Enhancing participation through rural self-help structures in KwaZulu - the case of a bureaucratic public institution

Ndlovu, Baby E C

Enhancing participation through rural self-help structures in KwaZulu - the case of a bureaucratic public institution

Master Thesis

1987

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore, analyse and evaluate the aided self-help organizations in rural KwaZulu for their potential role as structures for enhancing people participation. The objective was to generate policy guidelines for agencies involved in participative development programmes in rural Third World environments - particularly the large public institutions. It selects two sectors, the co-operative development and the school committee systems as models. The study, which uses a combination of data gathering methods and ideographic descriptions starts by looking into the possible constrain and facilitators of participation within the agency structure itself and narrows down to the situation at the field level in a selected case study. The main problems in the KwaZulu bureaucracy are first, the absence of clearly defined operational policies that link the front line services and the community on the one hand, and the policy goals and the mission of the agency and the front line field practitioners on the other hand. There is also a general lack of consistency between the mission of the agency and the contents of the personnel appraisal and evaluation tools and processes and hence – lack of commitment to goals and/or goals' displacement. At the field level, some valuable components of the system were found. Important among these are the effectiveness of the community programmes in developing the innovativeness and initiative spirit among the members of the communities. These resulted in a shift in power relationships from the promoters to the community. Also valuable is the feeling of satisfaction derived from practical and material involvement in the development of public goods by the community. The rural communities are also capable of generating their own effective co-ordinative and communication systems and reject strategies introduced from outside to replace them. Although the financial capacity appears to be a major constraint, the community does not view it as a priority. Control seems to be correlating with payment and therefore, ownership. However, there is a need for “hard aid” to increase the community organizations economic and social capacity to perform. There are also some serious intangible costs intrinsic in the present methods of granting aid. Instead of closing the regional, inter-district and inter-family development gaps, they tend to perpetuate the problem. This is caused by equal access to aid by all areas and also the tying of aid with ability to generate own resources. Strategies are finally recommended to improve the situation. These relate to facilitating communication within the agency and the upgrading of communities through information motivation, and allowing them additional roles and status.

Keywords

social planning

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