Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-130) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-122). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Hous.Man.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1996. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-216).

The start-up of the Community Development Workers' Initiative (CDWI) aims at formally beginning the process of re-establishing community development practice within British Columbia's Ministry of Social Services (MSS). This report's goals are to document the MSS Community Development Workers1 (CDWs) perceptions of their practice, challenges, and successes both outside of and within the MSS. These goals are carried out within the context of organizational change theories and models. This research was conducted approximately one year after the start-up of the CDWI. This is an explorative/descriptive study which garners CDW input from questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. These two measures were utilized in order to yield qualitative data. Qualitative methods and Rothman's framework (three modes of community organization) are employed to extrapolate major themes. The findings reveal that most CDW respondents report their practice to reflect one or more of the three models described in Rothman's framework. Underlining this trend, the selection of community organizational strategies usually appears to be driven by a process involving the community and their identified needs and interests. Documentation and discussion also include CDWI community work constructs, the obstacles faced by the respondents, CDW's perceptions of MSS' s needs and interests, and the sampled CDW's recommendations surrounding organizational change through the use of a community development approach. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This thesis explores the ways in which education and training programs can contribute to the achievement of equitable, self-reliant, and sustainable community development. A case study was conducted on an indigenous affiliate of the Agency for Cooperation in Research and Development (ACORD) in Nebbi district, Uganda. ACORD is a broad-based international consortium o f European and Canadian non-governmental organizations. ACORD's main focus in sub-Saharan Africa is to help establish or strengthen local, non-governmental structures with a view to promoting equitable, self-reliant, sustainable development. The ACORD-NEBBI community development programme was chosen for the study for four reasons: First, it appeared to be consistent with the community development principles advanced in the literature. Second, it emphasizes long-term localization of the programme through a significant skills training and education component. Third, the ACORD-NEBBI programme is a mature (i.e. over 15 years old) community development effort with a variety o f programs under one umbrella. And fourth, the programme was accessible geographically and culturally to the researcher. The research methods included observation, document analysis, and forty-six semi-structured interviews. The interviewees represented community development workers, former participants of ACORD-NEBBI training programs, primary beneficiaries of ACORD-NEBBI development programme, and the programme personnel. Six factors were found to support the ability of ACORD-NEBBI education and training programs to contribute to the achievement of equitable, self-reliant, and sustainable development initiatives: first, application of a phased approach to change and localization; second, tailored training activities at the request and pace of the beneficiaries; third, support to and promotion of self-selecting group formation based on common interests that, in turn, allowed the functioning of groups with less social friction; fourth, the application of a development approach compatible with the socio-cultural traditions; fifth, the development of a multi-faceted programme that penetrated all vulnerable segments o f the society; and sixth, the application o f change agents who supported emerging community groups. Two factors were identified as hindering the ability of ACORD-NEBBI education and training programs to contribute to the achievement of equitable, self-reliant, and sustainable development initiatives: a) the poor state o f development instruments (i.e. accessible roads, clean water, and well equipped medical centres), and b) missed target groups ~ the poorest of the poor — who could not form groups through which training is delivered. The latter factor exists because the programme focuses on groups, and hence individuals who could not form or j o in the selfselecting groups were left out of the development process. Thus, the lower middle class strata o f the village communities have benefited the most because they already had the basic resources — work capacity, knowledge, capital — with which to gain access, influence and the much needed savings mobilization prior to group formation. The majority o f the rural poor do not possess these important resources. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Arts in Development Studies in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 2008. / The purpose of this study was to examine the role played by rural women in development. KwaNdaya case study will be used to show their role. History has shown that rural community development programs in the past have been based on a variety of policy approaches, but many have not addressed women's roles as producers, caregivers and reproducers. Women's work, priorities and lives have not been incorporated into development agendas and policies, and as a result many development projects have failed. Women need to be seen as having the role of producers, caregivers and reproducers, all being essential for the maintenance of the family and community system. The assumption that there is some universal position that all women occupy in all societies must be eradicated. This is a descriptive exploratory study that explored the major role of rural women who are practicing small-scale community development project. In addition the study highlights the challenges and successful stories as reported by rural women in the study. This study was conducted in a remote rural area of KwaZulu-Natal Province. The population for the study was women who are working as a co-operative in their community production centre. The KwaNdaya production centre steering committee was used as a focus group to collect data, unstructured interviews was conducted, a questionnaire was formulated and used to ask open-ended questions concerning their project in the Zulu language. Participatory research was used at KwaNdaya because it emphasizes the concepts of people, usually the oppressed whose concerns inform the focus of the research (Freire, 1972). Participatory action research (PAR) was also applied, because it claims to be an approach with less exploitative qualities than research which treats people as research material and as objects, such as ordinary surveys and especially research which uses people as test cases (Reason, 1990:142} Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) principles were applied while gathering information at KwaNdaya that is, learning from, with and by local people where local people's criteria, classifications and categories was used. Their understanding, indigenous knowledge, viewpoints skills and practices was discovered and appreciated. Qualititative content analysis was used to analyse information that was collected as Huysamen (1994:36) confirmed that the qualititative analysis is less abstracted and closer to raw data analysis since it is in a form of words, which are context based and also can have more than one meaning. It was found that at KwaNdaya Production Centre women are faced with so many challenges but still are working together on a daily basis to achieve their goal that is, the alleviation of rural poverty and still their project which is small-scale in nature, is almost sustainable. / University of Zululand's Senate Research Committe

