Community-driven development (CDD) is based on the empowerment of local communities, whereby local governments and rural and urban communities drive forward development with a new set of powers, rights and obligations. In order to achieve best practice in Community-Driven Development, Khanya-aicdd is focusing on through focusing on distinct but overlapping areas of:

• Community-Based Management
• Development Planning,
• Rethinking Governance

These include:

• Empowering communities with resources and authority. Communities which make the best use of funds deserve increased grants.
• Empowering local governments - community empowerment needs to be embedded in an institutional framework of local governments. Central government staff for frontline services may need to be transferred to local governments. Local governments will need powers to levy taxes and user charges. Municipal/ local finances currently represent only 2-3% of national revenue in most countries. Sustainable decentralization requires that local governments get an assured share of central revenue.
• Realigning the centre - decentralization implies a far-reaching change in the role of the centre, as many responsibilities and resources will shift from the centre to local governments. Central governments, instead of running services directly, should focus on facilitating local government activities, setting standards, monitoring outcomes, providing training to lower levels, and providing rewards and penalties to improve local government performance.
• Improving accountability - currently almost all accountability is upwards, balkanised amongst different donors, in the language of donors, reducing transparency and helping elite capture. The empowerment of communities and local governments will enable local social capital to be harnessed, and provide downward accountability to users of frontline services. Traditional forms of upward accountability also need to be strengthened, e.g. training communities in participatory monitoring & evaluation.
• Building capacity - untied matching grants to communities will help develop their capacity for problem-solving through learning by doing. As they take on more responsibilities, they will find they need to upgrade their skills. This can be facilitated by technical assistance from central governments and NGOs. CDD can play an important role in private sector development.