COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN POVERTY REDUCTION

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COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM
ICD 533 PRINCIPLES & PRACTICLES OF DEVELOPMENT
JOURNAL

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN POVERTY REDUCTION




TUTOR’S NAME: DR SINDA HUSSEN SINDA
STUDENT’S NAME: NEEMA WELLU NSALLU ( ID No 728177).
DSM CLASS 3





TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 Introduction--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
1.0 Theoretical Literature Review-----------------------------------------------------------------3 2.1 Definition Community participation-----------------------------------------------------3
2.2 Concept of community participation-----------------------------------------------------3
2.4 The role of participation in Developing Community----------------------------------4
2.5 Disincentives to community participation-----------------------------------------------5
2.6 Inclusive and diverse in community participation--------------------------------------5
2.7 Stakeholders in community participation------------------------------------------------5
2.8 Gender consideration in Community participation-------------------------------------6
2.9 Vulnerable groups in Community participation-----------------------------------------7
2.10 Community participation for poverty reduction --------------------------------------7
2.11 Community mobilization -----------------------------------------------------------------7
2.12 Facilitation and capacity building-------------------------------------------------------7
2.13 Participatory approaches -----------------------------------------------------------------7
2.14 Participatory as a cooperation or working together-----------------------------------8
2.15 Participatory work and other development tools. -------------------------------------8
3.0 Empirical Literature Review-------------------------------------------------------------------9
3.1 The NGO’s and Civil Societies ------------------------------------------------------------9
3.2 The view of Nyerere in community participation---------------------------------------9
3.3 Tanzania poverty current situation------------------------------------------------------10
3.4 Community Part. As a key for poverty reduction--------------------------------------10
3.5 Tanzania Family Planning Program-----------------------------------------------------11
3.5 Female genital Mutilation in Dodoma --------------------------------------------------11
4.0 Policy Review----------------------------------------------------------------------------------12
4.1 The decision making policy---------------------------------------------------------------12
4.2 The development Policy ------------------------------------------------------------------12
5.0 My own discussion----------------------------------------------------------------------------13
6.0 Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
7.0 References--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN POVERTY REDUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION:
This is paper is the about importance of community participation in poverty reduction. It comprises the introduction, Theoretical and empirical review, police review, my own discussion and conclusion.

2.0 THEORETICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
Active community participation is key to empowered community. It is critical to community success. The studies show that communities with high rates of participation apply for and receive more funding than communities with less participation, in addition, participating communities achieves greater citizen satisfaction with their community.(Reid. N, 2000)

2.1 Definition
Participation in social science is an umbrella term including different means for the public to directly participate in political, economic, management or other social decisions.(wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Community participation is defined as the involvement of people in a community in projects to solve their problems. Also can be defined as the process by which the people participate in the development activities e.g. Need assessment, planning, mobilizing, training, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.

2.2 Concept of Community participation
The community participation is the power brings sustainability benefits to communities ( USDA Rural Development, 2000) . In participating communities, many people are involved in community activities. Business is not simply run by an elite leadership, but it is the work of everyone. Participating communities are open to involvement by all groups and responsibilities are divided up so that the special talents and interests of contributing organization are engaged. Power is responsibilities are decentralized, participating communities have many centers activity and community action engages the natural enthusiasm and talents of citizens. Participation communities conduct their business openly and publicize it widely. Citizens are well informed about the community’s about their opportunities for personal involvement in meaningful roles, also participation communities respect all ideas as a source of inspirations with potential value for the entire communities encourage citizens to offer their best for the common good. Participating community make no distinction among community members regardless their color, age, race, prior community involvement level of education, occupation personal reputation, handicap, religion, or any other factors, other factors such as discrimination can stop people from stepping forward. So, community participation actively reaches out to all citizens to encourage their participation. Finally participating communities operation openly and with an open mind. They are not controlled by any single organization group or philosophy and their leadership is used to facilitate discussion of a diversity of viewpoints, rather than to push its own agenda. Leaders are not ego- driven but focused on operating a high- quality open decision-making process.

2.3 The role of participation in developing community
Community seeking to empower themselves can build active participation citizen participation by welcoming it, creating valuable roles for each person to play actively reaching out to build inclusive participation and creating and supporting meaningful volunteer opportunities. The studies shows that the citizen participation also leads to higher rates of resources acquisitions and use better results, higher levels of volunteerism and a brighter community spirit. Therefore community participation is the sour of an empowered community.

2.4 Incentives of community participation,
Few among many reasons why people are willing to participate in humanitarian programmes is that, Community participation motivates people feel a sense of community and recognize the benefits of their involvement. Social, religions or traditional obligations for mutual help. Genuine community participating people see a genuine opportunity for their own lives and for the community as a whole. People wish to participate in programmes conducted in their communities for the sustainability after the funding phase as well as to build the ownership spirit.

