Empowering Communities to Drive Sustainable Development: Reflections on Experiences from Rural South Africa

Abstract

There have been several initiatives to address poverty and inequality since the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994. These initiatives are part of South Africa’s National Development Plan, which aligns well to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In terms of its mandate to engage with communities, the Department of Geography of the University of South Africa (Unisa) has been involved with the development and application of a community-based asset programme to empower people to drive their own sustainable development. This paper provides a critical reflection of the experience gained with the implementation of this programme in the villages of Koffiekraal/Brakkuil (Northwest Province, South Africa), with direct Unisa involvement from 2012 to 2016, and monitoring since 2017. The paper focuses on two initiatives of community empowerment identified during a community workshop in 2012, namely tourism and handicraft with Unisa subsequently providing comprehensive skills training. While focussing on the SDGs relevant to these two initiatives (No Poverty; Zero Hunger; Quality Education; Gender Equality; Decent Work and Economic Growth), this paper identifies the reasons why some intervention strategies were more successful than others and how strategies were subsequently adapted. Based on this experience, guidelines are presented that can be used during implementation of similar strategies towards community-based sustainable development, in different contexts and communities.