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Community Economic Development

‘ubuntu’ - 'I Am Because We Are'

• Securing of external Funding and resources
• Formal Aid
• Crowdfunding

• Twinning Partners
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Pathways to Economic Development / Community Economic

Development

Economic Development is about providing pathways. That can mean providing roads buy
not necessarily that.

For ordinary Africans and regional / rural communities, the sort of pathway they need

is more one that allows them the chance to build an income.
It will be years before the Ethiopian government can be realistically expected to have

provided the sort of boost to the economic development that local communities like

Aksum need. UK International Aid could help with that. And each time UK International Aid
provides the basis for Community Economic Development in those regions far away from

Addis Ababa, that aid further stabilises Ethiopia as a whole.

Community Economic Development does not require vast sums. It needs thoughtful
application. Particularly so if development is to lead to sustainable local economic growth.

But as “Waxed Paper Matches in Uganda” illustrates, the starting point can even take the
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form of m'zuŋ u unwanted machinery. It can be a lot more than this but it does not need to
be. The criteria is simply can local people produce a sustainable form of income.

The challenge for UK International Aid is more one of whether it is set up in a way
where it can:

 Recognise the value of Community Economic Development - especially in Africa's LLDC
 Identify where those communities are
 Build up a programme (involving all strands of not just formal but also informal Aid
Resources) which is capable of providing the ingredients for Community Economic
Development and for nurturing a local community towards a point of a greater level of
economic self-sufficiency.
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