IACD CONSULTATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL POLICY STATEMENT ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND STANDARDS FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE

We wish to engage members in the process of developing IACD’s Policy Statement on an International Code of Ethics and Occupational Standards, which we hope to publish in May 2017. As part of this consultation we shall be holding a consultative session at our forthcoming international conference in New Zealand this February. (http://www.aotearoacommunitydevelopmentassociation.com/2017-cd-conference)

This builds upon the two Policy Position Statements we published last year –the new Global definition of Community Development and  the association’s Policy Statement on Community Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (see https://www.iacdglobal.org/position-statements).

At IACD’s last international conference in the USA in 2016, the Board adopted its Global Definition of 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.”

The reason we wanted to publish a statement as to how the association defined Community Development, was that it was clear from our research that Community Development was being interpreted very widely and loosely by different training providers in different countries. IACD, as the international professional association, wanted to encourage the field of practice to agree a commonality of understanding as to what the profession of Community Development is all about.

Our intention is to now use this global definition as the starting point for devising and promoting international standards and codes of ethics for Community Development practice and for the education and training of Community Developers.

At a time when there are increasing challenges and employment opportunities for Community Development practice across the world, the most significant being the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), it is essential for our profession to take stock and to reassess whether the Community Development training that currently exists is based upon a robust set of standards and values that respond to those challenges and inform our thinking and practice.

In recent years a number of national Community Development associations and agencies have produced National Standards for Community Development. These describe what a person needs to do, know and understand to carry out good quality Community Development practice, and assist in the professional development of the workforce by promoting good practice, bringing together the skills, knowledge and values that underpin the work.

In addition there has been a growing interest in producing Codes of Ethics for professional practice.  Such Codes are used to:

• Express the distinctiveness or identity of CD
• Articulate the shared value base that we have
• Challenge, examine and reflect on our practice
• Promote professional dialogue and understanding
• Provide accountability
• Offer reassurance and protection, for workers and the communities they work in
• Deal with tensions with other partners and define our limits in partnership work
• Support learning for new entrants and students.

We recognise that not all IACD members will be able to attend the February conference. So we are hoping to provide a livestream facility to enable those who cannot attend to engage in the consultation session. In addition we are keen to hear your thoughts about our proposal to adopt international occupational standards and a code of ethics for Community Development Practice. It may be that you already have such statements in your country that we are not aware of.  Please send these to Charlie McConnell, our immediate Past President, who has agreed to gather this material together charliesmcconnell@gmail.com  Charlie is part of a joint team led by the IACD Training and Policy Committees. If you are interested in participating via Livestream in the consultation workshop, please let Charlie know before the end of February.

Following the February conference, we shall draft the Position Statement which will be sent for comment to all IACD members. This consultation period will run until the end of March, after which a final draft will be submitted to the full IACD Board for adoption.

We very much look forward to hearing from you.

Paul Lachapelle, President IACD

Tony Kimbowa, Chair, IACD Policy Committee

John Stansfield, Chair, IACD Training Committee

We are appending some further reading with this letter to give members more background information about this initiative. Examples of Standards and Codes can be found below. [1]

Further background:

1. Research by IACD has identified several hundred graduate level training programmes which include Community Development as a part of the undergraduate degree[2]. Some were specialist Community Development degrees; others link community development with other disciplines such as Health, Economic Development, Social Work, Rural Development or International Development. This research did not look in detail at what these degrees taught nor tried to assess their quality, but the fact they exist and are marketed as providing education and training to enable students to enter a career in Community Development indicates that practice is taking place in many countries across the developing and developed world.
2. IACD does not have information has to the size of this workforce internationally, but anecdotal evidence from the members attending the IACD/CDS workshops and generally from IACD members around the world, indicates that since the financial crash in 2008 and subsequent public sector cuts there has been a significant fall in the number of community development practitioners employed directly by public bodies, such as local government. In addition reduction in public expenditure has also influenced the funding available for non-governmental organisations working nationally and internationally to employ community development type posts. That said a very rough guesstimate of the international professional community development workforce would run into many tens of thousands.
3. The adoption of the SDGs by the U.N. presents a huge opportunity for Community Developers to demonstrate how to build the capacities of communities to engage in the SDG agenda, whether that be strengthening the resilience of communities to deal with climate change, to health promotion, poverty reduction and lifelong education.
4. In 2016 the Board of IACD approved the 2016-20 Strategic Plan. This included the following strategic priority – To advocate for the discipline and the methods of Community Development. This has been taking taken forward in the Association’s work plan, working with national partners.  This includes:

• Adopting the global definition of Community Development in July 2016 and the Policy Statement on CD and the SDGs.
• Creating the Global Community Development Exchange[3], an on-line repository of teaching and learning materials which encourages trainers and practitioners to deposit and access resources from around the world.
• Organising professional development conferences in Asia, North America, Europe, Africa and Oceania with plenary presentations and case study workshops looking at the role CD is already playing and might play with regards to the SDGs.
• Organising an official Side Event at the U.N. SDG High Level Political Forum in July 2016 highlighting the contribution of Community Development
• Publishing a Special Issue of its magazine Practice Insights on CD and the SDGs, sent to members in December 2016.

1. The fact that different national CD networks and agencies have produced National Occupational Standards and Codes is a tremendous starting point. Over the past two decades or more work has been undertaken in different countries to agree the competences required for practice and thereby what knowledge, skills and values practitioners should have. The National Standards and Codes that we identified however have generally emerged in developed countries and primarily for work within those countries. IACD is not aware of National Occupational Standards or Codes of Ethics having been devised for Community Development practice in developing countries, although some may exist. Also all of the Standards that we have identified pre-date the adoption of the SDGs and need to be adapted in light of that.