Friday, 20 January 2012
Foundation for rural empowerment
Community foundations should be an attractive option for government and private sector organisations to address coordinated and integrated public service delivery in an accountable manner. That’s the bottom line from a local expert who is preparing a paper for delivery at a national conference on ‘Opportunities Linking Donors to Rural Development’. Chris Mkhize, CEO of the Uthungulu Community Foundation (UCF), will base his talk on practical experiences with the UCF, which show that ‘going it alone’ is not an option.‘Building strategic alliances in community development processes is a tall order.‘The fact is that no individual, organisation or sector of society can single-handedly tackle the complex and demanding challenges of rural development,’ says Mkhize.‘First and foremost is correct identification of key local stakeholders: traditional authorities, non-profit organisations, social researchers, churches, and private and public sector organisations.
‘Local municipalities should lead the process and regularly report on progress and challenges to stakeholders.
‘Our rural communities are poor, under-resourced and under-developed, conditions caused by a variety of factors, so they leave for the cities.’
Rural problems become urban issues
As migration of people from rural to urban areas continues, Mkhize says urban communities often find it an impossible task to contend with the influx of people in search of jobs and a better life. ‘Urban authorities now have to deal with informal and unplanned human settlements, housing shortages and overcrowding at public hospitals, clinics and schools. ‘Land in urban areas is also fast becoming a scarce commodity. ‘At the same time rural areas remain with vast pieces of land that could be better exploited for agricultural purposes, urbanisation processes and employment, to assist large numbers of unemployed young people, including those with university degrees.
‘Funding by stakeholders could then be directed to specific projects, for example, education, entrepreneurship, health, agriculture, marketing and human skills development. ‘The Uthungulu Community Foundation, established in the late 1990s, continues to promote and develop socio-economic values based on self-reliance andself-development.
‘Local communities are constantly encouraged, not to forever rely on government and other types of grants, but rather to consider developing and promoting various forms of indigenous philanthropy upon which rural and other poor communities in the past were able to support one another.