APPROACHES AND EXPERIENCES OF INTEGRATED

LOCAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT:

REGIONAL SYNTHESIS PAPER

Prachanda Pradhan Tokyo, April 27, 2000

Introduction

•  The experiences of community development in Asian Productivity Organization (APO) members countries are rich.

•  Different approaches and strategies are followed in these countries to address the problem of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the local community to let them take responsibility to manage their affairs.

•  Reflecting the diversities in the region, the selection of the projects by the national experts for survey are also varied.

Table shows the types of ILCD selected for survey among these different countries.

Countries Type of ILCD

1. Rural Infrastructure Projects for ILCD

China, Indonesia, Korea Nepal, Vietnam

2. Income Generating Projects, Micro-credit programs

India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand

3. Rural Enterprises through Cooperatives

Iran and Japan

4. Social Development Projects

Philippines, Pakistan

Hanoi workshop: broad agreement on framework for ILCD survey in participating

countries

Objectives & Scope of survey

The objectives of the survey of ILCD conducted by the national experts in respective APO countries are;

•  Identify key factors for the success of community development.

•  Analyze the inter-linkages between a participatory planning process and capacity building of the community.

Methodology used for the preparation of syntheses paper

General characteristics of the participating countries

130

Ban

glad

esh

----

- 22.

1 C

hina

1000 India

209

Ind

ones

ia

68

Iran

127

Jap

an

47

Kor

ea

23 M

alay

sia

2.5

Mon

golia

23 N

epal

138

Pak

ista

n

76

Phi

lippi

nes

19

Sri L

anka

63

Tha

iland

80

Vie

tnam

( in million )

Population

Per Capita Income $2

89 B

angl

ades

h

$12,

040

Chi

na

$436

In

dia

$460

In

done

sia$2

,500

Ir

an

$30,340 Japan

$6,8

10

Kor

ea

$3,0

92

Mal

aysia

$396

M

ongo

lia

$225

N

epal

$492

Pa

kist

an

$907

Ph

ilipp

ines

$827

Sr

i Lan

ka

$1,8

50

Thai

land

$310

V

ietn

am

Urban Population

21%Vietnam

36%Thailand

23%Sri Lanka

57% Philippines

35% Pakistan

14% Nepal

62% Mongolia

Malaysia56%

Korea84%

Japan79%

Iran 61%

India 28%

China 58%Bangladesh

20%

Indonesia 38%

Rural Population

Vietnam79%

Thailand64%

Sri Lanka77%Philippines

43%

Pakistan 65%

Nepal 86%

Mongolia 38%

Malaysia 44% 62% Indonesia

72% India

42% China

80% Bangladesh

39% Iran21%Japan

Korea 16%

Literacy Level

Vietnam 92%

Thailand 94%

Sri Lanka 90%

Philippines 94%

27%Nepal

95%Mongolia

94%Malaysia

97% Korea

100% Japan

68% Iran

84% Indonesia

India52%

China84.4%

Bangladesh38%

Pakistan 37%

Population Growth

Bangladesh2.2%

1.0% China

1.9% India

1.6% Indonesia

3.4% Iran

0.3% Japan

0.9% Korea2.4%Malaysia

1.7%Mongolia

Nepal 2.3%

Pakistan 2.6%

Philippines 2.3%

Sri Lanka 1.2%

Thailand 1.5% Vietnam 2.3%

Life Expectancy 58

Ban

glad

esh

75 C

hina

----

----

----

--- 5

2 In

dia

65 I

ndon

esia

70 I

ran

80 J

apan

72 K

orea

72 M

alay

sia

65 M

ongo

lia

57 N

epal

63 P

akist

an

67 P

hilip

pine

s

73 S

ri L

anka

69 T

haila

nd

68 V

ietn

am

Table: Political Characteristics of the surveyed countries

Country Structure System of Government

Head of the Government

Head of the State

Bangladesh Parliamentary Prime

Minister President Unitary

China Presidential Unitary President President

India Federal Parliamentary Prime

Minister President

Indonesia Presidential President President Federal

Iran Unitary Presidential President President

Japan Unitary Parliamentary Prime

Minister King

Korea Unitary Presidential President President

Parliamentary Prime

Minister King Federal Malaysia

Mongolia Unitary Presidential President President

Philippines Federal Presidential President President

Thailand Unitary Parliamentary Prime

Minister King

Sri Lanka Unitary Presidential President President

Nepal Unitary Parliamentary Prime

Minister King

Pakistan President Federal Parliamentary Prime

Minister

Vietnam Parliamentary Prime

Minister President Unitary

PERCEPTION OF APO COUNTRIES ON ILCD, POVERTY, PARTICIPATION AND CAPACITY

Integrated Local Community Development

Among survey programs from 15 countries, the perception on ILCD are different. The important components of ILCD are;

•  social, economic and cultural development projects at the village level;

•  decentralization giving authority to local agencies and people's associations for planning and resource allocation based on local community need.

