Appreciating the Challenge of Community Participation in NGO-Led Development Interventions: An Analysis of Some Existing Literature

Abstract

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been a dominant participant in the development process throughout the world. Particularly in Africa, participation has assumed even greater relevance given the complementary, or occasionally supplementary role NGOs play to that of government in social development. It is widely conceived that for NGOs’ presence to be hugely felt by the beneficiaries, there is the need to pay serious attention to the issue of participation by community members. There is a growing fear that without the active participation of community members in the development programs and projects of NGOs in Africa, it will be very difficult for them to achieve meaningful and sustained progress in the lives of the beneficiaries. Needless to indicate that the lack of clear definition of involvement of community members in the development activities of NGOs in Africa has led to uncontrolled, uncoordinated and ineffective development projects. This paper seeks to contribute to the discussions on the issue of community participation in the development activities of NGOs in Africa and the associated challenges. It presents an introduction which seeks to locate the place of NGOs in the development discourse. It also conceptualizes community participation and its typologies, as well as the role of community participation in development. It, again, highlights some of the challenges associated with community participation in development projects and concludes on the issues discussed.