CHAPTER 6
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
A community development assessment should be done
before a community develops a strategic plan, before it
develops action steps to address community problems.
 A good assessment forms the foundation for a
successful community and economic development
effort.
 Without a good assessment, communities are usually
“driving blind”
 The assessment will identify the strengths on which
planned development can be built and identify the
weaknesses that need to be eliminated or mitigated as
much as possible to give the community the best
probabilities for success.
ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING SITUATION
SWOT ANALYSIS
An analysis tool with a square segmented into 4 quadrants
containing the following:
 (S) strengths,
 (W) weaknesses,
 (O) opportunities,
 (T) Threats
 analysis assesses internal and external factors, as well as
current and future potential.
 Focuses on real-life contexts.
 It can help the community to analyze and devise a
successful strategy for the future.
 It can also uncover areas that are holding the
community back.

Internal Factors
Strengths
o excels at
o What do you do well?
o What unique resources can you draw on?
o What do others see as your strengths?
Samples:
o Existing local skills
o Abundant resources
o Infrastructure
o Tried and proven practices
Weakness
o performs poorly at, lacking
o What could you improve?
o Where do you have fewer resources than
others?
o What are others likely to see as weaknesses?
Samples:
Prevalent poverty
Lacking skills
Poor infrastructure
Poor Hygiene
External Factors
Opportunities
o Are favorable external factors that could
give the community a competitive
advantage.
o What opportunities are open to you?
o What trends could you take advantage of?
o How can you turn your strengths into
opportunities?
Samples:
Growing regional economy
Growing tourist arrivals
Little competition in a certain trade or product.
More land to develop into housing units.
Threats
o Factors that have the potential to harm the
community.
o What threats could harm you?
o What threats do your weaknesses expose
to you?
Samples:
Exposure to hazards
Increasing competition
Increasing prices of land
Higher opportunities in other areas
ACTION PLANNING
 An action plan is a description of the activities needed
to be done to move the community toward its vision.
 It can help the community turn their visions into reality,
and increase efficiency and accountability within an
organization.
 It describes the way your organization will meet its
objectives through detailed action steps that describe
how and when these steps will be taken.
 For each project that is identified, there should be
detailed plan of what needs to be done, who can do it,
when it will be done, what information is needed, and
what resources are necessary to implement the
strategy.
 Action plans should be prepared based on agreed on
 strategies and goals.
 Each action step or change to be sought should include
the following information:
 What actions or changes will occur
 Who will carry out these changes
 By when they will take place, and for how long
 What resources (i.e., money, staff) are needed to
carry out these changes
 Communication (who should know what?)
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The action should meet several criteria.
Is the action plan:
 Complete? Does it list all the action steps or
changes to be sought in all relevant parts of the
community (e.g., schools, business, government,
faith community)?
 Clear? Is it apparent who will do what by when?

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Current? Does the action plan reflect the current
work? Does it anticipate newly emerging
opportunities and barriers?
Reasons for Developing an Action Plan
 To lend credibility to your organization.
 To be sure you don't overlook any of the details
 To understand what is and isn't possible for your
organization to do
 For efficiency: to save time, energy, and resources
in the long run
 For accountability: To increase the chances that
people will do what needs to be done
ACTION PLANNING WORKSHOP
an eight stage process that uses the Focused Conversation
Method and the Consensus Workshop Method.
Develops a concrete plan with clear forms of accountability.
Steps:
1. Context – orientation, goals & objectives
2. Current reality – baseline, issues &
concerns
3. Victory- success indicators
4. Key actions – Interventions
5. Assignments- persons responsible
6. Commitment – Time & Resources
7. Calendar- Time Frame, Targets
8. Resolve- Confirmation
Context (Goals and Objectives)
the background to what is at hand and the outlining of the
process that is to be followed.
Goals
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person
or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve
(Locke, 1990).
Objectives
It is something toward which an effort is directed.
SMART goals are:
Specific: Well defined, clear, and unambiguous
Measurable: With specific criteria that measure your
progress toward the accomplishment of the goal
Achievable: Attainable and not impossible to achieve
Realistic: Within reach, realistic, and relevant to your life
purpose
Timely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting
date and a target date. The purpose is to create urgency.
Examples:
 Create new job opportunities to decrease
unemployment and poverty levels within the
community.

Design a community that have inclusive amenities which
encourages social interaction to cultivate a sociable and
participative citizenry.
Current reality
what is the current situation, including what resources are
available.

Existing/lacking Resources
Geographic limitations and hazards

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Social Infrastructure

Socio-economic conditions
Heath & Hygiene

Income of Families

Community Finances


Jobs
Safety & Security

Education

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Etc.
Examples:
 20% Unemployment
 60% living below the poverty threshold
 The area located in the North-east accounting for 30%
of the community’s area is considered a landslide
hazard.
 Lacking community & recreational facilities such as a
community hall & basketball court.
Victory (Success Indicators)
identifying what success will look like.
Success Indicators
the successful extent of the interventions made as an
answer to the issues and concerns.
Examples:
 Unemployment reduced to 5%
 Families living below the poverty threshold reduced to
15%
 The area located in the North-east is preserved as an
open space with 100% of affected families relocated to
safe locations.
 100% implementation of the community hall &
basketball court.
Key actions (Interventions)
what are the key tasks and implementation steps that need
to be completed.
It can be in the following form:
Strategies - A method or plan chosen to
bring about a desired future, such as
achievement of a goal or solution to a
problem.
Examples:
Tap the existing sustainable loca bamboo resources and
create a local bamboo industry with the collaboration of local
businesses and the Bamboo Technology Resource Center
–MSU-IIT.
Policies - a deliberate system of principles to guide decisions
and achieve rational outcomes or a statement of intent, and
is implemented as a procedure or protocol.
Examples:
 All community facilities and amenities shall be inclusive
and accessible.


Building materials for the construction of relocation
houses shall be sustainably sourced to minimize the
environmental impact of the project.
The Urban design of the neighborhood shall adapt the
principles of walkability, connectivity and
self-sufficiency.
Programs - a set of related measures or activities with a
particular long-term aim.
Examples:
 Feeding program
 Provide proper nutrition to malnourished children
to improve their heath and well-being.
 Activities: Determine beneficiaries, distribute food
supplements, provide breakfast & lunch meals,
monitoring
 Skills Development program
 Provide training to unemployed community
members to gain new skills and address the lack of
workforce within the local industry
 Activities: Coordination with local industries,
Provide skills training/ on the job training
Projects - An undertaking that can be carried out individually
or collaboratively which may require careful planning to
achieve a particular aim.
Examples:
 Relocation housing project
 Community hall and basketball court project
 Seawall project
 Farm to Market road project
Assignments (Persons Responsible)
allocating roles to group members. Including who will lead
and where does accountability and responsibility for each key
task or implementation step lie.
Examples:
 Feeding program
 Cooking for meals: Community members cooks
with daily salaries.
 Heath Monitoring: Barangay heath clinic
Commitment (Time & Resources allocated)
identifying and stating what each group member or
stakeholder will contribute and deliver.
Examples:
 Feeding program
 Cooking for meals: World food program (WFP) will
allocate 500 thousand pesos for the salaries of
cooks and ingredients per month.
 Heath Monitoring: Barangay heath workers
monitor the children’s weight every week for
3-months.
Calendar (Targets)
the placing of key tasks or implementation steps on an action
timeline.
Examples:
 Feeding program
 Cooking for meals: World food program (WFP) will
allocate 500 thousand pesos for the salaries of
cooks and ingredients per month.
 Heath Monitoring: Barangay heath workers
monitor the children’s weight every week for
3-months.
Resolve
confirming the group’s plan and their level of commitment
and motivation to implementing it.
CHAPTER 7
COMMUNITY PLANNING DEVELOPMENT
MONITORING & EVALUATION
 It is a group of activities and indicators to measure a
project’s ongoing success in relation to clearly defined
outputs.
 It allows you to assess progress and achievements in
line with your objectives.
 M&E offers a tangible way to ensure that your project is
accountable, transparent, minimizes collateral damage
and actively identifies wasteful processes and poor
performance.
Why is Monitoring & Evaluation important?
 Communities are seldom interested in monitoring and
are primarily concerned with getting things done.
 However there are multiple reasons why it is useful to
measure its progress and evaluate its efforts:
 To keep people involved and informed about the
progress
 To better manage policies, programs and projects
 To measure the performance of an Organization or
an intervention
 To determine if the program is a success or a
failure
 To learn and document the experience
 To determine the failures and correct it
 To establish Accountability and Transparency to
supporters and funders
 To gain more support for future endeavors
MONITORING
 It occurs throughout the project to ensure you are
meeting your objectives.
 It provides direct insight into the activity’s impacts.
 Tracks movement of indicators towards the
achievement of specific, predetermined targets.
 Clarifies program objectives
 Links activities and their resources to objectives
 Translates objectives into performance indicators and
sets targets and baselines
 Routinely collects data on these indicators, compares
actual results withtargets
 Reports progress to managers and alerts them to
problems

