Abstract
D.Litt.et Phil.
The Chief Directorate: Population Development which is responsible for the
implementation of the Population Development Programme and the Rural
Foundation, regard the community development strategy as one of the most
important means of improving the quality of life of the population and especially of
the farm worker.
Against the above-mentioned background this study firstly draws a comparison
between the levels of development of Third World inhabitants, the Third World
component in South Africa and farm workers. In this regard it is concluded that the
level of development of farm workers corresponds with that of Third World
inhabitants, and that they are even worse off than the rest of the third World
component in South Africa.
Secondly, the community development strategy, which forms part of South Africa's
official development policy, is being evaluated with regard to other existing
international development strategies. It is concluded that the community
development strategy is a potentially useful tool for the furthering of development.
Lastly, a synthesis is made between the theory and practice of the community
development approach, within a suggested implementation model. The
implementation model (see Diagrams 1 to 4) is developed incrementally in this study
according to the following three schools of thought most commonly applied in
practice:
Endogenous initiative,where the community acts solely on its own initiative;
Exogenous initiative, where the community's latent initiative is stimulated by
an outside catalyst; and
Concerted initiative, where the community does have its own initiative, but
needs help from outside and consequently invites the help of (for instance) a
community developer.