2.5 Disincentives to community participation
The main reasons why individuals and/or community may be reluctant to make part in community participation. Unfair distribution of work or benefit amongst members of the community, a highly individuals society where there is a little or no sense of community. The feeling that the government or agency should provide the facilities, it is still crucial to our communities. Agency treatment of community members- if people are treated as being helpless they are more likely to act as if they are. Generally people are willing to participate , the biggest disincentives to this probably the attitude and actions of the agency concerned. Treating people with respect, listening to and from them, will help to save time, and resources and contribute to programme sustainability.

2.6 Inclusive and diverse in community Participation
In a participating community, no distinctions are drawn among various groups and types of personalities who offer themselves to community involvement. All persons are actively welcomed into useful roles, regardless of their color, age, race, prior community involvement, level of education, occupation, personal reputation, handicap, language, appearance religion, or any other factor. So the participating communities means that all people are made equal, that they have equal right to share the work, resources and benefits of community enhancement. the participating communities do not sit by passively, waiting for a diverse group of citizen to present themselves for involvement. They realize that discrimination, inexperience and individual reluctance can hinder full community involvement; they reach all citizens to active contribution to the community development activities/ business
.
2.7 Stakeholders in community participation
It is impossible for each member of the affected population to contribute to a development programme equally but attempts can be made to identify key groups and individuals that can be actively involved. The stakeholders may include different people from different people from the within affected population as well as local authorities and Agencies.
Community participation can contribute greatly to the effectiveness and efficiency of any development programme , the crucial factor in success is the attitude of agency staff in the field if the development workers will treat people negatively instead of participation can lead to highly destructive effect on participation in this case it is important to identify key representatives and groups without the affected population, the stakeholders.

2.8 Gender Consideration in community participation
In community participation it is very important to make sure that minority groups, low status and poorer groups in the community are not left out and that women, men, children and specified in consultation progresses. Gender equality should be considered in any community participation. Gender is based on sex but is more to do with socially constructed distraction (work, dress, behaviour, expectation, etc) the related differences can be splint into three categories such as differing needs and priorities, power and vulnerability differences and equity or equality issues. The Gender consideration related to needs, priorities, vulnerable and strengths. These considerations benefit everyone in the community. Since many donors focus on vulnerability of the intended beneficiaries there often tend to be a focus on women in program activities, this is because most scenarios women have less influence than men, and it is for this reason this reason that
Women’s groups are often set up to provide a forum for women/s views to contribute to programme design and implementation.

2.9 Vulnerable groups in community Participation
Another group to be considered in community participation is people with disability should not be excluded due to their physical and mental disabilities, should not be overlooked in emergence situations. They needs and priorities should be considered and given special attention. in community participation these may include construction of sanitation facilities, assistance in community activities and the formation of focus groups for people with disabilities.
The elder people especially those living without younger family members may be unable to participate in physical activities such as pit excavation, latrine construction. They have special needs which should be considered. Such vulnerable household should be identified and solutions to their problems implementation.

2.10 Community participation for Poverty reduction
2 11Community mobilization
Community participation can play a good role in poverty reduction strategies, the involvement of community members is crucial to enhance and facilitate development against poverty. The community mobilization applies to the way which people can be encouraged and motivated to participate in Development/ economical activities such as Agriculture, sanitation, education and health projects. In order to mobilize a community successfully it is important to identify where people’s priorities lie in order to motivate them, the identification of community leaders is the starting point in order to establish the key people contacts between the agency and the community.

2.12 Facilitation and capacity building
Facilitation and capacity building at community level may be important to develop skills. to build confidence. Any poverty reduction strategy should involve capacity building training and confidence building and could be a key ingredient in motivating different section of a community. The development strategies should also encourage the participation activities from the program design and should take place in a group setting. The community should be given a decision-power and responsibility. Then facilitation in the context of a group meeting applies in how a person with no decision making authority helps the group to be more efficient and effective in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (Svenben et al, 1999).

2.13 Participatory approach or appraisal techniques
The technique is commonly used to facilitate the community members on development, several tools adopted to identify problems, resources which facilitate on developing the Community Action Plan (CAP). Community mapping is a useful tool for collection information from the community, pair wise ranking, Diagramming and other techniques such as problem –tree analysis all are useful to enhance community participation.

