Slum dwellers' diagnosis of their own needs: implications for community development in Nigeria
Nwangwu, Rosemary E. (1998)
In: Development in Practice, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 225-228
A reconceptualization is moving development from a mental map that casts people as ignorant and dependent on the experts to diagnose the directions in which their development should move, to one which sees people knowing best what is good for them. This paradigm shift sees humanity as the most important factor in development, and development in community clusters as a good strategy for national development. This article, describing research done for a doctoral thesis with the objective of designing a health education programme for six slum communities in Lagos State, illustrates the changing approach to development. Participatory research, involving male and female community members, was used to decide what the inhabitants themselves regarded as their area of need. The communities manifested a squalor-like existence: hygiene was poor, homes overcrowded, drainage systems were blocked, toilets were lacking in many homes, drinking water was unavailable, and illiteracy predominated. However, through a sense of self-determination, community members had begun improving their communities themselves. They had constructed roads, acquired electricity, dug gutters, constructed communal toilets and generally planned their communities.
A semi-structured interview technique enabled community members to enumerate what they needed to make their lives better including: drinking water, better roads, canals to prevent flooding, drainage, electricity, education for children and adults, dredging equipment, improved fishing systems, better buildings, a police post, libraries and recreational activities. None of the members of these six communities regarded health education as important since they were unable to recognize the relationship between diseases and germs in the physical environment. Before the use of participatory strategies in community development, some agencies have chosen projects and installed infrastructure without consulting the community concerned and this has led to the neglect or even abuse of these physical structures. In one of these six communities, for example, a project-driven market, recreational facility, health centre, community hall, drainage system, and even water pipes were in a state of utter abuse even though current research had shown that the inhabitants had felt these improvements would make their lives better. The researchers decided that another blunder would have been committed if a health education programme had been pushed through based on the researchers' assessment of community needs.
Changing to an "entry point" strategy, researchers planned with the community how to get funds for the priority projects identified by each community, and the use and care of the proposed facilities for maximum and lasting benefit, all of which was received with enthusiasm. Entry points are the community's real needs, and careful identification of these points enables the development worker to enter the community and win people's trust and confidence. Perhaps through the successful satisfaction of a community's needs, health and hygiene education can be successfully introduced where appropriate.
