UDS, Mastercard Foundation’s new project pushes for Africans to have a say in community development projects

A new project spearheaded by the University for Development Studies (UDS) and Mastercard Foundation is pushing for Africans to have a say in the development of their communities.

The Project, dubbed ‘Made in Africa MEL Indaba’ aims at developing a concept to ensure that Africa moves away from centring its development on ‘unfavourable’ European modules to a more indigenous African module that ensures full community participation in the development process.

It also aims at decolonizing monitoring and evaluation of projects in Africa where the best of African cultures would be considered.

UDS believes the status quo in monitoring and evaluating projects is euro-centered where European philosophies such as capitalism, individualism and others not related to Africans define development in African communities.

These philosophies, according to the university, make it difficult for the successful implementation of projects across the continent.

Hardi Shahadu, a lecturer at the UDS and a leading member of the project told journalists at the opening of a three-day international conference on the project in Tamale on Monday that the concept when developed, would ensure development projects are tailored towards community needs.

This he added will allow African communities to decide how their communities are developed and participate fully in the process.

“We want the voices of Africans to be at the centre stage when it comes to defining development. Until now, if you have an NGO and you have money, you just go into the community and say, okay it looks like they don’t have a clinic, so I’ll build them a clinic” Mr Hardi said.

“We want to say that if you’re an NGO or donor or a funder and you have resources, go into the community and ask them what do they need, what is most important to them, they will now tell you what is important out of the myriad of challenges they have and then you take they say and build your project around that,” he noted.

Participants for the three-day conference are drawn from over 15 African countries including Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, and Cameroon, among others.