2.14 Participation as the cooperation or working together
The community participation defines the community unit, based on community size ( Population) , its density, and its rural urban distribution. The units should be determined by community groups e.g number of women, men, youths, farmers, fishers, workers e.t.c In rural areas units can be large villages or groups under one administrative authority while in urban area units can be in terms of ward or municipal subdivisions that have their own representatives or local government institutions. The important thing in community participation is community/s willingness to contribute resources as well as the amount of resources, whether in cash or kind is a good indicator of its interest. The community participation sometimes is their physical energy, for example the voluntary work of manpower or labourforce in building community schools, digging the wells, construction e.t.c The community participation can be voluntary or by force, the community member may set the by-law to make sure that all members participate fully.


2.15 Participatory work with other tools to enhance development.
The purpose of involving the community in development work is to improve the performance, quality, strengthening the sustainability of the community projects even after the funding period. But the participation will not stand on its own without other tools for example there is a link between participation in Governance and social capital (Robert Putman, 2002) He saw a connection between the properties of social capital , participation, social inclusion and social capital. The Institutional design of governance in turn shapes the development of social capital. For example giving grants or signing service level agreements with the community and voluntary sector, offering capacity building support or promoting social inclusion policies can all shape the creation of social capital (Marilyn Taylor)





3.0 EMPERICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 The NGOs and Civil Societies as representative agencies
In order to develop a common understanding the concept of participation of the community in development or in poverty reduction strategies, the civil societies and Non Governmental Organization represents the agencies, in the sense that they solicit funds to support development activities , for example building of public schools, dispensaries, community markets, infrastructure and road construction etc. The NGOs helps the community to identify the resources for providing community action incentives, it support the communities to implement their community action plans (CAP). Provides resources such as finances, machines, agriculture tools e.t.c.

3.2 The View of Nyerere in Community participation
Community participation is one means or strategy used for fighting against poverty in Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere mobilized the Tanzanian people to work in communities, instead of working as individuals. Nyerere emphasized the formation of communities during the villagilization process in 1973. He emphasized the development in union “Ujamaa” This involved a lot of community organizing, through community sensitization and mobilization “wananchi” the citizen shifted from remote, individual household, to the selected Ujamaa Villages, with good infrastructure, near to water source, schools and health facilities e.t.c. Presently using the same approach of Community participation, the community members contribute to build social services such as Primary and Secondary school ,Dispensaries, and village markets, they contribute for water supply services and other development activities. The methodologies such Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Participatory Learning in Action (PLA) has been very useful to mobilize people to participate in development work. The community development workers make use of community participation, building the spirit of ownership and identification of local available resources for sustainable development or on the other hand for poverty reduction.


3.3 Tanzania Poverty Current situation
The poverty situation in Tanzania is manifested in a poor quality of social and economic services, less than half of the rural population have access to safe and clean water and large of a part of countryside is inaccessible during the rainy seasons. The other attributes of poverty are exclusion, powerlessness and voiceless ness, especially of women in social and political spheres; children also suffer from limited rights of survey and development
Rural poverty in the country has been halved in the period from 1995 to 2001, at present about 36% of people living in rural areas are classified as power. The program is reflected in the United Nations Development Programmes, Human index for Tanzania which rose from 0.3 in 1990 to 0.4 in 2002. Poverty is still widespread and acute and generally a rural phenomenon. I.e. 85% pf country’s poor people live in rural areas and in agriculture as their main source of income and live hood.
According to the house survey of 2000/03 some of 20% of rural people live in extremely poverty and about 35% are considered poor within the Agriculture sector; food crop producers but both play under cyclical and structural constraints are subjected to Natural disasters such as drought and floods; also lack of market linkages inputs credit and irrigation water

3.4 Community participation as the key for poverty reduction
Since independence in 1961, the government of Tanzania has had poverty eradicate as its main goal, one of the intervention measures suggested is the introduction and implementation of socials and economic policies which address the issues of poverty both at National and individual level. The trainings, such as agriculture training, primary health training, development training are not given to individuals but in community groups. The community trainers also conduct training in groups such as farmers, fishers, women, youths, or other groups with common interest. Through the community participation the community schools were built, dispensaries, crops stores, go downs, the creation and dissemination of knowledge and other welfare services conducted in easy way through community organizing. The training methodologies are selected those which is useful in our culture context in addressing the key challenges of straitening to reduce pervasive poverty Tanzania.

3.5 Tanzania Family planning programs/ project
Based on our values and traditions a person to have many children is a sign of richness, the family planning education was very difficult idea to be accepted by many people in our local communities, There are people who believes that every child have his or her our blessings in this world, so a women should reproduce to the last egg. The mortality rate for women was about 5% due to maternal complications. According to culture and customs a women have no chance to say no for sex even to argue or to decide about number of children she is supposed to bare. The trend went along to the decision to use contraceptive or not, the decision maker in the husband in household level while are the men in family and community level. During the community sensitization and through the community members involvement of both men and women, youths and elders, leaders and other gatekeepers, the people changed their attitudes, most of urban people bears children 3-4, while in rural area 4-6 ( Indicator Survey, 2003-2004) compared to 1960 where the average number of children for a family was 8- 10. Growth of population goes hand with hand and diminishing of resources and hence blocks the strategies of poverty reduction.

