Promoting Voice and Agency in Community Development Processes

Abstract

While community development is defined variously, there is consensus that it is a process of collectively working to improve the living standards of the members as democratically agreed upon by them. The ultimate goal being to have communities be able to control their destiny, by being able to make choices and enlarge the range of opportunities available to better their lives. Evidence suggests that boosting shared prosperity demand that all people have the opportunity to realize their potential and participate fully in all aspects of life (World Bank, 2012). However—the premise is that—the voice and agency of each individual in the community should count. However, voice and agency does not always happen, due to many reasons, including asymmetrical power relations in communities; communities are not always homogeneous; gender power asymmetry because of ideology (patriarchy); social stratification; Socio economic status; systemic issues; rigid bureaucratic systems in development agencies; time-framed development programming that reduce community participation into a series of events—rather than a process; vulnerability of communities (poverty, ethnic and racial minority status); power asymmetry between communities and community development practitioner; and even elite capture. Community development is interventionist. Community development practitioners have to work with marginalized and communities at risk of exclusion and ensure community empowerment, so that individuals and communities can speak for themselves and have control over what happens to them and their spaces. This calls for a structured community engagement process—where community development practitioners work collaboratively with and through groups of people (community)—to address issues affecting the well-being of people. For this to happen a community analysis as well as stakeholder analysis are key actions so that ultimately the key interests as well as the power matrix that are at the core of unraveling voice and agency amongst community members can be addressed, and thereby a transformation agenda based on identified key actions that community members can undertake to change community context and deepen their voice and agency can be put in motion.