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citizen_participation_in_africa

Community-Driven Development (CDD) or Community-Driven Reconstruction (CDR) programmes

This model[1] gives control over planning decisions and investment resources for local development projects to community groups. Through CDD or CDR, poor citizens get organised to identify community priorities and address local problems by working in partnership with local governments and other supportive institutions. CARE has extensive experience to support the establishment of Community or Village Development Councils (CDCs or VDCs) as platforms for marginalised citizens to plan and implement their own development priorities, with funding from the central government and or external donors.

In DRC the Tuungane CDR project is an example.

Tuungane I was a governance and community driven development project that ran from 2007-2010 in three provinces of the DRC, reaching 1,251 communities and over 1.7million people. Its key elements were the creation of Community Development Committees, normally based on the groupings of a number of villages so that each CDC represented a similarly sized population. The elected CDCs were then responsible for developing development plans for their area, prioritising which projects should be financed and then managing the new resource (school, road, water project) in a transparent and equitable manner. Tuungane had a learning by doing approach, with each stage of a five stage process intended to embody values of good governance. The CDCs were voted on, and became accountable to the people for their decisions at general assemblies. CDC decisions were informed by public vote, and CDC members were responsible for the delivery of promised projects. The project sought to embed these principles of good governance at the community level as well as contribute to a growing stability of the region.

Tuungane II built on the first phase, with the addition of North Kivu. New focus areas include, an emphasis on the role of women (50% of committees need to be women); the engagement of the state as the provider of services through three levels of coordination from community, to sector to chefferie level; and a focus on change at village level rather than by grouping several villages into communities. The new key structure is the Village Development Committee (VDC). 5% of the budget is set aside for ‘good governance’ activities, and 10% held back in reserve. This will allow the VDCs to engage with the state beyond the construction element of the project, and indeed the aim is for the VDCs to seek funding for additional development priorities from other INGO and development donors.

progress_report_-_april_to_september_2012.pdf

Community Action Plans

In Ghana, the Community Action Plan is a model used for engaging marginalised citizens to identify and prioritise their collective needs and devise action plans aimed at influencing local development planning. CARE helps ensure District Assemblies’ Medium Term Development Plans better reflect citizens’ priorities in Ghana.

cap_manual.doc

cap_policy_brief_final_version.docx

caps_final_brief_17_05_13.pdf

white_paper_smart_development_final.pdf


[1] A model developed by others, in particular the World Bank (see CDD site, and impact evaluation summary).

citizen_participation_in_africa.txt · Last modified: 2018/12/12 16:38 (external edit)