Transformational Development: World Vision South Africa’s Response to Poverty (abstract)

Abstract

This chapter explores the construction of development meanings within an integrated development approach – ‘transformational development’ – and its associated practice in a particular Christian faith-based organisation, World Vision South Africa (WVSA). ‘Transformational development’ is analysed as a dynamic concept and process. The strategic and operational branches of WVSA demonstrate significant variation in their conceptualisations of ‘transformational development’, highlighting both the complexity of translating theory into practice, and the negotiation of the differing interests inherent to this process. A predominantly secular discourse of dependency is identified as operating implicitly throughout WVSA. This discourse is seen to inform key conceptualisations within WVSA’s ‘transformational development’ approach, with a significant and potentially deleterious impact on the transformative potential of its practice.