Empowering Communities to Drive Sustainable Development …
543
showed that partnerships between HEIs, NPOs and communities could be three to
five years, and it is critical that an exit plan is drafted when the project commences
to ensure that mutual dependencies do not develop.
Any interaction of HEIs within communities should be transparent and academics
must ensure that they clearly explain any intentions to share their experience in their
research and tuition. HEIs should be cautious of creating expectations in vulnerable
communities and just as importantly, they should guard against creating unrealistic
expectations. Within the context of community-driven change academics must be
very careful not to impose unnecessary knowledge onto a community and should
only react to the requests from communities for specific skill training interventions.
HEIs should not impose their agenda on the community, rather the academics must
be mindful that the drivers of success are the members of each community and not
the academics with their own personal research and/or tuition agendas.
6 Limitations of Research and Future Initiatives
The authors acknowledge the limitations associated with the case study format of this
research and the qualitative nature of the reflective methodology as applied in this
chapter. The obvious advantage of this methodological approach lies in the rich, indepth descriptions, based on the authentic voices of community members, whereas
such depth is more challenging to achieve when typical quantitative approaches
are used. Generalisation of results is possible with similar reflective assessments of
the role of CAMP to drive sustainable development through a bottom-up approach
in a number of other communities as well. Due to the contextual nature of this
research, the realities associated with outreach will always differ from community
to community, and results obtained in a specific community will never really be
universally relevant, although lessons learnt can provide valuable pointers to other
researchers also active in this field. Future work would involve application of CAMP
in other communities as well, bearing in mind the lessons learnt up to know, and in
this way build a community of practice and on the experience gained thus far.
7 Conclusion
The authors would like to express the hope that the research reported in this chapter
will assist rural communities of South Africa in driving their own sustainable development. At the same time, CAMP could play a major role in the realisation of the NDP
objective to eradicate poverty in South Africa by 2030. The development of CAMP as
a tool to accomplish this and related objectives within the field of geography realises
the author’s belief that the application of this programme within the contemporary
South African society could contribute to a better life for all. The illustration of the
role of HEIs towards the attainment of the SDGs through the application of CAMP
543
showed that partnerships between HEIs, NPOs and communities could be three to
five years, and it is critical that an exit plan is drafted when the project commences
to ensure that mutual dependencies do not develop.
Any interaction of HEIs within communities should be transparent and academics
must ensure that they clearly explain any intentions to share their experience in their
research and tuition. HEIs should be cautious of creating expectations in vulnerable
communities and just as importantly, they should guard against creating unrealistic
expectations. Within the context of community-driven change academics must be
very careful not to impose unnecessary knowledge onto a community and should
only react to the requests from communities for specific skill training interventions.
HEIs should not impose their agenda on the community, rather the academics must
be mindful that the drivers of success are the members of each community and not
the academics with their own personal research and/or tuition agendas.
6 Limitations of Research and Future Initiatives
The authors acknowledge the limitations associated with the case study format of this
research and the qualitative nature of the reflective methodology as applied in this
chapter. The obvious advantage of this methodological approach lies in the rich, indepth descriptions, based on the authentic voices of community members, whereas
such depth is more challenging to achieve when typical quantitative approaches
are used. Generalisation of results is possible with similar reflective assessments of
the role of CAMP to drive sustainable development through a bottom-up approach
in a number of other communities as well. Due to the contextual nature of this
research, the realities associated with outreach will always differ from community
to community, and results obtained in a specific community will never really be
universally relevant, although lessons learnt can provide valuable pointers to other
researchers also active in this field. Future work would involve application of CAMP
in other communities as well, bearing in mind the lessons learnt up to know, and in
this way build a community of practice and on the experience gained thus far.
7 Conclusion
The authors would like to express the hope that the research reported in this chapter
will assist rural communities of South Africa in driving their own sustainable development. At the same time, CAMP could play a major role in the realisation of the NDP
objective to eradicate poverty in South Africa by 2030. The development of CAMP as
a tool to accomplish this and related objectives within the field of geography realises
the author’s belief that the application of this programme within the contemporary
South African society could contribute to a better life for all. The illustration of the
role of HEIs towards the attainment of the SDGs through the application of CAMP