Village Earth

The roots of Village Earth's approach^[7] to community development grew from the reformist tradition of development which emerged in the 1970s as a reaction to liberal and neoliberal development policies which were blamed for increasing income gap and as well as increasing human migration from rural to urban areas around the globe.^[8][9] To address this situation, reformist approaches attempt to achieve greater equity, sustainability, and local self-reliance through an integrated multi-sector approach emphasizing the use of "appropriate technology" the creation of local participatory institutions.^[10]

While the roots of the Village Earth approach can be traced to reformist traditions of development,^[11] it combined many practices used in community development programs around the world in a new way. In particular these include:

1. A sustainable livelihoods approach which recognizes the multi-layered and interrelated survival strategies of rural families and communities and seeks to build on assets and eliminate underlying constraints through an ongoing process of participatory reflection and action.
2. The clustering^[12][13] and networking of local institutions to promote regional self-reliance without compromising local autonomy.
3. The development of multi-sector service centers to link local institutions to local, regional, and global resources.
4. The creation of mutual agreements and clarification of roles between internal and external activators (locals and outside community workers).

Village Earth differs from many traditional development NGOs^[14] in the following ways:

1. At the heart of the Village Earth approach is the recognition that lack of access to resources, such as land, clean water and credit, is the fundamental issue faced by the majority of the world's poor. Ending global poverty is not as simple as just increasing people's income. Rather, to be sustainable, poverty alleviation programs must work to increase the fundamental rights of poor communities to access resources while building long-enduring and equitable institutions for their protection and management.^[15]
2. Influenced by the ideas and methods of Paulo Freire, Village Earth engages in a long-term dialog with communities to reveal and transform the underlying, and often inter-generational, causes of poverty.^[16][17] This approach differs from the approach used by many NGOs, which often define the problem, draft the proposal, and project a timeline prior to their engagement with communities.^[18]
3. Rather than focusing on problems impacting communities, Village Earth starts with a community's long-term vision for the future. According to the organization, if communities focus only on "fixing" problems, they may not actually be transforming the underlying structural contradictions causing their problems. By first clarifying a long-term and shared vision for the future, communities are free to imagine an entirely different future and begin working to create it . This principle goes against theories of development based on modernization which locate the concept of development in a continuum of progress, mostly based on Western cultural and economic concepts.
4. The necessity for the tandem use of appropriate hard and soft technology, a concept pioneered by Village Earth founder, Maurice L. Albertson. According to Albertson (1992)^[19] "It is the structure and process of social participation and action by individuals and groups in analyzing situations, making choices, and engaging in choice-implementing behaviors that bring about change. As with hard technology, the appropriate soft technology is related to the villages being able to organize, operate, and maintain the technology with a minimum of outside technical assistance (e.g., from professional social workers). It usually aims at changing the sociopolitical environment.^[20]"

Village Earth can be most closely classified within a specialized subset of Intermediate NGOs, referred to in the literature as "Grassroots Support Organizations" or GSOs. According to Carroll (1992): "A GSO is a civic development entity that provides services allied support to local groups of disadvantaged rural and urban households and individuals. In its capacity as an intermediate institution, a GSO forges links between beneficiaries and the often remote levels of government, donor and financial institutions. It may also provide services indirectly to other organizations that support the poor or perform coordinating or networking functions. It may also provide services indirectly to other organizations that support or perform coordinating or networking functions.^[21][22]"

Village Earth advances its mission through the following means:

1. Providing grassroots support services to communities in the form of training, networking, research, and organizational sponsorship.
2. Training and consulting with other intermediate and resources organizations in our approach and methods.
3. Promoting the development and dissemination of appropriate technology information.