Reconstructing Community Development
Correspondent | Monday January 23, 2017 16:31
Local communities are strengthened by networks of social and economic connections, involving both public and private community service providers and a wide range of community based organisations.
Villages and less populated areas show have a comparative advantage such that interactions of the masses and the government departments is close thus enabling individuals and community-based organisations and government departments to collaborate, partner and harness the power of bottom-up approach to economic, social and political development.
This article is dedicated to showing that people centred development can be best championed at a local government level, particularly in villages and marginalised settlement.
Arguments, illustration and motions will be limited to villages because I am a resident of a village classified as rural settlement called Machaneng and if anything were to happen it would have to start with my ghetto.
The way things are, there is less economic activity in villages consequently triggering rural-urban migration and the outcome is bad enough to stagnate Botswana’s aggregate economic growth.
Increasing urban unemployment rates poses a great human security threat of late. Civil unrests that activate ‘springs’ are now popular than ever in areas where the urban majority directly suffers from the aftermaths of crowding and less economic opportunities.
The dynamics of an economic system that does not have proper and efficient village development strategies and institutions to implement those strategies at a village level threatens not only the economic set-up but peace and tranquillity that the Republic of Botswana is known for.
Assessing the issue broadly, it is not only the village setup that needs to be reconstructed, the whole local government system fails to maximise on the potential of local communities as autonomous economic bodies with the ability to spark economic activity. As things are, Local governments’ budgets are mainly financed by the central government and one may argue even decision making is highly centralised.
The need to reconstruct structures at village level to stimulate locally- based economic growth is indispensable, considering the fact that currently there are limited developments initiated by local groups and/or local government departments in villages. For illustration purposes, let me use Machaneng as an example. Except for the Village Development Committee (VDC)’s estate rented out as resident hostels, there is nothing that can be put to paper that signifies the contribution of the village development initiatives.
Aggregate economic growth that is not based on the assumptions of a faulty economics gauge (GDP) could be stimulated by real-not perceived-economic activities in Machaneng, Sefhare, Mathako, Lecheng or any other settlement economically autonomous from cities and mining towns where village-based development initiatives are collectively fabricated.
Partnerships/collaborations of all stakeholders in villages present a window of economic growth and diversified economic activities because it is easier to identify local needs, secondly it facilitates flexibility, autonomy and home-grown control of community clusters and enable people to ‘do things’ at a local level to improve their well-being.
It is therefore important for public and private service providers, Tribal Administration, VDCs and other community based organisations to come up with a strategic development plans that are initiated and implemented by local people and create opportunities for sons and daughters of the soil. It is possible and it must be set on the village agenda to harness comparative advantage they wield over crowded cities and mining towns. The need for economic diversification is long overdue, let us all take part.
*Thabiso is a Community Organiser, Research and Development Fellow at Lehika Institute of Economic and Social Development.