Development from below: Local Development Associations in the Yemen Arab Republic

• Published in: World development 1981-11, Vol.9 (11), p.1039-1061
• Main Authors: Cohen, John M., Hébert, Mary, Lewis, David B., Swanson, Jon C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Association/Associations/ Associational; Development/Developments; Local government; Local/Locals/Localism/Locality/ Localization; Rural development; Yemen Arab Republic; Yemen/Yemenite/Yemenites
• ISSN: 0305-750X; 1873-5991
• DOI: 10.1016/0305-750X(81)90019-X

The Local Development Associations (LDAs) of the Yemen Arab Republic illustrate how indigenous organizations led by local élites can promote participatory, widely beneficial rural development. LDAs reflect a tradition of community based self-help efforts. Today Yemen's six million people, from urban dwellers to those living in remote mountain areas, are served by nearly 200 LDAs. These associations are active in undertaking tasks the central government is not organized to perform. Supported primarily by their immediate constituencies and led by local notables, they build roads, schools, village water systems, and clinics. Over the past decade they have achieved dramatic development results and become important, nationally recognized institutions. This article documents the LDA movement. This example of succesfull local organization is particularly important because development experts often dismiss the potential of such movements on the ground that they are likely to be élite-dominated, probably to the detriment of the poorer members of the community. In describing the LDA movement, this article also consolidates for the first time the few published, frequently unavailable papers on Yemen's complex little-studied rural sector.