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Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD) - Call for papers!

People's Response to Local Government-initiated Community Development Projects in Eastern Samar

(Philippines), Doctor of Philosophy in Community Development (University of the Philippines Los Baños)

Dissertation Abstract:

This study sought to determine the nature of people's response to local government-initiated community development projects and the factors associated with their response to such projects in selected barangays (villages) in Eastern Samar, Philippines. The study surveyed 344 respondents. The main respondents were barangay residents, while barangay council officials served as key informants on selected issues. Data were gathered through personal interviews.

Most of the local government-initiated community development projects undertaken in the barangays in 1980-83 were infrastructure, health-sanitation-beautification, and service-oriented projects. Livelihood, religious, and educational projects were rarely carried out. Infrastructure projects incurred the highest expenditures, followed by education, service, and health-sanitation-beautification projects. Livelihood projects had the lowest expenditure.

The different projects undertaken were acceptable to a greater number of respondents who considered them necessary than those who did not. Sixty percent of the respondents were active in various local government-initiated community development projects in 1980-83 while specific manual activities and rarely in planning, decision-making, and management. None of them got involved in the project evaluation.

About one-third of the respondents expected to take part in the implementation of the project in the near future and the majority were willing to get involved in its succeeding implementation. They were inclined to take part not only in the manual activities but also in planning, decision-making, and project evaluation.

Nine objectives and 21 values of implementing local government-initiated community development projects were perceived by the respondents. Nearly half of them also perceived some bad outcomes of its implementation.

Generally, the respondents had favorable attitudes toward certain aspects of local government-initiated community development projects and their operation. They also showed favorable attitude toward participation in community development work.

Sixteen factors were identified by both groups of respondents influencing people's participation in local government-initiated development project. Likewise, they identified 12 conditions likely to hinder inclination to participate in the project. The respondents had significantly different perceptions on the factors that affect people's propensity to participate in local government-initiated development projects. However, they agreed on the effects of the factors identified. Several personal, social, and project-inherent variables were observed to be associated with certain aspects of the respondents' response at 0.05 level, which was consistent with the conceptual framework postulated.