The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has partnered with the World Bank to get rural communities involved in community-driven development projects.
The World Bank’s Local Community Driven Development (LCDD) concept is now integrated with the department’s Comprehensive Rural Development Programme.
This was announced at the programme’s launch in Pretoria. Gugile Nkwinti, minister of rural development and land reform, said rural communities need to take charge of their development and help the government achieve its objectives of fighting poverty and unemployment.
Under the LCDD concept, community groups and local government take control over planning decisions and investment resources. The concept builds on the notions of local empowerment, participatory governance and greater downward accountability.
Guo Li, an agricultural economist at the World Bank, said the concept has been applied in other countries. For example, over 1 million projects based on the concept had been implemented in Mexico over the past 15 years. The concept now forms part of Mexico’s national policy and has its own budget.
“It isn’t a blueprint or cookie cutter, but a template that needs to be adapted to each national context,” Guo warned. Fumanekile Gqiba, chief director for international and stakeholder relations at the department, said the aim of the concept was to get people in rural areas involved in development. – Peter Mashala
