Community development, 'tradition' and the civil society strengthening agenda in Central Asia

Central Asian Survey

Volumn 24, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 245-260

  Earle, Lucy ^a  

^a International NGO Training and Research Centre   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SOCIETY; COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT; CULTURAL TRADITION;

ASIA; CENTRAL ASIA; EURASIA;

EID: 31144449183     PISSN: 02634937     EISSN: 14653354     Source Type: Trade Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02634930500310329     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. The dramatic shift from NGO development to community development was problematic for organisations that had previously been working towards capacity building for NGOs. Staff suddenly found themselves having to work at community level but without adequate skills or knowledge about how to get communities and local government involved. The latter was a condition of some donors and was particularly difficult in Kazakhstan where well-organised community structures, such as the mahalla in Uzbekistan, were harder to locate. (Source: Email communication with L. Abdulsalyamova February 2004.)
2. L. Earle with B. Fozilhujaev, C. Tashbaeva and K. Djamankulova, Community Development in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan: Lessons Learnt from Recent Experience (Oxford: INTRAC, 2004).
3. B. Pratt and J. Boyden, The Field Directors' Handbook: An Oxfam Manual for Development Workers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), p 141.
4. D. Marsden and P. Oakley, 'Radical community development in the Third World', in G. Craig, N. Derricourt and M. Lonely, eds, Community Work and the State: Towards a Radical Practice (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), p 153.
5. For example, R. Chambers, Rural Development: Putting the Last First (London: Longman, 1983);
6. R. Bunch, Two Ears of Corn: A Guide to People-centred Agricultural Improvement (Oklahoma: World Neighbours, 1983);
7. and P. Freire, Pedagogia do Oprimido (Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1970).
8. P. Dongier, S. Alkire, A. Bebbington, T. Esmail, E. Ostrom, M. Polski, A. Ryan, J. Van Domelen and W. Wakeman, 'Community driven development', in The PRSP Sourcebook (Washington DC: World Bank, 2000), p 5.
9. It should be acknowledged that the rhetoric of empowerment and participation at community level has become more salient in the World Bank's discourse since its World Development Report of 2001. These elements are now seen to be an important component part of the drive to reduce poverty (correspondence with B. Babajanian, December 2004).
10. C. Flecknoe and N. McLellan, The What, Why and How of Neighbourhood Community Development (London: Community Matters, 1994), p 13.
11. There is sometimes an implicit assumption of homogeneity in the use of the term 'community'. Indeed, as has been pointed out by feminist critics and other commentators, the term tends to ignore difference, and even to deny it, as the projection of one particular identity is favoured over others. For more discussion see for example J. De Berry, Exploring the Concept of Community: Implications for NGO Management (London School of Economics: Centre for Voluntary Organisation, 1999)
12. and I. Guijt and M. Shah, The Myth of Community: Gender Issues in Participatory Development (London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1998).
13. Peabody et al. make an interesting observation in this regard. Writing on the Central Asian context they note, 'CDD initiatives appear to be undertaken with the implicit assumption that all community-based efforts, particularly those involving creating or strengthening local organisations, are good in themselves and will automatically have a spill-over impact, generating new initiatives and new perspecives.
14. S. Peabody, K. Kuehnast and S. Rana, Critical Issues for Scaling Up Community Driven Development in Central Asia (Washington, World Bank: Central Asia CDD Working Group, nd), p 21.
15. J. Manor, M. Robinson and G. White, Civil Society and Governance: A Concept Paper (University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies, 1999), http://www.ids.ac.uk.
16. See, for example, the introductory chapters of M. H. Ruffin and D. Waugh, eds, Civil Society in Central Asia (University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA: Center for Civil Society International, 1999).
17. O. Roy, 'Soviet legacies and Western aid imperatives in the new Central Asia', in A. Sajoo, ed, Civil Society in the Muslim World (London: Tauris, 2002), p 125.
18. S. Freizer, 'The role of civil society in development in Central Asia (with a focus on Tajikistan and Uzbekistan', Draft paper given at the Ecumenical Consultation on Central Asia: Future Opportunities and Challenges, Geneva, 1-2 May 2003, p 3.
19. For further discussion see A. Garbutt, 'Civil society strengthening in practice', in B. Pratt, ed, Changing Expectations? The Concept and Practice of Civil Society in International Development (Oxford: INTRAC, 2003), pp 111-136.
20. Sada Aksartova argues that international donors working in Central Asia are now dependent on these professionalised NGOs whose working practices mirror their own, as the only 'local' organisations that understand their methods, approaches and jargon. Furthermore, adopting the structure, practices and rhetoric of international organisations may have facilitated Central Asian NGOs' interaction with these external bodies, but it has alienated them from their own governments, other civil society groups and individuals outside of the NGO sector.
21. Source: Sada Aksartova, 'Donors and NGOs iT Kyrgyzstan: trust, mistrust and social networks', Paper presented at Central Eurasian Studies Society 5th Annual Conference, 2-5 October 2003, Harvard, Cambridge, MA (2003).
22. The World Bank is about to embark on a large scale 'Village Investment Program' in Kyrgyzstan and is already involved in the promotion of community driven development elsewhere in the region. UNDP has a much longer history of working on poverty issues at the community level in Central Asia.
23. USAID press release, 11 July 2002. http://www.state.gov/p/eur. Accessed 31 December 2003.
24. Village elder, literally 'white beard'.
25. This community contribution, that varies from approximately 5-30% of costs, is required by all the main donors in Kyrgyzstan. Donor insistence on community contribution to a project, in whatever form, is not unique to Central Asia. Community 'matching funding' in donor interventions is common practice across the developing world.
26. V. Horton, Assar: Handbook for Self-Help Groups (Almaty: Voluntary Services Overseas, 2002), p 4.
27. There was, however, difference of opinion among participants in INTRAC's research as to the extent to which ashar was practised during the Soviet period. Some older respondents stated that it had been frowned upon, because relative prosperity during this time meant that individuals could pay for construction labour and would be ashamed to bother their neighbours with these requests.
28. This would appear not to be the case for Central Asia as a whole: This particular oblast is located in a very fertile farming area of Kyrgyzstan, and would have received high levels of investment through the state farm system. The occurrence of 'community self-help' to repair village infrastructure prior to independence has been noted in isolated areas of Tajikistan (conversation with S. Freizer, October 2003).
29. O. Roy (2002), op cit, Ref 13.
30. For discussion see D. Mosse, 'Authority, gender and knowledge: theoretical reflections on the practice of participatory rural appraisal', Development and Change, Vol 25, No 3, 1994, pp 497-526.
31. A. Ilkhamov, 'Impoverishment of the masses in the transition period: signs of an emerging "new poor" identity in Uzbekistan', Central Asian Survey, Vol 20, No 1, 2001 pp 33-54.
32. D. Kandiyoti, 'Agrarian reform, gender and land rights in rural Uzbekistan', UNRISD Programme Paper No. 11, Geneva, 2002.
33. Guijt and Shah, op cit, Ref 9.
34. Email correspondence with N. Kolybashkina, November 2003.