Questions of how and what of international development are hotly contested and the numerous actors in the process do not make the process easier. Each actor, coming to the process from a different understanding of what should entail a successful development intervention, embarks on designing a program in a way that they understand best. Meaningful development should be the main aim and should benefit those it is intended for. For such a process to succeed there is need to focus on engaging with everyone involved in a way that is lasting and effective. Engaging with participants, identifying real need and focusing on self-reliance has potential to enable meaningful development which can be sustainable over time and creates an environment for social change. Social change comes through the practice of critical consciousness as proposed by Freire (1970), and this links to the process education and how this affects the overall development of the individual and community towards self-reliance.

With support from empirical data, this study contends that meaningful and progressive development required genuine engagement with communities. There is need to support communities to become self-reliant by developing their capacities and learn to think in a critical manner. Using projects in Kenya as an example, this study explores development initiatives and how they affect social change. Progressive development would require that individuals and organisations learn to identify their shortfalls then set and achieve their own development goals. Previous development interventions that focused on technical support are fading away and there is a growing need to recognise the role the local community plays in designing their own developing needs. Different ways of supporting communities to progress have received great attention in recent years, particularly those that focus on the development of individual and community capacity, through a learning process. In exploring the process of meaningful progress, this research looks at what causes one set of actors to decide on a development intervention for another. Looking at development process in Africa, the effects of colonialism are discussed as a key contributor to the need for development. The importance of supporting capabilities for self-reliance is pursued and sustainability established as an important part of that process. A range of actors involved in development work are reviewed in order to analyse the process of capacity development and the role of or lack of critical thinking in productive progress and self reliance. Critical thinking in the process of capacity development is reviewed as a tool to equip people to improve their own future, ‘rather than being a burden to society (Facione, 2007, 2011). Continuing to depend on development support in its different forms may not be a useful way to enable development initiatives to grow from within the local communities. The study considers how development agencies engage with local communities to involve them in the process of their own development. The study draws out pertinent issues affecting the agencies and the local communities and looks at the general attitude towards development programmes. The role of learning and the effects on development thereof are examined. The link between lifelong learning and development are seen as a process that can be dependent each to the other. Lifelong learning supports the development of skills, boost confidence, build networks and resources needed to tackle problems and become aware of opportunities (Field, 2000). Learning within a development process is about enabling all individuals to successfully achieve future goals. Development is about learning, as the process continues, one can identify the contribution of a learning process to some progressive agenda that they have been a part of.

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