SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALISES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH A NORMS AND STANDARDS WORKSHOP
by Staff Reporter.
- As part of its commitment to professionalising community development, the Department of Social Development recently held a training workshop for community development practitioners.
- The workshop aimed to provide knowledge-sharing on best practices.
- In addition, recommendations were made as to how to accelerate the professionalisation and institutionalisation of community development practice.
Community development practitioners have attended a training workshop looking at implementing norms and standards in the sector.
Hosted by the Free State Department of Social Development, the workshop on 11 September 2025 was attended by community development practitioners and assistant community development practitioners.
This strategic engagement forms part of the department’s broader commitment to professionalising community development, strengthening service delivery, and institutionalising standard operating procedures across provinces and districts.
The workshop aimed to provide a status update on the implementation of community development norms and standards, facilitate knowledge-sharing on best practices and lessons learned, and promote alignment in roles, functions, and reporting mechanisms across the community development workforce.
Implementation refers to the process of translating strategic policies and frameworks into actionable, impactful practices. Effective implementation requires:
• Operationalising policy: Converting strategies into concrete actions at the service delivery level;
• Resource allocation: Ensuring dedicated financial, human, and technological resources are in place; and
• Capacity building: Equipping community development practitioners and assistant community development practitioners with the skills, knowledge, and competencies necessary to deliver quality services and foster community empowerment.
Effective implementation is critical to monitoring progress and identifying early intervention needs, as well as optimising resource management and service delivery.
It also enhances interdepartmental and inter-sectoral collaboration, allowing for continuous improvement through lessons learned and systematic reporting.
The Department of Social Development has identified several priority areas for focused implementation, including:
• Standardising functions and reporting tools through defining the roles and responsibilities of all role players, making sure the reporting tools are aligned with the job functions, and integrating the performance agreements based on core functions.
• Training and development, with targeted qualifications (60% in occupation-specific studies, such as a bachelor’s degree or post-graduate diploma in community development, and 40% generic). In addition, building partnerships with accredited institutions for formal education and training, and providing ongoing supervision, mentorship, and professional development initiatives.
• Strengthening stakeholder management and partnerships, such as the community development practice forum and the supervision, learning, and support forum, as well as enhancing collaboration with external stakeholders and partners.
• Providing tools of the trade for community development practitioners to effectively execute their duties.
• Focusing on staffing norms and personnel, acknowledging structural and functional disparities among provinces and districts, addressing misalignment in job titles and functional responsibilities, reducing high vacancy rates, mitigating excessive workloads, and improving data warehousing and personnel management systems.
• Improving work environments across all levels of community development practice and promoting job satisfaction and retention through conducive conditions of service.
Several recommendations were proposed during the workshop to accelerate the professionalisation and institutionalisation of community development practice, such as integrating community development into the formal structures and systems of the public service.
The participants also suggested securing and allocating adequate resources to support implementation at all levels, setting up a centralised repository for data collection, monitoring, and reporting, and fast-tracking the acquisition and distribution of essential tools and resources for community development practitioners and assistant community development practitioners.
The Department of Social Development has reaffirmed its commitment to building a competent, empowered, and well-resourced community development workforce. The workshop marks a critical step in aligning strategic intent with implementation capability, thereby strengthening service delivery at the grassroots level.
Ongoing collaboration with all stakeholders remains vital to achieving sustainable development outcomes and uplifting communities across South Africa.
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