Empowering Communities to Drive
Sustainable Development: Reflections
on Experiences from Rural South Africa
Rudi Pretorius and Melanie Nicolau
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.
1 Introduction
In the publication “The Future We Want”, which documents the outcomes of Rio+20,
the clear verdict is that poverty reduction (preferably eradication) presents the single
largest challenge faced by the world (UN 2012). Consequently the quest for susR. Pretorius (B) · M. Nicolau
Department of Geography, University of South Africa (Unisa), Private Bag X6, Florida 1710,
South Africa
e-mail: pretorw@unisa.ac.za
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities and Sustainable Communities:
Meeting the Goals of the Agenda 2030, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30306-8_32
529
Sustainable Development: Reflections
on Experiences from Rural South Africa
Rudi Pretorius and Melanie Nicolau
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.
1 Introduction
In the publication “The Future We Want”, which documents the outcomes of Rio+20,
the clear verdict is that poverty reduction (preferably eradication) presents the single
largest challenge faced by the world (UN 2012). Consequently the quest for susR. Pretorius (B) · M. Nicolau
Department of Geography, University of South Africa (Unisa), Private Bag X6, Florida 1710,
South Africa
e-mail: pretorw@unisa.ac.za
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
W. Leal Filho et al. (eds.), Universities and Sustainable Communities:
Meeting the Goals of the Agenda 2030, World Sustainability Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30306-8_32
529