Following consultation with IACD members, presentation and finalisation of the draft text at the Minnesota international conference, the IACD Board has approved a new Global Definition of Community Development.
Presenting the new definition to the conference, IACD President Charlie McConnell called upon all national community development associations and societies, the U.N, governmental, non-governmental and private sector funders and employers, the H.E. professional training institutions and national CD training standards bodies, to adopt the new Global Definition.
Charlie McConnell said that “for too long community development had been used to mean all things to all people. It was time that the profession itself had a much clearer exposition of what it is that we do and that we are. For the first time, we have a definition that speaks for our profession and has been written by it. This will help policy advisers, funders, employers, practitioners, trainers and students seeking to enter a career in this work, to more clearly understand what our profession is all about, wherever they may be working around the world.”
All IACD members are asked to publicise and promote the new definition –
“Community development is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes participative democracy, sustainable development, rights, economic opportunity, equality and social justice, through the organisation, education and empowerment of people within their communities, whether these be of locality, identity or interest, in urban and rural settings”.
