Community Development (CD)
Community Development aims to facilitate the transformation of local government, by assisting municipalities to:
- Mainstream transversal issues such as HIV/Aids, gender, youth, disability, the elderly and children,
- Facilitate human development through, social cohesion, sports, recreation, arts and culture, heritage, health (environmental and primary) and poverty eradication;
- Protect their communities through the protection of human and social capital by providing advice and support to disaster risk management and public safety initiatives within local government
For the Community Development Directorate, meeting the challenge of community and human development begins with research into how communities function and how human capabilities are expanded or diminished by current public policies, institutional arrangements, incentive structures, social practices, infrastructures and technologies.
Grounded in understanding of community realities, the Community Development Directorate seeks to be innovative in combining quality research, advocacy and facilitation of policy and practice concerning community development. SALGA’s Community Development Directorate is designed to assist local government to integrate community development concerns into municipal development strategies and into all aspects of development planning at all. Community development imperatives are advanced through three essential aims:
- To advocate & clarify roles: Assisting municipalities to understand and fulfil their human development roles
- To promote best practice: Facilitating human development inter-municipal learning and up-scaling of best practice
- To foster a consultative local government: Facilitating human development related dialogue between municipalities and relevant stakeholders such as civil society organisations, national and provincial government.
SALGA has identified the following focus areas within the Human Development Programme:
Poverty Eradication:
Poverty is understood to be a lack of basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, shelter and access to health amongst others. Poverty has spatial, racial and gender manifestations and varies within and between municipalities. Municipalities contribute towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the role of the Human Development Programme is to assist municipalities to respond to poverty-related community needs.
Municipal Health:
The ultimate aim of the Human Development Programme within municipal health is to improve access to and utilisation of comprehensive primary healthcare and to ensure healthy local environments through environmental health at local government. The Human Development Programme’s role to assist municipalities to promote the development of district health systems by facilitating intergovernmental engagements, planning, monitoring and evaluation of health service delivery.
Education:
Education is critical to South Africa’s attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. A credible Human Development Programme must consider the creation of human capital as one of its central aims. While local government is not directly mandated to provide education it is recognised that local government plays a facilitative role. The Human Development Programme of SALGA facilitates the role of local government in education mainly through campaigns on topical issues seen as key enablers to an educated society.
Social Cohesion - Sports recreation:
Social cohesion is a term used in social policy to describe the bonds that bring people together in society in the context of cultural diversity. Sports and recreation is no longer just as an activity but a means of personal and social development. Sports and recreation is an important element to bring about socially cohesive and inclusive communities. The role of SALGA in sports and recreation is to assist local government to play an active role in sports and recreation to achieve socially cohesive and inclusive communities that are united in diversity.
Social Cohesion – Heritage, library, arts, culture & heritage:
are instrumental in bringing about social cohesion. Heritage, libraries are important in developing social and human capital while preservation of heritage, culture and promotion of arts activities draws culturally diverse members of the community together. The role of SALGA in heritage, libraries, arts and culture is to assist local government to define it’s and fulfill is facilitative role as mandated by the constitution. The Human Development Programme advocates for the clarification of funding roles and responsibilities of local government in relation to libraries, arts, culture and heritage.
Social Cohesion - Migration:
Migration patterns have significant influences on, and are in turn influenced by, demographic factors such as population growth, structure and distribution of economic growth. The role of SALGA in migration is to support municipalities to promote integration of immigrants into society as well as to advocate for municipalities to put in place systems or mechanisms that deal with the influx of immigrants in municipalities.
Disaster Risk Management & Public safety:
Unsustainable land-use patterns are contributing to the vulnerability to disasters; unsustainable use of natural resources and to environmental degradation which in turn has a negative impact on human development. Public safety is of relevant concern for development given that criminal acts affect human capital, destabilizes normal operations and reverse investments and development gains made. The role of SALGA in Disaster Risk Management and Public Safety is to support municipalities to put in place appropriate and best measures to prevent and mitigate disasters and risks.
