in implementing time-bound activities, such as
organizing a series of awareness-raising events.
Investing in a broad range of organizational
skills may not be appropriate. However, since
Village Development Committees fulfil a long-
term communal role, work with them may aim
more explicitly to facilitate their organizational
capacity and sustainability.
Why community organizations?
Compared to individuals, organized groups
of the poor have a better chance to improve
their well being, access information
channels, organize for collective action,
redress disparities in power… and compel
attention to their needs.2
Community organizations can be instrumental
in ensuring that communities are empowered
to analyse and understand the causes of their
poverty, and able to take the lead in addressing
them. This is fundamental to the development
process, bringing about long-term, sustainable
change and driving livelihood resilience. They
can:
• help communities to deliberate, plan and
take collective action to meet specific
ongoing or urgent needs;
• enhance solidarity and social capital,
helping to promote empowerment through
grass-roots capacity;
• advocate for community interests, and
give expression to the poor through
representation and decision-making with
government;
• deliver services, particularly under extreme
circumstances (including violence and
insecurity);
• mobilize and provide initial response
before external support arrives in cases of
emergency;
• help to manage situations of potential and
existing conflict.
Whether enduring for a longer or shorter
time period, it is important that the role of
the community organization is clear, that
membership and process is transparent, and
that it provides some service – whether that be
representation, planning, or practical support.
Opportunities and pitfalls
Community organizations are important for
their role in contributing to the development
process and individuals’ empowerment. For
this reason, they can be an important channel
for Practical Action and our partners to work
through to achieve sustainable change.
When working in a locality for the first
time, local organizations act as a vital point
of entry into the community. They can help
us to gain better understanding, to know the
history and context of a place, and identify
the most important issues their community
faces. They can help us to bring together
diverse community interests in planning and
managing activities, and to reach the most
needy. Community-based approaches promote
local ownership of processes of change, and so
ensure better mobilization and management
of knowledge and resources for implementing
plans of action – and better legacy and
sustainability of interventions long after
external support phases out.
Experience suggests, however, that there
can also be significant obstacles to mobilizing
the promise of community organizations
– problems of dependency, transparency,
accountability, maintenance of hierarchies,
ineffectiveness. Community organizations
may be compromised by internal dynamics.
For example, if a community organization no
longer acts in the interests of its members,
or is ‘captured’ by self-interested elites, it
can lose the commitment and support of
members. Moreover, heavy-handed external
support can disempower, jeopardizing
Members of a Slum Improvement Committee plan
water infrastructure improvements,
Jamalpur, Bangladesh
3