be engaged and turned as the main actors in order for the collaborative planning to promote a resilience process (Tompkins and Adger, 2004).

In the case study presented by Tompkins and Adger (2004) focussing on Trinidad and Tobago, is noted how the co-management and cross-sectoral and multi-scale stakeholder engagement functioned as a form of collective action. Barnett and O’Neill (2012) notes how tropical islands are the most threatened by the sea level rise and their inhabitants are highly reliant on coastal ES (Tompkins and Adger, 2004). In the scenario analysed, a progressive degradation of these services lead to question the top-down regulations and promoted a participatory process with the engagement of a different range of stakeholders in order to ensure the participation of the different affected actors. As Tompkins and Adger (2004) show, through an increased individual and collective ownership over the decisions taken, the group became cohesive and managed to influence governmental policies incorporating conservation and development outcomes. In turn, this resilience process initiates a transformative long-term process through the increased agency of the stakeholders involved and through the enhanced conservation of the coastal ES.

Therefore, from the evidence presented above, it can be seen how this bottom-up resilience building approach enhanced the resilience of this social-ecological system. Moreover, looking at it from a poverty reduction perspective, the improvement of the ES can be seen as a major positive contribute to well-being. As Fisher et al. (2014) show, people can benefit differently from the ES available according to their capacity to access the different services. Thus, it can be considered that the improvement of the ES for poverty alleviation could be resulting from the increment of fish-stock and the important climate regulation service provided by the conserved barrier reef. Furthermore, and despite not meant to be for poverty alleviation purposes, payments for ES in terms of ecotourism and aesthetic value can be considered a supplementary component contributing to poverty reduction considering the direct payments received by poor people (Wunder, 2005).

4. Conclusions

From the evidence presented in this paper, it can be seen how the concept of resilience became popular into the development sector for its broad applicability and for the possibility of adopting it for cross-scale and cross-sector analysis. While analysing top-down and bottom- up resilience approaches for poverty reduction it has been demonstrated how the social differentiation and the willingness of involved stakeholders is fundamental to be considered. Forced resettlement need to be considered the ‘last resort’ among the possible choices or, once unavoidable, designed in order to reduce the vulnerability and not cause maladaptation. Co-management of natural resources can be a strategy to enhance the social-ecological system resilience, but the participatory process needs to involve different stakeholders in all the different stages recognising their bargaining power and agency.

In conclusion, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, coupled with slow but persistent changes, are forcing vulnerable individuals and communities to embrace transformative change. Therefore, the dynamic conceptualization of resilience, seen as a process rather than as an outcome, is at the outmost importance in the present days.