3.6 Female Genital Mutilation in Dodoma
Dodoma as one among several regional which were practising the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) about 80% is now reduced less than 4% compared to early 1970s. The laws and legislation set by the Government in 1980s was not really showed the great impact according to the assessment conducted in 2002 with AFNET. The recommendation given by the researcher to conduct training in the communities which practices FGM became very useful, the different groups were organized and trained against this culture i.e. Traditional circumcisers, key gate keepers, adult women, young women, men, teachers, health providers, religious leaders e.t.c. Through community participation the community members were able to discuss the cause and effects of FGM and set by laws against it and its very successful. Therefore community participation can enhance culture and behaviour change.


4.0 POLICY REVIEW

4.1 The decision making policy
In order to have effective participation, the community should avoid loss participation, in decision making the poor people can be involved the same as wealthy people.
Community participation has the potential to remake our system of governance in more democratic image. But we are not yet a not there yet and we must gasper any opportunity we have to realize that potential and its contribution toward poverty reduction, we should rethink about it and stop promising too much basing on unrealistic assumptions about people’s propensity to join committees in great numbers. All community members have equal chance to be selected regardless the sex. Position, education, or religious. The Tanzania Government should be congratulated for opening up our system of local governance to community involvement and for creating many more opportunities for people to have a say or over services in their area are run. The main challenge is how to make most of what we have got through community participation such as in health and education through policies and practices which will liberate more people from poverty and for among the community members to be committed to be agents of social change.

4.2 The development policy
The community development policy gives guidance on how communities will be helped to build their capacity to implement their responsibilities. The policy also states clearly the responsibilities of different concerned parties in speeding up community development in the country. The major objective of the Community Development policy is to enable Tanzanians as an individuals or in their families and /or groups or associations to contribute more to the government objectives of self reliance and therefore bring about development at all levels and finally have a remarkable national growth.
Poverty reduction Policy as explained in PRSP the government of Tanzania there are several policies related to women development and HIV prevention e.g. Health policy (1990) in Tanzania, its main objective is to improve the health and well-being of all Tanzanians, with a focus on those on most at risk and to encourage the health system to be more responsive to the need of the people.. Reduce infant maternal morbidity and increase the expectancy through the provision of education and equitable and child health services promotion and adequate nutrition, control of communicable diseases and treatment of common conditions.
Community participation is crucial strategy to implement the policies and fulfill the National vision

5.0 MY OWN DISCUSIION
The Government has made a significant investment in community participation on the back of evidence suggesting that it builds stronger networks between people who live in the same neighbourhood.The major challenges are the scarcity of resources. The development workers should make community participation effective. The effective participation requires building on existing resources to improve the quality of public services. Also to make the services as close to the community as possible such as health services, water services. The development workers with the community members should make good plan e.g community action plan, for incorporating various aspect to work for. Also the most important part is reporting feedback. The community should be informed the progress of any project including transparency in financial matters.

6.0 CONCLUSION
Community participation is an important tool in any development strategy or any poverty reduction strategy. The community members can be facilitated by stressing the tangible benefit to be gained, commitment or obligation toward improving community, the community members should be provided better knowledge for satisfactory results.
Lastly community participation can no stand on its own to enhance poverty reduction should also go with other tools such as social capital, social inclusion, community organizing e.t.c

7.0 REFERENCES

1. Bunting, S. and Lewis R (2006) Participatory planning in Urban and Peri-urban aquaculture development in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India; Centre for Environment and Society; University of Essex

2. Burkey, S. (1993) People Fist: A guide to self-reliant participatory rural development; Zed Books, London

3. FAO (1992) Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century. IDS Discussion Paper 296. Brighton: IDS. (Pp.7-8)

4. http://www.Unesco.org/most/asia 12.htm

5. Mansuri G. and Rao V. (2004) Making Community – Based – driven development more effective; A critical Review; International NGO Training and Research Centre

6. MOST clearing House. Poverty alleviation through community participation UBSP, India

7. Norman, R. J (200) USDA Rural Development Office of Community Development. How people Power Brings sustainable benefits to communities.

8. Ohio State University Fact Sheet- Community Development citizen participation in community development.
9. Rahnema, M. (1992) ‘Participation’ in Sachs, W. (ed) The Development Dictionary Zed Books
10. Rondolph, B. (1999) new framework for community participation. Why partnership matters. University of Western Sydney.
11. Rowntree, J. (2005) Community participation, skidmore, P. et .al. Home Street. New York
NEEMA WELLU NSALLU
MSc. CED Student