Past World Community Development Conferences

 

World Community Development Conference 2023 'From the Edge'


Anastasia Crickley (IACD Past Vice President and former Trustee for Europe) - Short Reflection on WCDC 2023, Darwin

The Darwin WCDC given its location in Australia and Larrakia country provided a unique opportunity to take the action to demonstrate IACD's capacity to be global. Michelle (Dunscombe, IACD Vice Chair and Trustee for the Oceania Region) and her colleagues made this not just a visible marker for the conference but also provided a programme of different interventions from the diversity of people which form part of IACD and in particular from the peoples whose cultures have been part of what is now called Australia for more than sixty five thousand years.

Each session began with a respectful acknowledgment of the lands and people where we were. The very diverse inputs were challenging - because they directly forced both immediate de-colonisation of one's own best held assumptions and finding ways to go beyond agreement for the sake of inclusion and fear of being on the wrong side to seeking to create conditions for respectful and real dialogue. This journey which many of us are familiar with in our own contexts is by no means at its destination.

A number of other global issues always not far from our consciousness emerged again in Darwin. It was interesting to note that while these have local reflections most also have global connotations e.g., the state community development relationships, the nature and level of change sought, focusing on collective outcomes rather only than individual assistance, the status of community work/ community development. I left reinforced in my commitment to community development as a discipline in its own right, but with a commitment to encouraging other disciplines to use our diverse methods and approach; to the need for an inclusive profession based on values standards and education; to the need to acknowledge the diversity of methods and analyses which underpin practice while being clear about the overall understanding of what it's about; and to the need to ground our work globally, nationally and locally in the issues and oppressions of the day as experienced and identified by all and in particular by marginalised and minority communities.

The conference programme, keynote speakers and much more information about the WCDC23 can be found here: https://www.wcdc2023fromtheedge.org.au/
Videos of the conference can be found on our WCDC23 playlist on our YouTube Channel

Opening of the WCDC23 with Garramilla Dancers.

 

Virtual World Community Development Conference 2022 Ureki, Georgia


The first Virtual World Community Conference 2021 (WCDC2021) held from Nairobi, Kenya (June 2021, see below), set the stage for Virtual WCDC2022 which was subsequently held from Ureki, Georgia in October 2022. So as to ensure continuous learning and interaction with the wealth of community development knowledge and skills born out of learning, practice as well as lived experiences, the proceedings were recorded and are now archived under a dedicated YouTube Virtual WCDC link:https://www.youtube.com/c/VirtualWCDC

Conference Programme
Conference Book of Abstracts

Virtual World Community Development Conference 2021 Nairobi, Kenya


 

WCDC2021 was a celebration of community development – a discipline and practice that seeks to nurture the enduring community spirit that holds communities together.

It is a fact that community life occurs within contexts that are promotive of healthy communities but equally that also have shocks and uncertainties which pose a challenge to meeting even the basics of life including hope. Yet communities through their enduring connectedness are constantly engaged in efforts to bounce back, and indeed, often do bounce back in spite of the adversities within vulnerable contexts– largely because of drawing from the wide range of resources and assets from within and without the community.

Community development ethos and processes also enable communities to be resilient! Lastly, community development seeks to actualise communities’ goal of enhancing their staying power through sustainable empowerment interventions from within and without. It helps if community development is undertaken within a context that is predictable – where standards – ethical, legal and value driven – underpin the process.

WCDC21 Videos on YouTube
Conference Programme
Conference Book of Abstracts
Book that emerged from papers presented at the WCDC 2021 Nairobi Conference

 


World Community Development Conference 2019 Dundee, Scotland




Conference Vision

The nature of the relationship between people, place and power is changing and community work practices across the globe need to be able to influence these new global dynamics. Global challenges of climate change, forced and economic migration, increasing levels of mental ill health, isolation and loneliness alongside the rise of right-wing populism and threat to human rights mean that we need to find new ways of disrupting, challenging and revealing structures of power.

The city of Dundee has a rich history of social change, community activism and community arts and it is through celebrating the achievements of the city’s past that we will build spaces for engaged, practice-led dialogue that poses questions about the identity, purpose and practices of community development.

Reasons Delegates Attended

The conference provided a unique opportunity for practitioners, participants, academics, policy makers, funders and other stakeholders to share perspectives on current contexts and challenges for community work. The conference encompassed cutting edge inputs, papers, creative installations and poster presentations on rights-based community development, addressed and engaged locally, nationally and internationally.

Practice Exchanges

Following the main conference, delegates had the opportunity to take part in a one or three-day themed learning journey to see community development in action at the east coast of Scotland. This enabled a deeper understanding of the context and practice of community development in rural and urban settings in Dundee and neighbouring areas.