•  assistance to locally initiated development plans with finance and facilities and such development plans are based on self-help approach.

•  involvement of the local community in the centrally planned program.

•  it also refers the improvement of productivity and quality of life in the local community.

•  undertaking responsibility of local development through self-help mechanism.

•  active participation of the local people for development along with their initiative for implementation.

•  promotion of group as a community which will be organized as cooperative in order to undertake welfare components effecting to all members of the community.

Poverty

Poverty is defined in term of •  deprivation of opportunities, •  inability to meet even the minimum basic

need prescribed by the government, •  inaccessibility of resources and •  extremely limited opportunities to make

choice.

Participation

The components of participation are; •  collective effort by the people •  people's involvement in problem analysis,

project design, research,testing and implementation.

•  sharing work and benefit

•  self-help tradition is an other form of participation at the community level

•  making choice by the local residents in the broad framework prepared by the central government

•  labor or resource contribution to the centrally proposed project at the local level is considered as participation

•  participation creates opportunity to take initiative for involvement resulting into community empowerment

•  sharing of benefits by the members of the community through their active involvement in decision-making and implementation

Capability/Capacity

Capability is defined in different ways. They include:

•  the accessibility of information, new technology, resources (financial and material),

•  skill and knowledge development and •  strengthening the sustainability of the

institution and organizations.

Types of ILCD Projects surveyed in APO countries

These ILCD projects can be broadly categorized as

•  Rural infrastructure projects •  Income generating projects •  Rural Enterprises through Cooperatives •  Social Development Projects.

Focus of many of these ILCD projects has been

•  poverty alleviation, •  empowerment of poor people, •  formation of self-help groups, •  family income generation, •  social awareness creation.

These ILCD projects have incorporated multiple components like

•  income generation, •  rural infrastructure improvement, •  technical skill development, •  environment improvement, and •  social and cultural development.

It is interesting to note that the implementing agencies for ILCD are different. •  Government agency like Ministry of Rural

Development, Ministry of Construction, etc. •  NGO implemented projects like in Pakistan

& Iran. •  Consultant implemented projects like in

Indonesia.

•  Some of the projects are of the national coverage and other projects are confined to the village level.

•  Hence, the size, area and population coverage are also different.

National Level Approach on ILCD

•  The national level approach on ILCD also differs from country to country.

•  In some country, rural poverty alleviation is equated with ILCD program.

•  In other country, social awareness generation among the rural population is considered the ILCD.

•  In other countries the rural infrastructure development is considered as the ILCD.

•  In most of those countries surveyed, rural development is in the agenda of the government.

Relation between Central Agency and Local Agency

•  Broad framework of Rural Development is provided by the national agency.

•  Along with the broad framework of the ILCD program, national budget is also allocated to the program.

•  The national agency makes effort to mobilize the internal as well as external resources.

•  However, ILCD is not only the responsibility of the national agency alone.

•  It has now contributions from the local agency, people's organization and non-governmental organizations.

•  In some case, the NGO has been active for the implementation of the program.

•  In other place, the consultant took the responsibility of project implementation.

•  It is necessary to strike a good balance among the contributions of the national agency, local agency and NGOs.

Local Institutions and its contributions

•  Majority of the survey reports have shown the important role played by local agencies, in the form of people's organization, locally elected agency or local NGOs and CBOs.

•  Wherever the responsibilities of the local agencies are clear in relation to ILCD implementation, the implementation of ILCD programs have become effective. The impact was visible.

Description of the Surveyed Projects

•  Effort is made to look at the survey projects from four important components.

•  They are general description of the project, project impact as reported in the survey report, integration among agencies and policies and reasons for success and failure.

Social Mobilization Process for ILCD

•  In the community development program, it is assumed that the community members have to play active role.

•  In many cases, bottom up approach, decentralization, participation make it necessary that the community members become the center of ILCD activities.

In order to mobilize the effective role of the people, two strategies are followed. They are;

•  group formation like users group, self-help group, community groups, women group.

•  to employ the catalyst/ social mobilizer for the group formation and make them active.

•  Among the survey reports, it is noticed that in many ILCD survey, group formation was taken as strategy for the implementation of ILCD activities.

•  Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka are the examples.

Social Mobilizers / Catalysts

•  Two types of social mobilizers are identified.

•  One type of social mobilizer was employed by the government department for people's mobilization.

•  The other type of social mobilizer is employed by NGO and consulting agency.

•  Such employed social mobilizer seems to be effective and active as compared to the government employed one.