672
Y. Rasyid
Keywords Sustainability · Participatory Action Research (PAR) · NGO
interventions · Sustainable community development · Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)
1 Introduction
One of the key overarching goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
addresses reducing poverty (SDG 1—end poverty in all forms everywhere). Sustainable community development is necessary to facilitate the reduction of poverty and to
meeting outcomes of the SDGs. Pertaining to the various academic, government and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) discourses on sustainable development,
rural poverty and environmental degradation are very closely related and is often
related to rural communities who depend on the direct and indirect use of their natural resources as their source of livelihood. Unfortunately, case studies (Adger 2000;
Yu-hui 2005; Forsyth and Walker 2008; Wang et al. 2014) have demonstrated that the
strong symbiotic relationship that bond humans and the environment in coexistence
does not exist anymore.
Today, while interventions are being delivered by development actors to improve
livelihoods of rural and marginalized communities, there remain various challenges
which threaten the goals of the interventions in balancing both the integrity of natural
resources and to enable current and future generations to benefit from these resources;
in short, to attain sustainable community development. Depending on the development actors, various approaches have been explored to attain sustainable community
development such as the provision of direct economic aid through government (Kenworthy 1999; Fan et al. 2000; Mosley et al. 2004) or NGO interventions (Johnson
and Rogaly 1997; Bebbington 2004; Ahsan and Routray 2007); or by implementing government interventions to promote sustainable community development as an
attempt to alleviate rural poverty (Brocklesby and Fisher 2003; Alison and Horemans 2006). However, the sustainability of these programs are in question as many
of such interventions have been reported to be not successful in achieving the goals,
as once external aid from a funder or donor has ceased, beneficiary participation in
these interventions have been reported to reduce drastically or to non-existent levels
(Reyes and Valencia 2003).
Researchers (Altman 1995; Kumar and Best 2006; Trickett et al. 2011) have
indicated that some of the factors that influence the sustainability of interventions
for sustainable community development may be either financial, material or human
resources and also because the initial planning and development of the interventions
did not practice inclusivity of the beneficiaries’ interests and priorities. Other issues
which are less explored in understanding the complexity of sustainable community
development include power struggles, leadership, political interjections and management approaches of the development actors. Communities need to be included
and involved in defining, and planning what they aim to achieve to improve their
livelihoods, failing which the community’s motivation will decline and thus prevent
Y. Rasyid
Keywords Sustainability · Participatory Action Research (PAR) · NGO
interventions · Sustainable community development · Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)
1 Introduction
One of the key overarching goals of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
addresses reducing poverty (SDG 1—end poverty in all forms everywhere). Sustainable community development is necessary to facilitate the reduction of poverty and to
meeting outcomes of the SDGs. Pertaining to the various academic, government and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) discourses on sustainable development,
rural poverty and environmental degradation are very closely related and is often
related to rural communities who depend on the direct and indirect use of their natural resources as their source of livelihood. Unfortunately, case studies (Adger 2000;
Yu-hui 2005; Forsyth and Walker 2008; Wang et al. 2014) have demonstrated that the
strong symbiotic relationship that bond humans and the environment in coexistence
does not exist anymore.
Today, while interventions are being delivered by development actors to improve
livelihoods of rural and marginalized communities, there remain various challenges
which threaten the goals of the interventions in balancing both the integrity of natural
resources and to enable current and future generations to benefit from these resources;
in short, to attain sustainable community development. Depending on the development actors, various approaches have been explored to attain sustainable community
development such as the provision of direct economic aid through government (Kenworthy 1999; Fan et al. 2000; Mosley et al. 2004) or NGO interventions (Johnson
and Rogaly 1997; Bebbington 2004; Ahsan and Routray 2007); or by implementing government interventions to promote sustainable community development as an
attempt to alleviate rural poverty (Brocklesby and Fisher 2003; Alison and Horemans 2006). However, the sustainability of these programs are in question as many
of such interventions have been reported to be not successful in achieving the goals,
as once external aid from a funder or donor has ceased, beneficiary participation in
these interventions have been reported to reduce drastically or to non-existent levels
(Reyes and Valencia 2003).
Researchers (Altman 1995; Kumar and Best 2006; Trickett et al. 2011) have
indicated that some of the factors that influence the sustainability of interventions
for sustainable community development may be either financial, material or human
resources and also because the initial planning and development of the interventions
did not practice inclusivity of the beneficiaries’ interests and priorities. Other issues
which are less explored in understanding the complexity of sustainable community
development include power struggles, leadership, political interjections and management approaches of the development actors. Communities need to be included
and involved in defining, and planning what they aim to achieve to improve their
livelihoods, failing which the community’s motivation will decline and thus prevent