Community development approaches. Social Sciences Case Study (Case Study Sample)

UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
SCHOOL OF CONTINUING AND DISTANCE EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF EXTRAMURAL STUDIES
MASTERS IN PROJECT PLANNING& MANAGEMENT
LDP 611: SOCIAL CHANGE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
L50/28336/2019
NGIGI JOSEPH NG’ANG’A
2019
INTRODUCTION
Development conceived of as economic growth is a quantitative concept and basically means more than the same. Yet even if we limit ourselves to the economic sphere, it is clear that economic development is more than economic growth alone. In present date it is reasonable to suggest that development problems have become increasingly recognized as complex and that the mainstream development discourse have said farewell to simplistic problem descriptions. Rather it is becoming customary to talk about complex webs of mutually interdependent problems such as poverty and capability deprivation, inequalities, global economic shocks, delimited governance, human rights abuse, new security threat and environmentally unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.
In this paper I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of three major development approaches which include, Rights based approach, Felt needs based approach and Market based approach. I will also adopt one approach that is most suitable for community development and justify why I chose the approach. In this paper the second section will involve discussing by citing examples the successes and failures that are encountered in regard to the steps involved in the process of gender mainstreaming in Africa. This is because gender mainstreaming is a critical factor to be considered in any development approach if this continent will achieve sustainable development. The successes and failures will be discussed under three major topics which include, gender and policy making, gender and governance and finally gender and human rights.