Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
DEFINTITION OF KEY TERMS 3
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE LIFE OF A PROJECT IN THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 3
THE CONTACT MAKING PHASE 5
THE INITIATION PHASE 9
THE PLANNING PHASE 13
THE IMPLIMENTATION PHASE 18
MONITORING AND EVALUATION 19
CONCLUSION 24
REFERENCES 25
INTRODUCTION
Good community development is action that helps people to recognize and develop their ability and potential and organize themselves to respond to problems and needs which they share. This is usually achieved through community development projects, in which there is active participation of the people in all the phases of the project cycle. These phases include the initiation, planning, implementation and evaluation of a project. It is the intention of this paper to critically examine the life of a project in the context of community development. The approach used in this paper is of looking at each of the phases of the project life cycle separately and also to discuss how they are correlated in a continuous process.
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
A project is defined as a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end - constrained by time, funding or deliverables, undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value (Enriquez; 2003). It is an individual or collaborative enterprise planned and designed to achieve an aim.
Community development is a structured intervention that gives communities greater control over the conditions that affect their lives. It is the process of increasing the strength and effectiveness of communities, improving people’s quality of life, and enabling people to participate in decision making to achieve greater long term control over their lives (Chambers; 2003: 03).
A community development project will therefore not only lead to the achievement of certain objectives, but also
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