What Is the Importance of Community Development?

Community-Driven Development, CDD in English

Community-led development

In short, it is:

Local communities can collectively decide what efforts are needed to improve local living conditions

Local community self-managed project development fund to manage the implementation of development activities to ensure that local needs are met

Although CDD can provide local communities with opportunities to participate in planning and decision-making, as a service provider, local government agencies have a crucial role in the successful implementation of CDD projects, and can contribute to the technical and financial feasibility of project proposals submitted by the community. Provide guidance to the parties, provide the required services to the project community in a timely manner, and conduct formal supervision and inspection of the project implementation in various forms.

Broaden the scope of local residents' participation in development activities, empower communities with direct management rights, and local communities determine development priorities, manage funds, and implement projects.

(1) Give project decision-making power to the community.

(2) Give control of funds to the community.

(3) Establish an open and transparent publicity and complaint mechanism.

(4) Establish a service system to provide support to the community.

(5) Explore ways to improve the capacity of community organizations through the implementation process.

The experience provided by CDD projects is growing, especially in Asia and

Basic situation of community-led development

In order to introduce internationally successful community-led development methods to China's poverty alleviation development, the World Bank used the Japanese Social Development Fund grants to cooperate with the Foreign Project Management Center of the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Office in Guangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. ) Carry out community-led development pilot projects. Through the implementation of this project, we will explore community-led poverty alleviation and development methods, further improve China's poverty alleviation and development mechanism, and improve the efficiency of poverty alleviation and development.

On May 31, 2006, the Community-led Development Pilot Project (CDD Project) jointly launched by the Foreign Project Management Center of the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Office and the World Bank was officially launched in Nanning, Guangxi, marking a new exploration of China's new mechanism for poverty reduction and development progress. The CDD project has a total investment of about 48 million yuan for poverty alleviation and development work in 60 key poor villages in Guangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia. It is estimated that 100,000 people will benefit from it.

What community-led development includes

The Foreign Investment Project Management Center of the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Office will cooperate with the World Bank on the design and implementation of the CDD pilot project. The project implementation is expected to start in May 2006 and be completed in August 2008. It will cover four project counties (districts, flags) 60 key poor villages (15 villages in each project county) are expected to benefit about 100,000 people. Project counties (districts and flags) include: Jingxi County (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Jialing District (Sichuan Province), Baishui County (Shaanxi Province), Wengniute Banner (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region)

The overall goal of this project is to explore whether the CDD model in China can provide poor communities with the capabilities and resources necessary to improve their production and living conditions. The specific objectives of the project are: to improve the community's small infrastructure and public services; to improve environmental conditions or improve the community's ability to manage natural resources; to set up a community turnover fund to provide loans to farmers on a sustainable basis; to strengthen community organization and financial management And local event implementation capabilities; strengthening the capacity of local governments to provide timely, responsive and transparent services

The project is expected to invest 48 million yuan (approximately US $ 6 million), of which about 33% will be provided by the Japanese government, and the remaining funds will be arranged from the central government's poverty alleviation funds, or at the provincial, district or county level. Government support.

Community-led development funding activities

This pilot project will fund the project community in three types of activities to remove the main obstacles to improving living standards in many impoverished areas.

The small infrastructure and public service improvement sub-project will provide funding for small infrastructure renovation projects in the community. Under this sub-project, except for a few activities that are explicitly prohibited, harmful to the environment or society, or illegal activities, the community can choose any activity that can benefit the community as a whole, such as: local roads or bridges; drinking water conditions or irrigation facilities; electricity Or telecommunications facilities; community health care stations or health care services; admission requirements, teaching materials, or training conditions

The natural resource management and environmental improvement sub-project will provide a small amount of funds to improve the environment. Environmental issues and poverty are often closely linked in China, and this pilot project recognizes this. Setting a separate environmental category in the project can encourage poor communities to collectively respond to resource degradation or other environmental issues. Throughout the world, there is almost no experience in solving environmental problems with the CDD model, so it is difficult to predict what type of project proposal villagers will prepare. Here, villagers can still suggest any activities that are not explicitly prohibited. The contents of this subproject may include: measures to reduce fuelwood consumption, such as promoting alternative fuel sources (such as biogas) or increasing the use of energy-saving stoves; local reforestation or soil erosion control activities; improving environmental sanitation conditions , Strengthen solid waste disposal; training in environmental knowledge and environmental awareness.

