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What is development?

What is development?

Development involves helping communities identify their needs and working with them to come up with long-term solutions.

At World Vision, we define ‘development’ not just as a higher standard of living, but as a process that allows poor communities to take control of their situations, identify their most critical needs, and work together to find solutions.

This holistic approach recognises people’s physical, social, spiritual, economic and political needs. It helps people to deal not only with immediate problems like malnutrition and disease, but with underlying causes such as unemployment and illiteracy.

Area Development Programs

Area Development Programs (ADPs) are child-focused, community-based development projects.

ADPs focus on a specific geographic area; large enough to have some regional impact, yet small enough to have a major impact on selected communities.

ADP activities vary depending on the needs of the community. They may focus on clean water, education, agriculture, preparing for natural disasters, healthcare, micro enterprise development or leadership skills. Developing the community’s ability to advocate for change is also often included.

An ADP will typically run for 10 to 15 years. Before starting, World Vision staff will spend about two years working with the community to identify their current capacity and their needs, and then together they will plan activities.

ADPs aim to create lasting changes. Community groups, families and individuals share in project leadership and activities from the start and receive training and support so that they can continue in these roles when World Vision leaves.