Literature on community development, especially on the recent developments in the field is scant and obsolete. The curriculum developed by universities and schools of social work, for teaching community development course, is not being updated in accordance with these developments. Several new approaches and techniques for facilitating project planning, monitoring and evaluation, new models for mobilizing people’s participation have emerged, which are not taught in the formal course on community development. Some of the new approaches and techniques such as the participatory rural appraisal, the project cycle management, the community information and planning system and the participatory learning and evaluation system are of paramount importance to the scholars, practitioners and students of community development. These are field-tested and found to be very useful in community work, and as such, literature on these approaches and tools is not easily available. Hence, an attempt is made through this book to provide a comprehensive account of all the new approaches and techniques. An additional feature of this book is about the case illustrations of these techniques in different situations and conditions in the context of Asian and African villages beset with similar problems, where application of participatory tools proves to be quite useful in the process of mobilization and empowering poor. The book consists of nine chapters that address various aspects of community development in the Asian and African context. Emerging themes such as social mobilization, empowerment, micro-credit and the participatory mechanisms are adequately addressed with appropriate case illustrations drawn from field.
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