ABSTRACT
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place importance on sustainability and peace in development. This chapter explores a community development project in post-conflict South Africa, where power struggles and conflict serve as significant challenges to community development. Employing a systems framework, it explores the Human Rights, Democracy and Development (HRDD) project in rural South Africa. This framework allows for a holistic view of the complex and dynamic relationships between project goals, project strategies and the most significant macro forces shaping the project, namely, poverty, patriarchy, power struggles and a post-conflict status. Experiences show that community development workers encounter serious challenges in navigating this complex, hostile and fragile development space.
