By Ravin Singh

GROUPS looking to improve their villages either by fixing poor infrastructure or solving social ills, or by development projects, will be supported by Government, Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, has said.

Speaking at a national community development forum held at the St Stanislaus College in Georgetown on Saturday, Minister Harmon, crafting his speech to focus primarily on community development, explained that at the community level there is need for competing and complementary interests to be served through programmes and activities.

And one of the most important linkages in this regard is the social unit known as the family, which, according to him, is the basic building block of a healthy community.

“It is a social unit that facilitates social intercourse and establishes and strengthens social relations,” he explained.

“Your Government will therefore ensure that community development councils are adequately supported to ensure their success, while encouraging their close collaboration and cooperation with neighbourhood democratic councils to foster true and real development of our communities,” the minister declared.

Minister Harmon explained that strengthening the family unit is a fundamental objective of community development, and this cannot be overemphasized, since problems such as school drop-outs, single parents, and teenage pregnancies are all attributed to weak or dysfunctional families.

Given this situation, he noted, the enhancement of family values is therefore critical in promoting strong communities, which result in the construction of a strong nation.

He then examined wealth creation, contending that the experience and acumen of the business community must be employed to contribute to wealth creation in the community.

He also explained that corporate social responsibility must be encouraged to create linkages between business persons within the communities and the community development councils. This, according to the minister, is aimed at transferring business knowledge and experience which will contribute to the growth and creation of wealth in those communities.

In turn, jobs would be created and developmental opportunities would be available for all, especially the youth, he said.

And while Guyana is known for its robust agricultural sector, the minister suggested that communities vested with natural agricultural and other resources must be encouraged to seek investments, both locally and internationally, to promote their local economy.

In economics, increased production of one good by two or more suppliers translates to increased competition. As such, the minister noted, competition should be encouraged between communities to give impetus and energy to community development.

“This can be developed between communities with similar natural resources or similar product output, and can be in areas such as product quality or production targets,” he said.

Minister Harmon also addressed the issue of information and communications technology. He explained that community groups can access information on virtually any subject matter.
Social media, he said, promotes exchanges on experiences and shares lessons learnt on projects, while giving online advice in an instantaneous interaction with groups involved in similar projects.

“Community ICT affords the sharing of knowledge to bring resolution to many problems within communities, as well as to (resolving) common problems in different regions. The community development council becomes the means through which these virtual interactions take place,” Minister Harmon said.

He also spoke briefly on confronting challenges in the community, noting that meaningful community development can take place only in an enabling environment. The minister expressed the view that community development councils must therefore seek to create such an environment, and be in the forefront in the fight against poverty, social deprivation, crime, school drop-outs, drug culture, and other social ills.

“The councils must also seek to create this enabling environment by building social resilience and social capital, while promoting a culture of ‘giving back to the community’,” he added.

And while on the road to development, the scourge of social ills results in the need for a mechanism to be in place to allow community groups to have their concerns and issues addressed.
Minister Harmon is contending that these groups should be given opportunity to register those concerns in an atmosphere of respect and confidentiality, and have them addressed by properly trained professionals.

He reasoned that community groups can report via telephone, email, social media, news media, or directly via an established community development website. To complement this, he noted, a database of these issues should be established, with a schedule of actions to be taken and a monitoring mechanism for reporting progress and follow up.

Subsequently, the results of all interventions should then be tabulated, and kept in the records for further reference, if necessary.

Finally, the minister drew a nexus between community development councils (CDC) and neighbourhood democratic councils (NDC), positing that this is a strong link which needs to be created.
He explained that the local government system as is presently structured comprises, for the most part, neighbourhood democratic councils that form the first direct link with central government to deliver on specific government programmes.

However, he noted that community development councils, with their more direct connection to the people, have the advantage of better understanding the people’s issues, and are better placed to be responsive to their needs.

The Minister of State was keen to note that his proposals were by no means a comprehensive analysis, nor did they provide a panacea for the ills that exist in our communities. He contended that the proposals were intended to provoke thought, invite analysis and encourage debate on the issues raised.

“I must point out, however, that our Government’s approach to community development represents a different philosophical approach — a change in orientation and organisation. This emphasises a change from imposing Government to building communities, and includes an inclusionary and participatory process of extensive and exhaustive consultation,” he explained.