Developing a Strategy

Abstract

Increasingly, funders and managers are calling for a greater application of strategic principles to rural community work. This demand is accepted by many practitioners, who see it as an aid to their own thinking and self-management, and as a way of helping the communities themselves to understand and influence the process. However, others are suspicious of something which they fear will distract from the spontaneity and freshness of ‘intuitive’ practice. To an extent, we sympathise, but a strategy need not be complex, sophisticated or inflexible. It is simply a process of making sense of a situation, and mobilising effort and resources in ways which are appropriate.