Comilla Model
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Comilla Model is a rural development model that was pioneered in 1959 by Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, renamed in 1971 as Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), located on the outskirts of Comilla town. Akhter Hameed Khan, founder of the Comilla Model and the founder-Director of the Academy, conceived the idea[1] and developed the method of its implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of people's participatory role at the grassroots level and cooperatives.
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[edit] Raison d'etre
The Commilla Model was Dr Khan's reply to the failure of Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme, launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. The V-AID was a governmental level attempt to promote citizens participation in the sphere of rural development[2].
Comilla Model provided a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots level cooperative participation by the people [3]. The initial concept to was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country.
[edit] Implementation
At the primary level, the project introduced a number of pilot projects beginning in 1959. There were two-fold objectives behind the introduction of these projects: (i) to provide a real-life learning situation for the trainees at the Academy, and (ii) to devise development model(s) of programmes/institutions which would serve as model initiatives[4]. In guiding and operating the projects, a set of principles and strategies were formulated as the bases for developing the pilot projects, resulting in a unique rural development approach [5].
The salient features of the Comilla Model may be identified as: (i) institutionalization of the whole process of rural development having been the key word of the model, major emphasis has been given on the promotion of development and of refining various institutions, both public and private, and establishing a sound system of interrelationships among these institutions; (ii) involvement of both public and private sectors in the process of rural development; (iii) development of a cadre of institutional leaders in every village, such as the manager, model farmers, women organizers, youth leaders, village accountants, to manage their own organisations and sustain the efforts of development; (iv) development of three basic infrastructures (administrative, physical and organisational) for the comprehensive development of rural areas; (v) priority on decentralized and coordinated rural administration with due coordination between officials of various government departments and the representatives of people's organisations. (vi) comprehensive development by integrating and coordinating various complementary rural development services and project activities, planning and administrative procedures, relationship and decision making both vertically and horizontally and interaction among various sub-sectors at the local, regional and national levels; (vii) education, organisation and discipline are the prime characteristics of the model; (viii) the heavy emphasis on economic and technological factors for building a prosperous and progressive society; (ix) development of a stable and progressive agriculture which may improve the conditions of the farmers, and can provide employment to the vast majority of the rural labour force. These salient features distinguish the Comilla Model from other rural development approaches, such as community development, target group approach, and intensive area development [6].
[edit] Notes
- ^ Akhter Hameed Khan, Director's Speech in First Annual Report, Comilla, 1960.
- ^ The Works of Akhter Hameed Khan. Volume I-III. Compiled by the Bandladesh Academy for Rural Development, Kothbari, Comilla. (1983)
- ^ Arthur F Raper, Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan, Cornell University Press: Ithaca (1970)
- ^ Akhter Hameed Khan, Works of Akhter Hameed Khan, Vol. III, Comilla, 1984;
- ^ http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/C_0309.htm at BANGLAPEDIA webpage
- ^ MA Quddus (ed.) Rural Development in Bangladesh, Comilla, 1993
