Analysis of community development approaches and methods: five decades of Philippines experience

This study conducted an analysis of the evolution and development of various community development approaches and methods. In particular, it made a contextual review and qualitative meta-analysis of empirical studies dealing with approaches and methods in community development spanning five decades (from 1960's to the present) of Philippine research studies and cases. A total of 217 studies in community development from 1964 to 2008 were reviewed for this study. Overall, there is an increasing trend in the number of community development research and studies conducted across the five decades covered in this study. The key issues and problem areas addressed by the studies reviewed were focused on community institutions and organizations, organization management/governance, environment and natural resource, socio-economic issues, and other social concerns. Most of the studies reviewed employed purely quantitative research designs. The rest of the studies reviewed were also quantitative in nature but applied various qualitative data gathering tools such as participant observation, field observation, and focus group discussion. Of the research designs, the most popular was survey, which is probably the most widely used research type in social science research. Individual as the unit of analysis was the most common in all types of studies reviewed. The data collection methods used in studies reviewed include interview, observation, review of secondary data, and self-administered questionnaire. Of these methods, the most popular primary data collection tool employed was interview. This result is consistent with the finding that there was widespread use of individuals as the units of analysis. Referring to how and for whom development programs are planned, implemented and managed. The most common community development approaches indicated in the studies reviewed include community-based approach followed by participatory approach. Other approaches drawn out from the studies include welfare-based, area-based, and community economic development. While community development approaches would cover the general design of certain development interventions, specific techniques and strategies need to be employed for the effective and efficient execution of these development efforts. The most popular of these methods from the studies reviewed is community education followed closely by community organizing. A significant number of studies also used community planning, community mobilization and advocacy, community research, and community resource management. A closer examination for community development approaches vis-a-vis community development methods used over the five decades covered revealed that in the 1960's, the dominant approach used was community-based with community organizing as the popular choice method or strategy of implementing community-based interventions. In the 1970's, the coverage of development interventions expanded to wider geographic locations such that area-based approach with community education and community organizing as the main implementation strategies started to become popular. Note that these past two decades were dominated by top-down and centralized development intervention from the government. Starting the late 1970's towards 1980's, greater participation for organized groups came into rise. This was the beginning of more participatory approaches to community development with community-based and area-based remaining to be the important foci. Not much change was observed in the 1990's during which period development workers continued to adopt community-based and participatory approaches. The succeeding period witnessed the steady, sturdy popularity of community-based and participatory approaches to development. It is noteworthy however that in the more recent years, development interventions started to be more focused to the needs of specific groups such that welfare-based approach started to become popular during the 2000's. It is noteworthy that through the five decades of Philippine experience of community development, two development methods and strategies have remained to be popular probably because these have been found to be effective and efficient strategies for a successful development intervention. These are community education and community organizing.