DRC Community-Driven Recovery and Development (CDRD), Somalia -- Operations Manual (Phase II, February 2010)

Community-driven recovery and development (CDRD) recognizes that communities are in control of their development and of their resources. CDRD treats poor people as assets and partners in the development process, building on their own institutions and resources. Experience has shown that, given clear rules of the game, access to information, and appropriate support, communities can effectively organize to provide goods and services that meet their needs. Not only do communities have greater capacity than generally recognized, they also have the most to gain from making good use of resources targeted at poverty reduction. By directly relying on communities to drive development activities, CDRD has the potential to make poverty reduction efforts more responsive to demands, more inclusive, more sustainable, and more cost-effective than traditional community-based assistance projects. In post-conflict transitions, CDRD may be used to support the evolution of war-torn areas from conflict to reconstruction and resumption of delivery of basic social services and then to long-term development using demandled, participatory approaches that increase empowerment and accountability through community ownership over making decisions and allocating resources. CDRD, which is an efficient instrument for addressing community needs and promoting empowerment as well as accoun-tability, is particularly suited to the Somali context where both physical and social structures have severely deteriorated. Experience from other post-conflict transitions shows that timely and visible recovery of local services and infrastructure can support reconciliation efforts and consolidate peace.