Welcome to IACD

First a word of apology that this website is only in English. We have members from over 70 countries and just do not have the resources to produce the website in many languages. At the bottom of the HOME page you will find a Google Translate button and whilst this is far from perfect, the translations are improving. Periodically we publish in more than one language, the most recent example being the International Standards for Community Development Practice.

IACD is the global multi-disciplinary network for professional community development practitioners. We are committed to promoting 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. We are accredited with the UN and have members across the world. If you are a development agency manager, funder, fieldwork practitioner, academic, student, or volunteer community activist IACD can help you through our international conferences, practice exchanges, events and publications.

What do we mean by community development?

“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.”

Why a global multi-disciplinary network?

Community development is a multi-disciplinary profession, with practitioners working in very many areas from health to local economic development, adult education to social work, environmental work to community work and much more, at many levels including as agency managers. What we all share is an approach to working with people within their communities in educative, organisational and empowering ways. Few practitioners in our profession are called community development workers, with the majority working across many employment fields and with a myriad of job titles. As well as paid practitioners, there are also many who may be unpaid or working in a voluntary capacity. Likewise, we have many working as community development educators in colleges and universities, students training to start a career this field, or others undertaking community development research or working as policy advisers. IACD is open to all. IACD together with national community development associations in some countries, provides a support infrastructure for you and opportunities to get involved in global networking and collaboration.

Please take a look around the many pages on this website. There are many ways IACD will support you. For example:

We organise the annual World Community Development Conference each year with national partners.

And we also do this:

 

IACD members outside the United Nations in New York 

We publish a magazine called Practice Insights

We organise small group study visits, called  Practice Exchanges. This group went to India

We co-organise regional conferences with national CD associations. This one was in Africa

We publish reports. This one is on community development standards.

Join us today and become a part of this dynamic global multi-disciplinary network.
IACD has a membership fee based upon the income and type of member wishing to join. We are open to both individuals, organisations and national community development associations across our seven global regions. We are a membership led, not-for-profit, non governmental organisation, with an elected international Board from all parts of the world. Members commit to building a global network of people and organisations working to promote participative democracy, sustainable development, rights, economic opportunity, equality and social justice through community development. We do hope you will join IACD. You can find out more here: www.iacdglobal.org/join-us