Resource material › Our Policy Advice Areas › Community-led Development
- Introduction
- Implementation
- Why community-led development?
- Funding
- Evaluation
- More information
Introduction
Community-led development gives communities control of their development process. It involves the whole community – including business organisations, iwi Māori, neighbourhoods, local and central government agencies working in the community, and NGO’s. It takes a holistic approach.Under the model communities get together to decide on their issues and concerns and what strengths they have that they can build on to meet some of those challenges.
The Government is supporting community-led development by providing support and advice, but the work is led by the community.
Implementation
To begin Government’s community-led development initiative, Department of Internal Affairs’ (the Department) regional staff will be working with five “start-up" communities.Originally there were to be four communities, but the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector agreed with the Minister of Finance that an additional $400,000 from Vote Community and Voluntary Sector for the 2011 financial year could be re-prioritised to this project, allowing a fifth community to be added.
The start-up communities have been selected because they have already identified issues they want to address and are currently able to undertake a community-led development process.
Once these start-up initiatives get underway the Department will be monitoring progress. The Department will run a more formal evaluation towards the end of 2012.
If the start-up initiatives are achieving outcomes it is possible the Department and the Minister will consider expanding the programme to other areas.
Why community-led development?
The Department decided to take a community-led approach after a review of current Crown funded schemes showed that while these schemes are very successful in terms of helping organisations and projects, greater change and more enduring outcomes for communities, hapū and iwi can be achieved through further investment in community-led development.- First principles review of Crown funded schemes: review and proposed approach (Word, 504K)
- First principles review of Crown funded schemes: review and proposed approach (PDF, 1.18M)*
Funding
The community-led initiatives will have access to $1.5 million that has been transferred from the existing Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS), plus an additional $400,000 which was reallocated from Vote Community and Voluntary Sector.In 2009 $1.2 million was allocated for community capability building over three years. The final year of this funding ($400,000) was been reprioritised to support the community-led development project as it has a greater and more co-ordinated focus on building sustainable community capability.
COGS grants will still be available everywhere (including in communities that choose to become start-ups) and the usual application process will apply.
The impact of the transfer of $1.5 million on COGS is expected to be minimal as it will be spread over 37 areas. The Department’s regional staff will also be available to advise any organisation or project that needs help to source funds.
Evaluation
The Department is conducting a four-year community-led development trial. Alongside implementation an evaluation is being conducted based on the principles of action research to assess both the implementation and impact of the initiative in the participating five communities.This report presents an evaluation of the implementation of community-led development for the period 1 July 2011 to 31 August 2012.
As both the implementation and evaluation of the trial are in their early stages, this report is focused on the process of implementation. A summative (outcome) assessment is planned for December 2014.
More information
The following documents provide further information on the background and rationale for the community-led development initiative.- Some international approaches to community grant funding (Word, 386K)
- Some international approaches to community grant funding (PDF, 296K)*
- First principles review of Crown funded schemes: review and proposed approach (Word, 504K)
- First principles review of Crown funded schemes: review and proposed approach (PDF, 1.18M)*
- Review of selected New Zealand government-funded community development programmes (Word, 407K)
- Review of selected New Zealand government-funded community development programmes (PDF, 380K)*
The following Cabinet paper and minute have been proactively released by the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector.
- Reprioritising COGS Funding to Support Community-led Development (Cabinet paper) (PDF ,758K)*
- Cabinet Social Policy Committee (Minute of Decision) (PDF, 102K)*
- Progress Implementing the Community-led Development Approach (Cabinet paper) (PDF, 556K)*
*This document is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. You need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. You can download a free version from the Adobe website.
