ABSTRACT
Virtually all contemporary development strategies stress the importance of participation by working people in both policy formation and the benefits of economic growth. Development requires capital formation for investment in the social and economic infrastructures. Norman T. Uphoff and Milton J. Esman's comparison of eighteen Asian local development organization systems offers the conclusion that horizontal and vertical linkages between and among institutions are the key to the strength of local organizations. In addition, local organizations should be evaluated in terms of their relevance to certain critical development functions: planning and goal-setting, administration and interest articulation, resource mobilization, and especially, the provision and integration of services. Uphoff and Esman have identified a number of structural characteristics associated with the more viable developmental organizations capable of promoting relatively equitable access to services. Local development activities in the Yemen Arab Republic have made a major contribution to the extension of rudimentary services to towns, villages and hamlets.
