Starting where the people are: Lessons on community development from a remote Aboriginal Australian setting

This paper analyses a government health department's attemptto implement a community development strategy in a remote AboriginalAustralian community after identifying deficiencies in one ofits health programmes. The reluctance of non-Aboriginal departmentalclinic staff to share control of health decisions with Aboriginalparticipants, together with the deeply embedded power inequalities,undermined the development process and the achievement of projectobjectives. After lengthy critical reflection and supportedby the project team and other community agencies, a group ofcommunity members addressed the priority issue they identifiedwith a community-owned strategy in opposition to health professionals.This study raises questions about the capacity of governmentdepartments to practise community development, particularlygiven the unequal power relations, and their reluctance to sharepower between such departments and marginalized, disadvantagedcommunities.     

Reconstruction in Aceh: Building whose capacity?

One of the dominant themes in development programmes over thelast fifteen years has been a commitment to capacity building.This paper investigates the forms of capacity building in Aceh,Indonesia, since the devastating earthquake and tsunami thathit the province on 26 December 2004. Despite the preferenceof the Acehnese people for reconstruction processes based onthe principles of community development, local people have beenlargely marginalized by both the Indonesian government and theinternational aid and development agencies. The paper suggestssome of the reasons for this marginalization.     

Willing but unable? Extending theory to investigate community capacity to participate in Ghana’s community-based health planning and service implementation

While primary health care programmes based on community participation are widely implemented in low- and middle- income settings, empirical evidence on whether and to what extent local people have the capacity to participate, support and drive such programmes scale up is scant in these countries. This paper assessed the level of community capacity to participate in one such programme – the Community-Based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) in Ghana. The capacity assessments were drawn from Chaskin’s (2001) theorised indicators of community capacity with modifications to include: sense of community; community members commitment; community leadership commitment; problem solving mechanisms; and access to resources. These capacity measures guided the design of an interview guide used to collect data from community informants, frontline health providers (FLP) and district health managers. Key qualitative themes were built into a questionnaire administered to households selected through systematic sampling approach. Findings showed that growing individualism, low trust in neighbours and apathetic behaviours undermined the capacity of mutual support for CHPS. The capacity to support CHPS was high for local leadership and community social mobilisation groups who often dedicated time to working with FLP to promote maternal and reproductive health service use, and in advocating broader support for CHPS. Within the wider community, commitment to voluntarism was low as members perceived CHPS to be owned by, and run on government funds and resources. Poor voluntarism was compounded by poverty that crippled the capacity to provide needed resource support for CHPS. Findings have great implications for building strong capable communities for participation in community oriented health programmes.     

The PALS parenting support programme: lessons learned from the evaluation of processes and outcomes

Although there has recently been a rise in parenting support programmes within the UK, only a minority of these programmes have benefited from evaluation of either outcomes or processes. This paper describes the development of the PALS programme (Parents Altogether Lending Support), reporting both on its effectiveness in improving parents' interactions with their children and on the lessons that were learned about embedding such a programme within the local community. Over the 18‐month period of the programme, a total of 17 courses were run, with 75 parents and carers (primarily mothers) participating in the programme overall. Evaluation results indicated that participants enjoyed the course and found it beneficial, particularly in terms of altering their own actions in specific ways that were able to promote better behaviour on the part of their children. Participants also valued the opportunity to share their experiences with other parents. The key lesson identified in regard to the development of parenting programmes concerned the need for the community to feel a sense of ownership for the initiative. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Editorial

This Issue begins with an article by Glen Laverack in an examinationof visual representations of strategies to build community capacity,which he sees as being closely aligned to the process of communitydevelopment. Drawing upon his experience in Fiji and KyrgyzstanLaverack assessing the value of using visual representationin what he describes as a ‘parallel-track’ approachin relation to capacity building and programme implementation.Laverack argues that the use of visual representations can beespecially beneficial to practitioners and the democratisationof information. Paul Henderson     

Evaluating the engagement of universities in capacity building for sustainable development in local communities

Universities have the potential to play a leading role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working however, sustainable communities may only emerge with facilitation, community learning and continual efforts to build their capacities. Elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are needed. The latter entails approaches and processes that may contribute to community empowerment; universities may either lead such approaches, or be key partners in an endeavour to empower communities to address the challenges posed by the need for sustainable development. Although capacity building and the promotion of sustainable development locally, are on the agenda for universities who take seriously regional engagement, very little is published that illustrates or describes the various forms of activities that take place. Further, there is a paucity of studies that have evaluated the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development at the local level. This paper is an attempt to address this need, and entails an empirical study based on a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The paper examines the extent to which capacity building for sustainable development is being undertaken, suggests the forms that this might take and evaluates some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development; that role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda.     

Can development communication improve urban management?

This paper is attempting to peg-out the particular role of ‘development support communication’ (DSC) for urban management in developing countries, for the interaction or interface between the public, the private, the non-governmental and the community sectors. The aim of this paper is to advocate to urban managers the inclusion of DSC among their management instruments, and in particular during the preparation and implementation of particular programmes and projects. The point is made that DSC will increase the chances for success of development projects and programmes, and that it will help to improve the relationships of urban stakeholders among each other.     

