Browsing by Author "Atfaye, Haile"

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    Poverty alleviation through community development : the case of PRO PRIDE-Ethiopia
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-12) Atfaye, Haile; Theron, Francois; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic & Management Sciences. School of Public Management and Planning.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Misunderstanding of poverty and lack of sound poverty alleviating strategy, among others, are problems of some of the few NGOs existing in Ethiopia. There is a problem of understanding their roles in relation to the State and other stakeholders. The principles they apply in their intervention are other problems. These are the issues that were researched in the PRO PRIDE case study. The legitimacy of PRO PRIDE as a poverty-alleviating programme in view of global and Ethiopian poverty and the consequent policy focuses is justified. The principles of PRO PRIDE - community participation, gender equity, intersectoral collaboration, appropriate technology, focus on prevention, participatory management, cost effectiveness and sustainability of programmes - are sound principles. Reviewing the practices of PRO PRIDE as guided by the aforementioned principles it is understood that the community development principles - human orientation, public participation, empowerment, ownership, release, social learning, adaptiveness and simplicity - are commendably achieved. PRO PRIDE well dealt with understanding poverty and its interwoven nature. Issues such as the deprivation trap that the poor are entangled in; the general explanation of poverty that are given by different authors; vicious cycles of poverty and social, economic and political causes of poverty which are operating at local, national and international levels; and the rural-urban dynamics that work in exacerbating the urban poverty are covered in its socio-economic study. The study of the programme areas shows that they depict a dismal picture as a result of the operation of these poverty dynamics. Regarding the integrated rural-urban poverty alleviation strategy, the State has made favourable policies and itself dwelled on rural poverty due to lack of financial capacity to cover both rural and urban areas. The State's rural focus is accepted to impact on the urban poverty through changing the migration pattern. PRO PRIDE is operating in the urban setting to connect the nexus - the rural-urban strategy. PRO PRIDE is operating with an integrated urban development strategy encompassing income generation, basic education, primary health care, HIV IAIDS prevention and control and environmental sanitation. Through integrating these areas of intervention PRO PRIDE is improving the quality of life, promoting sustainable urban economic growth, creating income and employment generating opportunities, giving people access to resources and opportunities, improving the distribution of income and welfare, and applying sound developmental principles. The functioning of PRO PRIDE is proven to be in a well compliance with the requirement for organisations alike. It is functioning in collaboration and participation with the popular sector - the people themselves and their community leaders. It operates with the agreement of the State bodies such as FRDCB and with other line bureaus such as Health, Education, Environmental Development, and Labour and Social Affairs. It collaborates with donors the major being ActionAid - Ethiopia (AAE). Internal components of PRO PRIDE such as the Board and the staff as well as its organisational development influence its operation. All the programmes and the projects are managed through PRO PRIDE's interaction with its internal and external stakeho lders. PRO PRIDE as an agent of development has played as a catalyst to initiate development, focused on empowerment and using the people's latent potential, materialised capacity building and facilitation. These are basically the requirements that the current NGOs should fulfill, which PRO PRIDE commendably did. The study has indicated that although PRO PRIDE is an organisation of overall success, there are some areas of future focus both by the State and PRO PRIDE. Recommendations are made as to what both parties should do in their future focuses.