The Community Development Fund sub-project will provide funds to the natural villages participating in the project. Villagers will collectively set up and manage a working capital fund to provide loans to farmers. With this sub-project, farmers will have the opportunity to obtain small loans to engage in income-generating activities, while also strengthening local financial management capabilities. Villagers in natural villages make their own rules and procedures for managing funds, granting loans, recovering loans, and maintaining fund accounts. The principles of this pilot project require that each natural village participating in the project give priority to poor households and female household heads of loans.

How community-led development works

The three items funded by this project have certain differences in business procedures, and in many cases, these procedures are determined by the participating communities themselves. Overall, the project includes the following major steps:

The initial stage is community preparation. Community preparation must be completed before the project participating villages get project funding. At this stage, community coordinators must be selected and trained. Participating communities need to understand the content of the project and its goals. Villagers in natural villages should select the members of the project management team, and representatives of the newly formed project management team should join the administrative village Project decision-making committee. After the community preparation is completed, the project community can start the project cycle, which includes the following steps:

Step 1: Identify key needs. Convened villagers' meetings in natural villages to discuss the list of priority projects for community development in accordance with the conditions of the village and existing poverty alleviation plans, and determine the projects to be submitted.

Step 2: Prepare a proposal. With the help of the facilitator, the Natural Village Project Implementation Team prepared the project proposal.

Step 3: Preliminary selection of proposals. The administrative village project management committee determines priority project activities based on the decision-making process adopted.

Step 4: Screening and review. The county project office coordinates the relevant county and township business departments or personnel to conduct technical and feasibility reviews of the two projects to be funded.

Step 5: Finalize the proposal. Held the second meeting of villagers in natural villages to discuss amendments to project proposals, as well as discussions on labor and project implementation.

Step 6: Pay the funds. Funds are paid to the dedicated account of the Natural Village Project Implementation Team, and villagers or contractors hired to start the project.

Step 7: Monitoring. County project office and community assistants guide and supervise the implementation of the project.

Step 8: Mid-term review. The review included financial management and technical implementation. Project villages that meet the requirements of the project rules will be eligible to start the next phase of the project cycle. (Under this project, the small infrastructure renovation and service improvement sub-projects will have three cycles, while the natural resource management and environmental improvement sub-projects will have two cycles. Villagers participating in the project will determine the frequency of funding of community development funds by themselves. However, the project will provide seed funding in two phases.)

Community-led development draws lessons

This CDD pilot project is an experiment based on "learning by doing". Because this experiment may have a broad and far-reaching impact on China's poverty alleviation projects, it is important to establish appropriate methods and learn from experience.

In addition to the standard project monitoring conducted by the county government and project inspections conducted by the Foreign Project Management Center of the State Council's Poverty Alleviation Office and the World Bank, this pilot project also includes the following tasks:

The community facilitator regularly compiles monitoring reports based on the project procedures on the basis of close cooperation with villagers.

Carry out participatory monitoring. With this monitoring, community representatives have the opportunity to compare the experience and results of their own communities with those of other villages. Regularly audit the use of project funds.

Regularly report complaints or complaints about the project and steps taken to resolve them.

At the end of project implementation, relevant experiences, lessons learned, and suggestions for improving practices should be included in the evaluation study report for the entire project.

The potential of community-led development in China

As the goal of this pilot project is completely consistent with the fundamental requirements of the Chinese government for building a new socialist countryside, it is not only conducive to improving the villagers' ability of self-government and democratic decision-making, but also to building a harmonious socialist society and achieving the sustainable development goals. Promoting local governments and departments to provide more effective services to poor communities and the poor in a new way of working is also conducive to the transformation of government functions and the establishment of a service-oriented government. Therefore, we can be confident that this pilot project will help the poor in China in the new stage. The development work provides a valuable reference, which strongly promotes the implementation of the scientific development concept in poor areas and the construction of a new socialist countryside. At the same time, some other central agencies and some provincial government agencies have also expressed their intention to apply CDD-based methods to other rural and urban projects.

Community-led development partners

The support and funding provided by external partners has greatly benefited this pilot project:

The US $ 2 million funding provided by the Japanese government can help pay for some of the project's costs and can also greatly encourage local governments to arrange matching funds.

Three international NGOs with extensive experience in promoting participatory development in China provide training support for project implementation and community preparation. They are Action Aid, Plan International, and World Vision ).

Oxfam Hong Kong provided valuable support during the project design phase and will continue to support the independent monitoring and evaluation of the project.