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1998. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the involvement of women in community development with special reference to rural women in Mambuka area. The study focused on the reasons influencing women to participate in community development projects. The investigation looked at various aspects involved in the process of community development. The motivation for this study came from, among other reasons, the author's experience in working with rural people. From a historical perspective, women have experienced and survived many difficult situations. These have included marginalisation, poverty and subjudication, all of which have led to their poor socio¬economic status. The design of this study included both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sampling strategy used was the non probability sampling and a purposive sampling method. Data were collected using the interview schedule for quantitative data and the focus group for qualitative data. The sample was drawn from a total of eight (8) projects. Each project consists of about fifteen (15) members. One member was drawn from each of eight (8) projects totalling to eight (8) women and two (2) men. Two (2) other people who were not involved in the projects were interviewed. The focus group was convened to elicit more exhaustive and also grounded data. The study found that the involvement of women in community development had a positive impact because of the following: (i) Income from women ensured food security for their families. (ii) There was acknowledged recognition of what women did in the community. (iii) The infrastructure or community resources were slowly being developed. The study further found that the women face constraints in their development attempts. These include: (i) Lack of a repertoire of skills. (ii) Lack of capital infusion. Consequently, women's development efforts remain at subsistence level. They have not fully liberated women from poverty. It also came to light that there was a need for many external development agents in the area, to enable community women share resources to avoid duplication of services which have resulted in the retardation of progress towards their development and their upliftment in general. The following recommendations were made: Future research This study conducted was only limited to the factors influencing women to participate in community development. The study focused on the reasons for women to act as the main role players in development activities. Future studies could focus on the success or impact of rural development intervention strategies. Future social work practice The future social work practice indicates that there is a need for social workers to place their emphasis on the approach of community development if they are to empower communities to be able to address their unmet needs. As observed in this study, rural communities are in dire need of skills to develop themselves and improve their lives. The shortage of resources in rural areas is also one of the major problems facing people. It is timeous for social workers to become part of the communities they serve and co-ordinate all efforts that the people attempt to put together and help them to tap these resources. This calls for the re-orientation of social workers with a view to enabling them to render effective services to communities. Future social work education The training institutions face a challenge of relevance. They need to change and focus their training more towards a developmental approach, that the White Paper calls for. The curriculum will have to be shaped in such a way that it stresses more on issues that will lead to effective social development. Future policy Policies set to eliminate poverty and others to address women's issues have been put into place. Women of the World (Beijing Conference), came together to put their concerns in order to speak with one voice. As a result many countries .have now realised the importance of recognising the contribution made by women to their economy and other sectors. In spite of all these, the future lies in the hands of the people themselves with the assistance of development agents. These have to oversee the implementation of policies which have not yet filtered into the communities. Without this joint effort, people will never feel that they are pan of the policies that have been formulated.

No description available.