Reminding those with power that we are still here: Reflections on CDS and the International Association for Community Development

ABSTRACT

In 2003, I was honored to become the first British recipient of the Community Development Society’s International Community Development Award. This was presented in light of my work in setting up the new International Association for Community Development (IACD) in 1999 and, in forging the close partnership between IACD and the American Community Development Society (CDS). It marked five decades of my involvement in community development. The article reflects upon those five decades, but especially upon the work of the international association since 1999 and its links with CDS over that period. IACD grew out of two predecessor international networks, the International Society for Community Development (ISCD), and the Association Internationale pour le Développement Communautaire (AICD). I was a board member of AICD and then played the lead role in establishing IACD, serving as its Secretary General and later as President

KEYWORDS:

• History of international community development networking
• Emerging professionalisation
• International and national partnerships
• Creating an international architecture of support for community development practitioners
• Agreeing an International definition and occupational standards

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The author has retired from the IACD Board and this article is written in a personal capacity. He was a member of the board for three terms. First from 1997–2003, serving as Secretary General for five years and then from 2013–16, serving as President for two. He was a member of the AICD board from 1989–1997. He was awarded IACD’s first Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in establishing the new IACD. He has written and edited six books on community education and community development.

2. For a year I became Head of Community Learning and Development within the Scottish Government. During this time Marge Scotts who worked for the New Zealand government secured a secondment to run the IACD secretariat, supported also by the City of Dundee Council. I then moved to Carnegie where I established the Carnegie Commission on Community Development and its grants program which provided funds for IACD.

3. There are some 6000 accredited NGOs at the UN, so IACD needed to add its voice to the advocacy of the bigger players.