Conference Organisers

The conference organisers were the International Association for Community Development (IACD), the Scottish Government, the Community Learning and Development team at the University of Dundee, Dundee City Council, and Leisure and Culture Dundee, supported by Dundee and Angus Convention Bureau.


Conference Programme
Conference Book of Abstracts
Practice Insights Magazine Dundee Conference Edition
WCDC19 Videos on YouTube

World Community Development Conference 2018 Maynooth, Ireland

The 2018 World Community Development Conference provided a unique opportunity for practitioners, participants, academics, policy makers, funders and other stakeholders to share perspectives on current contexts and challenges for community work. The conference encompassed cutting edge inputs, papers, creative installations and poster presentations on rights-based community development, addressing and engaging locally, nationally and internationally with key current issues including:

  • Change and transformation
  • Impact and outcomes: Measuring and monitoring
  • The role of state agencies, regional and local authorities
  • Current rural and/or urban challenges
  • International development
  • Community economic development
  • Environmental/climate justice and sustainable development
  • Women’s rights
  • Gender
  • Poverty
  • Migration
  • Racism
  • Indigenous peoples and minority rights
  • Disability
  • Health
  • Community development standards, education and training
  • Community development and other disciplines
  • Civil and political rights
  • Economic, social, and cultural rights

Purpose: To provide a practical insight into the work of community workers and community development organisations in Ireland working on a range of national and local issues. The organisations visited will include those listed below.

Learning Objectives

  • To gain an overall understanding of:
    • issues facing communities in both Irish urban and rural  contexts
    • Irish community work, principles that inform it, methods used and outcomes achieved
  • To compare and contrast issues, approaches, methods and outcomes in Ireland and elsewhere
  • To consider how the approaches seen could be used in one’s own practice, research and teaching

Keynote Speakers

WCDC 2018 was thrilled to host a range of high level speakers from the community development sector, including Mary Robinson, Dr Peter Westoby, Anita Paul, Bernadette McAliskey, Jim Ife, Lynne Segal, Jose Francisco Cali Tzay, and Dr Yaser Alashqar.

Practice Exchanges

The conference was followed by two Practice Exchanges; one in Dublin and the other on the west coast of Ireland themed The Wild Atlantic Way. This Practice Exchange involved engaging with a number of projects and initiatives along Ireland’s beautiful west coast and off-shore islands, including rural, urban, family, Traveller, partnership and youth initiatives.

Conference organisers

The main partners were IACD, Community Work Ireland and the University of Maynooth. The conference received considerable support from the Irish and Scottish governments and Irish local authorities.


Conference Programme
Conference Book of Abstracts
Practice Insights Magazine Maynooth Conference Edition

Maynooth Declaration

Community Development for Rights, Recognition and Re-distribution

Recognising the many challenges, including poverty, racism and inequality, which are enduring features of all societies and present the context for community development throughout the world;

Acknowledging that the way we use and treat our world is unsustainable and that there is an urgent need for climate and environmental justice actions globally;

Emphasising the intersectional nature of poverty and oppression, which exacerbates injustice and rights abuses and systematically ignores and undermines the diversity of cultures, communities and peoples throughout our world;

Resisting neo-liberalism as a key contributor to the persistence and growth of poverty globally and the creation of  economic systems that sustain and deepen inequalities, eroding the capacity of national governments to uphold their responsibilities as human rights duty bearers;

Remembering the role community development workers have played in mobilising communities and creating the conditions for civil society to address needs, concerns and interests;

Reasserting our commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in this its 70th anniversary, the international human rights architecture enshrined in human rights treaties and covenants of the United Nations, as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals essential for our future and regional multilateral organisations across the globe;

We, the delegates at the World Community Development Conference held in Maynooth University, Ireland in June 2018, make the following declaration collectively:

We reaffirm community development as a process where people concerned with human rights, economic, social and environmental justice act collectively to change societal circumstances. With good processes determining good outcomes, community development will continue to address power imbalances and strengthen the capacities of rights holders to define, claim and realise their rights by holding stakeholders to account. Supporting and valuing the diversity of communities, community workers will continue to address the causes and consequences of marginalisation and oppression on the basis of key factors including but not exclusive to, gender, ‘race’ and class.

We value the on-going contribution of community development to addressing local to global concerns. We recognise its contribution to the deepening and invigorating of democracy,  in the creation of better policy, in enhancing equality and in realising rights, in contributing to social cohesion, and in strengthening the collective voice of communities experiencing poverty, prejudice, social exclusion and inequality in the decision making processes that affect their lives.

We reconfirm community development as a proven means of building a just, sustainable and peaceful world and call on local, national, regional and global authorities and governments to recognise, support and sufficiently resource independent community work through appropriate political leadership, funding, policy and legislation.