Community-based development organisations in the Eastern Cape: towards survival and sustainability

Community-Based Development Organisations (CBDOs) appear in many shapes and sizes, and a variety of (often confusing) terminology is used to describe them. The term CBDO is a generic one which refers to a broad class of organisations that are involved in one form or another of "community development" activities. Probably all CBDOs would describe themselves as non-governmental organisations (NGOs); and they could be service organisations, resource organisations (or both), or even welfare organisations. Some would see themselves as development agencies or as performing an advocacy/lobbying function on behalf of a more or less clearly defined constituency. Many CBDOs have a relatively narrow focus (for example, on some particular aspect of education or training - like literacy, teacher upgrading or technical skills)- whilst others pursue a broader range of activities associated with a spectrum of "community development" initiatives, projects or programmes. Much depends on the motivation for establishing a particular CBDO and its access to human and financial resources. They are part of the burgeoning Non- Profit Voluntary Sector in South Africa whose worth, in 1987, was estimated at a minimum of R2 billion - "and probably much more than that"Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER