Unisa online - Cooperation between the Centre for Development Studies

Programme in Development for Development Practitioners training in Swaziland in February 2009: Ms Debi Balladon (Unisa facilitator), Obama (student), Ms Winnie Mokgupi (Unisa facilitator), and Ms Teresia Njoki (Kenya: World Vision Coordinator of Development Facilitator's training)

World Vision has partnered with Unisa to offer a two-year certificate course in Development Studies to its staff.

According to Dr Derica Kotzé, Centre for Development studies (CDS), the focus of World Vision's development efforts is to contribute towards poverty alleviation projects that could improve the living conditions and standards of poor and disadvantaged communities. "This requires development practitioners in the government sector, non-governmental organisations and private sector who are skilled in finding appropriate solutions to desperate problems and needs. The selection, planning and implementation of development projects ultimately determine the extent to which projects are successful in contributing meaningfully to the sustained improvement of living conditions," she said.

In 1999, the CDS entered into a partnership agreement with World Vision International (WVI), which involved the development of an Advanced Certificate Programme in Development to train World Vision ADP managers working in various African countries.

The CDS presented this programme in cooperation with World Vision and provided training in the following modules:

Poverty and development
Participatory learning and action
Development project planning and design
Development project implementation
Development project monitoring and evaluation

In 2003, this programme was adapted and rewritten in outcomes-based format to bring it in line with SAQA regulations and NQF requirements. It was approved and is now called the Programme in Development for Development Practitioners.

Between 1999 and 2007, a total of 351 WVI ADP managers from countries as far afield as Kenya, DRC, Mali, Sudan, Chad and Kenya, to name but a few, were trained through distance education and residency workshops. In 2007, World Vision approached the CDS with a request to present the Programme in Development for Development Practitioners to World Vision Development Facilitators who work as field staff on grassroots level in different African countries.

In 2008, 64 World Vision development facilitators were trained in Zimbabwe and 76 in Malawi. In 2009, a group of 72 development facilitators from Swaziland and 59 from Uganda are enrolled for the programme. Residency workshops take place in the relevant country and one two-day workshop and one three-day workshop are presented by Unisa lecturers in each country.

The primary purpose of the programme is to provide development practitioners with the necessary knowledge and skills in the planning, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of community-based development projects to contribute to successful and appropriate development initiatives among disadvantaged communities.

A second purpose of the programme is to enable development practitioners to facilitate participatory research exercises to ensure that local communities are involved in the design of development projects through their meaningful participation, control and inputs in the development process.

A third purpose of the programme is to enable development practitioners to apply the project-based approach flexibly in project planning for development to ensure sustainable, holistic and relevant development projects among local communities.

A fourth purpose of the programme is to enable development practitioners to apply a practical approach in planning the operational details of a development project and its implementation.

The fifth and final purpose of the qualification is to enable development practitioners to develop a framework for monitoring and evaluating sustainable community-based development projects.

Mombasa at a training workshop for development facilitators

Mombasa at a training workshop for development facilitators