ISSN: 2639-2119
Authors: Tolera M* and Bikila OA
Community development is about placing individuals at the centre of the development process and helping them realize their potential. Community Development Workers (CDWs) are community-based resource persons who collaborate with other community activists to help fellow community members. The objective of this study is to assess factors that challenge the roles of CDWs. The study used both quantitative and qualitative study designs. Data were gathered through questionnaires, in-depth interviews and personal observation. The collected data was analyzed using mixed method of analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The study revealed that CDWs have proved to be key and important local actors and facilitators in bringing about attitudinal change among the communities they work with, are attracting the trust and confidence of the people they work with, have revitalized local social organizations as instruments of development, have tabled the agendas of the socially marginalized community groups, working on the principle of matching community inputs with resources, and their role approved to be well aligned with Development Policy as it fosters ‘community participation, promotes self-reliance, and is strategically fasten at the grass roots level. The study concludes that CDWs are facing challenges in contextualizing their role and institutional factors are discovered to be impeding the roles of CDWs. The study recommends a multi-disciplinary research involving educationalists, and social anthropologists could perhaps develop a more thorough of investigation and be more conclusive on the factors that influence CDWs performance initiated by this research.
Keywords: Community Development; Service Workers; Challenges; Marginalized Community
