The African Worldview, an incentive to unsustainable development: a case study of world vision Zambia-Chongwe cluster area programme.

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore and assess the contribution of the African Worldview to unsustainable development in the World Vision operated Area Programmes of Chongwe Cluster, namely Kapululwe, Chongwe East and Chongwe South. The objectives of the study were to: determine how the African worldview contributes to unsustainable development in Chongwe cluster Area Programme of World Vision Zambia; ascertain people’s understanding of development; explore the impact of sponsorship funding on the programme beneficiaries. The study in this research employed a case study design which mainly involved qualitative methods. The sample included twelve (12) church leaders. Of the twelve church leaders, only one was female. Three(3) traditional leaders, eleven(11) women, ten(10) men and ten (10) school going children with consent from the school head and parents. The data were mainly collected through questionnaires and focus group discussions. Afterwards the collected data were analysed according to themes. The study revealed that the African worldview is strongly linked to African Traditional Religion and that there is a very strong correlation between this type of worldview and unsustainable development. In addition, it was also revealed that African worldview tends to contradict itself with its Ubuntu Philosophy in the sense that it promotes conflicts such as GBV and Child abuse. Interestingly, the study came to conclude that if well harnessed on the other hand, African worldview can contribute to sustainable development. Based on the findings, the study strongly recommends and implores that World Vision to invest more in capacity building activities that bring about holistic mindset change as opposed to sponsorship funding. Furthermore, World Vision should emphasise an integrated project implementation approach. For instance, Faith and Development activities should be linked to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Literacy, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health as well as Livelihood and Food Security. In addition, key models like Celebrating Families, Empowered Worldview, and Channels of Hope models CoH for Gender, Child Protection and Maternal and Newborn should be taught to children and youths as well. Lastly, the study recommends that when conducting capacity building workshops and trainings, the Church Leaders should be trained together with Traditional leaders. This is because the Church leaders belong to these communities that are run by Traditional leaders. The opposite is also true that Traditional Leaders also are members of these churches run by the pastors. Both types of leaders have a big role to play in sustainable development of their areas.