The principles and practice of community development offer a means of bridging the gap between agencies, planners, researchers, and communities. Community development involves an educational strategy of raising the levels of local awareness and increases the confidence and ability of community groups to identify and solve their own problems.…

An article by the Secretariat of the Economic Commission for Latin America, United Nations, which discusses regional factors affecting rural and community development in the Caribbean, existing community development programs, and emerging trends in the region. (Author/DR)

The author argues that the appropriate type of citizen participation in an extension community development program depends on the goal for the program: creating community improvements or public policy education at the local level. He discusses the conflicting community-planning requirements between the two and stresses the need for extension…

Article by the Regional Development Section, United Nations, deals with the relationship between community development and government, at the national and local levels. Includes a section on the manner in which community development and broad policies of social institutional reform are interrelated, using land reform as a case in point. (Author/DR)