AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES ON YOUTH EMPOWERMENT IN LIBERIA

Abstract

The study sought to find out the different CDP sub-programmes; the approaches and methods in actualizing CDP; the knowledge and skills utilization; Impact of CDP on youth’s attitudes and behaviors change towards development and how it addressed youth challenges; and challenges faced during the CDP implementation for youth empowerment. The research methods used included among others descriptive cross-sectional consider with a combination of subjective and quantitative information strategies. The respondents of the study were the youth, local and the locale leaders, and staff of the implementing programmes. The data collection techniques included the key source interviews and/or in-depth interviews, questionnaires, FDGs, and documentary reviews covering two all regions the programmes were implemented in montserrado county. The study findings revealed that the different CDP sub-components carried out were blocks making, training and teaching, soap production, life skills, agriculture, VSLA and business management. The study revealed that the approaches community uses were top down, bottom up, empowerment, and right based approaches respectively. The method identified were directive, non-directive, and integrated methods as mentioned by the youth. The skills utilization were mixed with the different CDP sub-projects. They consider found out that the impact were inventiveness and development, sense of autonomy, self awareness, demands for encourage aptitudes, carpentry works, and the challenges revealed by the study are poor education and training, imbalance and prohibition, the fetched of implementation, weak framework, political impedances, and land struggle. Evidently, with the different literature and the gaps cited in them, the most critical contributions made by the study in fulfilling the gaps was that the development laborers particular should be able to work for the advantage of youth (as their target beneficiaries); with the youth as partners; and be formed by youth as leaders. The study showed that CDP does not cater to problems that are beyond the capacity of youth, because CDP is demand-driven, it tends to select communities that already have in kind commitments and planning capacity, this means that, in the nonattendance of careful selection criteria, the poorest communities with restricted capacity are crowded out. The process of CD programmes sub-projects to reach approval or financial closure and receipts of reserves lengthy and laborious.