On “Grassroots” Development
June 23rd, 2009
Grassroots movements of any form are derived from the local community (bottom-up) versus the government or a large organization (top-down). An increasing number of development professionals agree that in the context of rural West Africa this is a sustainable approach, especially when the effort is organized and managed by local talent.
I think development initiatives in Africa should generally begin with the end in mind, that the goal should be to build a communities´ability to effect the aid organizations work….not to institutionalize foreign aid. This is what ¨grassroots¨means to me.