demand-driven poverty alleviation programmes towards supporting the formal
capacity of rural communities. Amongst the well-known CDD projects in Africa,
they include the Benin National Community-Driven Development Project, the
Nigeria Second National Fadama Development Project II (NFDPII), and the
Morocco National Initiative for Human Development (INDH). A part from that,
there have been efforts for intensive forms of community participation in Africa by
donor agencies. These include multilaterals, such as the International Fund for
Agriculture Development (IFAD), the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), the European Union (EU), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
(FAO), the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and the World Bank, and
bilateral donors, such as the French Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the
Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, and the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), who have used CDD-type
approaches for a long time as well, as part of their sustainable livelihoods and
integrated basic needs development assistance in developing countries. The Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA) and Danish International Development
Agency have also used CDD principles in the mandate of a rights-based approach to
the development projects they fund. Additional modern approaches in funding rural
development in Africa include Development Policy Loans with agriculture components or with agriculture as the main target sector, environment and natural resource
management, infrastructure-oriented competitiveness enhancement programmes,
and sector-wide approaches for agricultural development that aim to support the
single sector policy and also expenditure programmes in support of the agricultural
sector. Amongst all the aforementioned strategies, approaches, and rural development programmes, still, literature evidence has proved that there exist other
approaches, especially those with community participation, that practise the
harmonised or combined approach and that seem to be having a good impact on
the rural community where they are being implemented.
3.6 Contemporary Approaches for Rural Development in
Africa
Although the integrated rural development projects of the 1970s and 1980s were
characterised with various issues, development experts and practitioners continue to
argue that emphasising on agricultural sector alone without dully considering other
complex associated sectoral linkages of the economy could result in logical bias in
determining the parameters for effective rural development (Baah-Dwomoh 2016).
Rural development is accepted as much broader than agricultural development,
because some other activities associated with rural development provide a substitute
to agriculture and serve alternative sources of income and means of survival to the
rural poor. As a whole, agricultural development could still serve as a main
3 Rural Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
39
capacity of rural communities. Amongst the well-known CDD projects in Africa,
they include the Benin National Community-Driven Development Project, the
Nigeria Second National Fadama Development Project II (NFDPII), and the
Morocco National Initiative for Human Development (INDH). A part from that,
there have been efforts for intensive forms of community participation in Africa by
donor agencies. These include multilaterals, such as the International Fund for
Agriculture Development (IFAD), the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), the European Union (EU), the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
(FAO), the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and the World Bank, and
bilateral donors, such as the French Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the
Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, and the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), who have used CDD-type
approaches for a long time as well, as part of their sustainable livelihoods and
integrated basic needs development assistance in developing countries. The Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA) and Danish International Development
Agency have also used CDD principles in the mandate of a rights-based approach to
the development projects they fund. Additional modern approaches in funding rural
development in Africa include Development Policy Loans with agriculture components or with agriculture as the main target sector, environment and natural resource
management, infrastructure-oriented competitiveness enhancement programmes,
and sector-wide approaches for agricultural development that aim to support the
single sector policy and also expenditure programmes in support of the agricultural
sector. Amongst all the aforementioned strategies, approaches, and rural development programmes, still, literature evidence has proved that there exist other
approaches, especially those with community participation, that practise the
harmonised or combined approach and that seem to be having a good impact on
the rural community where they are being implemented.
3.6 Contemporary Approaches for Rural Development in
Africa
Although the integrated rural development projects of the 1970s and 1980s were
characterised with various issues, development experts and practitioners continue to
argue that emphasising on agricultural sector alone without dully considering other
complex associated sectoral linkages of the economy could result in logical bias in
determining the parameters for effective rural development (Baah-Dwomoh 2016).
Rural development is accepted as much broader than agricultural development,
because some other activities associated with rural development provide a substitute
to agriculture and serve alternative sources of income and means of survival to the
rural poor. As a whole, agricultural development could still serve as a main
3 Rural Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
39