Experiments in evaluation capacity building: Enhancing brain disorders research impact in Ontario

This paper is the introductory paper on a forum on evaluation capacity building for enhancing impacts of research on brain disorders. It describes challenges and opportunities of building evaluation capacity among community-based organizations in Ontario involved in enhancing brain health and supporting people living with a brain disorder. Using an example of a capacity building program called the “Evaluation Support Program”, which is run by the Ontario Brain Institute, this forum discusses multiple themes including evaluation capacity building, evaluation culture and evaluation methodologies appropriate for evaluating complex community interventions. The goal of the Evaluation Support Program is to help community-based organizations build the capacity to demonstrate the value that they offer in order to improve, sustain, and spread their programs and activities. One of the features of this forum is that perspectives on the Evaluation Support Program are provided by multiple stakeholders, including the community-based organizations, evaluation team members involved in capacity building, thought leaders in the fields of evaluation capacity building and evaluation culture, and the funders.     

Building Capacity for Local Governance: An Application of Interactional Theory to Developing a Community of Interest*

Abstract The Emory‐Obed Watershed in Tennessee, like many other rural areas throughout the United States, is experiencing changes in economic activities and social values associated with natural resources. Informed by the interactional approach to community development, this effort strove to build community capacity so community members could more fully govern their life according to their values and interests. We utilized key informant and focus group interviews to gain information about the watershed and to obtain different perspectives on resource‐related issues. Data from key informant interviews led to the selection of a geographic community in which a community of interest was nurtured throughout a year involving monthly meetings, a community assessment and submission of a development grant application. It was found that gaining entry into the community and building trust among participants, and between participants and researchers, were critical in this in‐place participatory community research. Lessons drawn from this experience applicable to similar efforts are discussed.     

Building Capacity and Capability for Evaluating the Outcomes of Social Work Education (the OSWE Project): Creating a Culture Change

This paper describes and analyses the first year of a three‐year project in the UK to build capacity and capability in evaluating the outcomes of social work education. A facilitated action learning set was established for six university social work programmes, involving in different ways academic, practice, service user and carer educators, who met to develop research projects focussed on measuring the outcomes of social work education. We outline the genesis of the project, and discuss the context in terms of both pedagogic research and social work education. We describe the activities undertaken in its first year, including the evaluation strategy. Some emerging findings are presented concerning the levels of learning outcomes being assessed; the role of the evaluator; the importance of engaging colleagues and students; service user and carer participation; and the positive features of the learning set. Plans for the remaining two years are outlined, including the piloting of outcome measures. Finally we reframe the model as it emerged in practice, extracting key elements for capacity building.     

The theory of change of the evaluation support program: Enhancing the role of community organizations in providing an ecology of care for neurological disorders

This paper discusses the Ontario Brain Institute’s theory of change for the Evaluation Support Program, a program designed to enhance the role of community organizations in providing care and services for people living with a brain disorder. This is done by helping community organizations build evaluation capacity and foster the use of evidence to inform their activities and services. Helping organizations to build capacities to track the ‘key ingredients’ of their successes will help ensure that successes are replicated and services can be improved to maximize the benefit that people receive from them. This paper describes the hypothesized outcomes and early impacts of the Evaluation Support Program, as well as how the program will contribute to the field of evaluation capacity building.     

Empowering rural women through a community development approach in Nepal

This paper explores a community development strategy to empowerrural women through educational and small-scale household economicactivities. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methodswere used to assess the impact of a community development projectlaunched in a remote hill district of Nepal. Focusing on twoproject components, the paper concludes that a functional literacyprogramme is a good start, which has revealed its dynamism withpractical extensions in a post-literacy period. On the otherhand, group savings and credit programmes provide the drivingforce to help illiterate rural women start small-scale economicactivities that are effective in absorbing the female workforcein these communities. Community development programmes shouldbe ready to meet changing needs of the target population tomake them truly self-reliant after the completion of the project.     

Latino youth participation in community-based participatory research to reduce teen pregnancy disparities

BackgroundCommunity-based participatory research can provide a framework to build community capacity to do health equity research, particularly from community members who may not typically participate in research design and intervention.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a community-based coalition's partnership and engagement with Latino youth throughout the research process addressing health disparities in unintended teen pregnancy rates in a local community. Israel and colleagues' components of CBPR provide a framework to develop youth participation throughout the research process.MethodHigh school and college Latino youth participated in health equity research from community assessments to design an intervention and dissemination of results.ResultsWorking with youth can improve the integrity and validity of the research process and can also provide benefits to the community and individual youth members, resulting in increased community capacity for health equity research.DiscussionLessons learned about the direct and indirect benefits and challenges are presented. Community-based partnerships working with youth should consider documenting the individual and collective impact of community engagement on the youth from the onset of participation.     

