Community Driven Development : A Vision of Poverty Reduction through Empowerment
Poverty has remained stubbornly high in Africa for decades. Top-down plans and donor driven investment programs have been less than successful. Past experience suggests that decentralization will not work without vibrant, participatory communities....
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548521480060982335/Community-driven-development-a-vision-of-poverty-reduction-through-empowerment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25787 |
| Summary: | Poverty has remained stubbornly high in
Africa for decades. Top-down plans and donor driven
investment programs have been less than successful. Past
experience suggests that decentralization will not work
without vibrant, participatory communities. And enhanced
participation will at some point need a local government
structure for sustainability. The two can evolve together
dynamically, strengthening one another. The new vision seeks
to put local governments and rural and urban communities in
driver's seat, and give them a new set of powers,
rights, and obligations. These include: the right to be
treated as people with capabilities, not objects of pity;
the power to plan, implement, and maintain projects to serve
their felt needs; the right to hold politicians and
officials accountable; the power to command local
bureaucrats instead of being supplicants; the power to hire,
pay, and discipline all who provide them with frontline
local services like education, health, municipal, and
agricultural services; the right to a share of central
government revenue; the power to levy user charges and local
taxes; the obligation to enable women, ethnic minorities,
the poorest, and other long excluded groups to participate
fully in economic development; and the obligation to be
accountable to local people, not just central governments or
donors. To embark on local empowerment, one need first to
enunciate its key principles. One can then consider the main
elements of a set of interventions to enhance participation
and decentralization, tailored to the stage of development
in each country. |
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