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Challenges in Realising Sustainable Community Development in Rural South Africa

Received: 13 April 2015    Accepted: 24 April 2015    Published: 27 May 2015
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Abstract

The importance of rural development has long since been known but it has specific relevance to South Africa, where the poor quality of life is driving rural resident to migrate toward urban areas. This is turn is causing worrying problems for cities and towns which have to provide housing and services to the increased influx of new residents. The only solution to the rural exodus is to redevelop rural areas into sustainable communities. Having a clear definition and understanding of sustainable development and sustainable communities is a prerequisite in developing sustainable rural communities. To this end the Venn diagram of sustainability as it applies to communities is utilized, to incorporate social, environmental and economic issues into sustainable community planning and development. From this a better understanding of the interactions between the various spheres of sustainability can be had, leading to a better understanding of sustainable community development as a whole. Unfortunately there are several challenges in achieving sustainable rural communities. While most of these challenges are well known there are a few that are unique to the South African rural sphere. If development plans and policies aren’t tailor made to adapt to these specific challenges then sustainable community development will never be possible in rural South Africa.

DOI 10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19
Published in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Volume 4, Issue 4-1, August 2015)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Planning for Sustainable Communities: Green-Spaces in Rural Areas

Page(s) 73-79
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sustainable Development, Community Development, Rural Development

References
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Author Information
  • School for Geo and Spatial Sciences, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

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  • APA Style

    Bernice B. Van Schalkwyk. (2015). Challenges in Realising Sustainable Community Development in Rural South Africa. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 4(4-1), 73-79. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19

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    ACS Style

    Bernice B. Van Schalkwyk. Challenges in Realising Sustainable Community Development in Rural South Africa. Agric. For. Fish. 2015, 4(4-1), 73-79. doi: 10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19

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    AMA Style

    Bernice B. Van Schalkwyk. Challenges in Realising Sustainable Community Development in Rural South Africa. Agric For Fish. 2015;4(4-1):73-79. doi: 10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19

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  • @article{10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19,
      author = {Bernice B. Van Schalkwyk},
      title = {Challenges in Realising Sustainable Community Development in Rural South Africa},
      journal = {Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries},
      volume = {4},
      number = {4-1},
      pages = {73-79},
      doi = {10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aff.s.2015040401.19},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.aff.s.2015040401.19},
      abstract = {The importance of rural development has long since been known but it has specific relevance to South Africa, where the poor quality of life is driving rural resident to migrate toward urban areas. This is turn is causing worrying problems for cities and towns which have to provide housing and services to the increased influx of new residents. The only solution to the rural exodus is to redevelop rural areas into sustainable communities. Having a clear definition and understanding of sustainable development and sustainable communities is a prerequisite in developing sustainable rural communities. To this end the Venn diagram of sustainability as it applies to communities is utilized, to incorporate social, environmental and economic issues into sustainable community planning and development. From this a better understanding of the interactions between the various spheres of sustainability can be had, leading to a better understanding of sustainable community development as a whole. Unfortunately there are several challenges in achieving sustainable rural communities. While most of these challenges are well known there are a few that are unique to the South African rural sphere. If development plans and policies aren’t tailor made to adapt to these specific challenges then sustainable community development will never be possible in rural South Africa.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    AB  - The importance of rural development has long since been known but it has specific relevance to South Africa, where the poor quality of life is driving rural resident to migrate toward urban areas. This is turn is causing worrying problems for cities and towns which have to provide housing and services to the increased influx of new residents. The only solution to the rural exodus is to redevelop rural areas into sustainable communities. Having a clear definition and understanding of sustainable development and sustainable communities is a prerequisite in developing sustainable rural communities. To this end the Venn diagram of sustainability as it applies to communities is utilized, to incorporate social, environmental and economic issues into sustainable community planning and development. From this a better understanding of the interactions between the various spheres of sustainability can be had, leading to a better understanding of sustainable community development as a whole. Unfortunately there are several challenges in achieving sustainable rural communities. While most of these challenges are well known there are a few that are unique to the South African rural sphere. If development plans and policies aren’t tailor made to adapt to these specific challenges then sustainable community development will never be possible in rural South Africa.
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