A Critical View on the Role of NGOs in Systemic Capacity Building: Insights from Projects for Promoting Access to Water and Self-sufficiency in Food Production in Northern Ghana

The paper takes the example of Northern Ghana with its inadequate provision of basic social infrastructure for exploring the ability of NGOs to provide effective capacity building. It examines if NGOs have sufficient understanding and knowledge for operations and if their philosophy and objectives are enough to enable judgment and lasting successes. Weaknesses and strengths of NGOs are investigated as they still are indispensable organizations for developing backward areas, especially for fostering sustainable rural community development. It is shown that the theoretical framework of ‘landscape development' applies best to analyse how the many simultaneous transformations occur in this context and how they connect. A succinct impact study is exhibited in the paper to demonstrate how some of these effects come about. The survey regards World Vision, an international NGO that has been active in Ghana for a long time.     

Where Do We Stand? Testing the Foundation of a Shared Site Intergenerational Program

Abstract

Shared site intergenerational care programs provide ongoing services simultaneously to old and young community members at a single facility, thereby, meeting the care needs of multiple generations. However, they face the challenge of sustainability common to all community-based programs. We employed the results management model to identify program elements that may enhance or inhibit sustainability of intergenerational programming at a shared site facility involving a child development lab school and adult day services program. The 4-step results management approach is a strengths-based model that supports community capacity and achievement of community and program goals. The current paper describes the first step in the results management approach, mapping the terrain, which involves gathering evidence of community needs and strengths. Focus groups were conducted with eleven staff members from both programs after a 4-month intergenerational program. The focus groups targeted the needs and strengths related to intergenerational programming. Respondents identified strengths that enhanced staff members' and clients' capacity for collaboration. These included affective and developmental benefits for both generations and strong partnerships between staff members. Respondents also identified factors that limited collaboration, such as the need for greater authority support and cross-training opportunities. Findings from our study have been used by program administrators to continue using the results management approach to further build intergenerational community and expand the scope of evaluating intergenerational shared site programs. Other intergenerational programs may utilize the results management model to enhance intergenerational programming and increase program sustainability.     

Prevention programmes for youth gambling: a review of the empirical evidence

This paper critically reviews the existing literature on the effectiveness of gambling prevention programmes for youth. Two categories of preventive strategies, all universal and most school-based, are presented: gambling-specific prevention programmes and gambling and related skills workshops. The age of the participants across the different studies varied from 9 to 20 years. Results show that programmes in both categories are generally effective in reducing misconceptions and increasing knowledge about gambling. However, a lack of long-term follow-ups and of behavioural measures makes it difficult to draw any clear conclusions about the effectiveness of such programmes. Recommendations are presented to improve the development and evaluation of future prevention programmes for youth gambling.     

“Trees Die From the Top”: International Perspectives on NGO Leadership Development

This paper examines the role of leadership development in NGO capacity building and assesses some of the challenges of developing a new generation of NGO leaders. The paper draws on the analysis of new and existing research into the dimensions of NGO leadership highlighting the importance of both individual attributes and contextual relevance. Effective NGO leaders are able to balance a range of competing pressures from different stakeholders in ways that do not compromise their individual identity and values. Leadership development programmes therefore need to focus on both the values and identity of individual leaders while also assisting leaders understand and proactively respond to their rapidly changing external environment. We conclude that there is an urgent need to build the capacity of NGOs to develop their leadership capability. Unless systems and processes to support this work are put in place then the apocryphal warning trees die from the top will have more than a ring of truth in it.     

Empowerment evaluation: An approach that has literally altered the landscape of evaluation

The quest for credible and actionable evidence to improve decision making, foster improvement, enhance self-determination, and promote social betterment is now a global phenomenon. Evaluation theorists and practitioners alike have responded to and overcome the challenges that limited the effectiveness and usefulness of traditional evaluation approaches primarily focused on seeking rigorous scientific knowledge about social programs and policies. No modern evaluation approach has received a more robust welcome from stakeholders across the globe than empowerment evaluation.Empowerment evaluation has been a leader in the development of stakeholder involvement approaches to evaluation, setting a high bar. In addition, empowerment evaluation’s respect for community knowledge and commitment to the people’s right to build their own evaluation capacity has influenced the evaluation mainstream, particularly concerning evaluation capacity building. Empowerment evaluation’s most significant contributions to the field have been to improving evaluation use and knowledge utilization.     

Promoting economic development amongst rural communities

Various attempts at rural community economic development in the west of Ireland are reported and analysed in this paper. The efforts of one particularly interesting rural community to establish a knitters' co-operative are reported on in the first part of the article and a variety of initiatives undertaken by twelve other communities under the auspices of a Community Enterprise Programme operated by the Shannon Free Airport Development Company are then examined. The total set of experiences provides valuable insights into what communities can do to promote local development and the manner in which this task might best be undertaken. The development of community capacity to function effectively on a self-help basis over a protracted period is identified as a necessary precondition for the establishment of successful community business.     

The Role of Nonprofit Management Support Organizations in Sustaining Community Collaborations

This articles uses case studies to explore the theory that nonprofit management support organizations (MSOs) should consider taking on the role of convener and facilitator of community collaborations. They can do this work by facilitating planning and change and providing data to inform decisions about how to improve communities. In acting as a community support organization, their primary mission would be to build the capacity of all sectors to work together to solve social problems rather than simply to build the management capacity of individual nonprofit organizations.