Sixteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Since 2010 a Community Asset Mapping Programme (CAMP) was presented in various traditional rural communities in South Africa, the purpose of the programme was to empower communities towards reducing their own levels of poverty and inequality in order to improve their quality of life. Unlike similar tools, CAMP advocates that the success of roots-driven change depend on the inclusion of processes that allow community members to identify the various levels of power and trust within the community and to use this information to make a number of cognitive changes that will provide the basis of independent and sustainable change in communities. The poster presents the CAMP sessions undertaken within the communities that helped them to focus on the human, social, cultural, and environmental capital as a means to create small business opportunities within their own communities. The processes, successes, and challenges encountered by internal and external stakeholders in these communities in their ongoing journey to create a better life for themselves is also presented. The ongoing research grounded within the post-development theory has established specific roles responsibilities of all external partners in any sustainable development initiatives and these are described within the context of this theory as those who would be willing to provide funding, mentorship, and skills to a community, but are prepared to stand aside and allow communities to establish their own priorities for sustainable socio-economic change.