if the deadlines are met

if the resources allocated are appropriate
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if the amount of work is manageable
if the group is working effectively & efficiently
Traditional monitoring focuses on implementation
monitoring
 Involves tracking inputs (money, resources,
strategies)
 Activities (what actually took place)
 Outputs ( products & services
 Produced)
More on monitoring how well a project, program or
policy is being implemented
Often used to assess compliance with work plans &
budget.
Results-based monitoring
 Involves the regular collection of information on
how effectively the is performing.
 Important to determine whether a project,
program, or policy

Performance Indicators
 A variable that tracks the changes in the development
intervention or shows results relative to what was
planned.
 The cumulative evidence of a cluster of indicators is use
 to see if an initiative is making progress.
 Normally accompanied by a measurable target - often a
percentage - to help quantify success.
 There are different types of indicators you can use:
 Objectively Verifiable Indicators
 Indirect Indicators
 Qualitative Indicators
Objectively Verifiable Indicators
 Show the important characteristics of the
objectives and the performance standard expected
to be reached in terms of quantity, quality, time
frame and location.
Example:
Target: Increased access to healthy community facilities &
amenities
Indicators: # of households that can access a community park
within a 400 meter walking distance.
Indirect Indicators
 assess the achievement of a target in an indirect way
 These are indicators you can use if the outcome cannot
be measured directly
Happiness of the Workforce:
 Tracking the number of sick days or work leaves taken
by staff.
 There is a 80% drop of staff taking sick leaves after 7
hours work time was implemented 4 months ago
Qualitative Indicators
 an important indicator when seeking to understand how
the ‘process’ of your project is being received by the
community.
 Give insight into how satisfied beneficiaries are with
your project, whether the project has led to sustainable
behavioral changes
 Can be hard to analyse → you can still use Objectively
Verifiable Indicators (usually a percentage) even if your
indicators are qualitative.
Example:
# of families perception about their financial status
50% of families reported less stressed about their finances.
EVALUATION
 Takes a broader view, considering progress toward
stated goals, the logic of the initiatives, and its
consequences.
 Done by month, quarter or annually.
 Important to conduct after a project is completed.
 Allows the organization to reflect upon and analyze the
collected data from the monitoring activities
 Analyzes why intended results were or were not
achieved
 Assesses specific casual contributions of activities
to results
 Examines implementation process
 Explores unintended results
 Provides lessons, highlights significant
accomplishment or program potential, and offers
recommendations for improvement
Evaluation Addresses:
WHY
- on what causes the changes we are monitoring
HOW
- what was the sequence or processes that led to successful
outcomes
Compliance/ Accountability
- Did the promised activities actually take place and as they
are planned
Process/ Implementation
- Was the implementation process followed as anticipated,
and with what consequences.