The United Nations defines Community Development as “a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems”

Community led development is about empowerment and working together to achieve common visions and goals It involves the collaborative working of all sectors towards a mutually held objective, sharing resources and learning, changing leadership to achieve outcomes required and having local ownership and management of the outcome(s) *

Effective Community Transformation methods typically include

• community based (owned and led by the community)
• empowering local communities to identify and implement the projects they most need.
• participatory approach
• values and uses local resources
• capacity development
• local stewardship of the immediate environment, language & folklore
• addressing of gender issues
• management of local environmental and natural resources (water management, improved soil productivity, etc.)
• focus on community transformation, empowerment and reproduction
• holistic approach
• focuses on the poor within the community