Question

Why is a community developers like you advised not to ‘focus on the symptoms’ when facilitating community development projects or programmes? Explain with a practical example

Answer 1

When taking up a certain project, which is what community development means - activities are taken up to affect a change in the workings of the community to uplift - it is necessary to strategize the desired output and policy change in a way that the project is more long terms than it is myopic. And in that sense it is generally advised to not focus too heavily on the symptoms of the problem, but rather focus more on the deep seated or rooted problem.

For instance, if one ones to lower the gendered discrimination in the community then one cannot merely go about asking people to hire more women or the like, which are essentially symptoms of something deeper. But it would need a stronger approach towards the policy/act such as - providing women tools of empowerment to uplift their status and/or to have a social awareness campaign that seeks to remove certain misconceptions from the bottom up. You can't be too focused on symptoms, you need to go from the deep rooted end and tackle the issue.