Doing grassroots: The organization of local communities in development cooperation

ABSTRACT The recent decades have seen an increased demand for the particpition of local communities in developmental projects. This has lead to greater transnational support for and growth of ›grassroots‹ organizations. The aim of this research paper is to analyze how cooperation between local communities and global development organizations is practically made possible and to contribute toward an understanding of the underlying processes and practices that are applied in such cooperations. In order to do so, this study examines an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that is working with local communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The information used in this paper was collected during an ethnographic field study in 31 community projects in Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia, including 18 key informant interviews and 77 focus group discussions. The study suggests that transnational social support leads to the establishment of grassroots organizations through a range of organizational practices. It also illustrates that local social support structures are dynamic and flexible, responding to a range of issues within their environment and from external conditions. In the development context, community-based organizations thus need to be understood as structures that are interactively created through complex social interactions between development organizations and local support networks.