Abstract
M.A.
A stable environment for future economic growth in South Africa will depend on curbing violence, crime and poverty. Government has started to address the development backlog by initiating programmes such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Urgent problems such as housing shortages, the education crisis, unemployment, violence and poverty are receiving priority. This has had a further effect on the policy of service delivery in the field of Social Work, hence there is a paradigm shift towards development social work as emphasized in the White paper for Social Welfare (Government Gazette, 1997).
Communities establish development projects with the aim of creating jobs, etc but are not aware of the process involved (e.g. management) for such a project to be successful. For this reason the researcher is of the opinion that many community development projects fail due to the fact that they are not managed properly.
The main goal of the study is to develop guidelines on how to manage development projects in deprived communities.
A qualitative exploratory study was used to address the following main question: “How do you manage your project?” A non-probability sampling procedure was used to select two projects that were under study. The data collection methods that were employed were face-to-face and focus group interviews, observation and the analysis of project documents. The method of data analysis utilized was data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing.
The following main themes were identified as important entities in the management of community development projects: teamwork, planning, implementation, monitoring and control, leadership and evaluation. All these themes are considered to be very important in ensuring project success.
Prof. J.B.S Nel