Management of Community Based-Organsations

Since about the mid-1990s, there has been growing interest in the development community in the work of “community-based organisations” (CBOs). Many agencies have sought to provide grants to enable these organisations to grow and become effective in the delivery of services to their constituencies. Community-based organisations play an important and relevant role in providing services at the local level. They work in a variety of different fields, such as education, health, the rights of the disabled, gender issues, etc. Wise management of the organisation can contribute significantly to ensuring the effectiveness of the work that it does. Many people define community in different ways. This module argues that the community includes not only the people living in a certain location, but also the local government, local business sectors, local academic bodies and NGOs. Because of this characteristic community based organisations work well with the concept of local governance and decentralisation. Community involvement in both community and organisational governance is seen as the pillar for development projects sustainability..

Emmanuel Dumbu is Faculty of Commerce and Law Post Graduate Programme Coordinator at Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) Masvingo Region. He completed MBA from ZOU (Zimbabwe), BAdmin Economics from UNISA (S.A), and C.E from Morgenster Teachers' College (Zimbabwe). His area of interest is economics, project management, and economic development.