Abstract
Most development theories have focused on socio-economic and political aspects of development with the exclusion of human centred development.However, this paper seeks to analyse the importance of participatory development in many african rural areas and the role played by local people in their own development. Most African governments due to pressing political and economic hardships have abandoned development of rural areas and this in turn has left different aid agencies playing the front role of developing these areas. Recent research has proven that if local people are involved in their own development through empowerment, sustainable development can be achieved.Different development aid agencies like NGOs tend to implement a top-down approach which excludes involvement and participation of local people and in turn leads to a dependency syndrome.Therefore, this paper emphasises rural development as a process that includes mass participation of local people in decision making processes and development of their local areas.Over the years development has mainly focused on the urban sector and lack of state provision of health, education, clean water and sanitation is restricted, exposing poor rural people to health risks, reducing their productivity and opportunities. Underlying this is the very fact that people do not participate in their own development and as such they are not in a position of authority to provide information on what they regard as important and necessary. The major problem in this regard is that government, aid agencies and other stakeholders that implement programmes to deal with rural development impose programmes on local authorities and communities creating a dependency syndrome due to non-participation of the community.  Read more...