Lack of channels for obtaining available local funding

Local communities do not have a sufficiently strong voice in regional affairs. Although government and business may be aware of the need to provide development resources to outlying areas and have made services and funds available to rural communities, the avenues for obtaining such external development resources are not clear, so that resources may be unknown or, if discovered, application procedures are complex. Residents of most small towns and villages are unaware of how to link the social resources which are available through governmental and social agencies with their local needs; nor do they know how to proceed after an initial negative response to a request for assistance. Knowing the appropriate persons to contact and the procedures for following through require persistence and continuity on the part of residents, which they are often not ready to have. Local communities are often not informed of plans concerning the future use of land and the wide range of services and funds accessible for building and development programmes are often enmeshed in a complexity of regulations and bureaucratic procedures. The local communities, which have generally not participated in regional planning, are not able to coordinate city and regional plans. A similar situation exists in relation to the delivery of health services. Because residents are unfamiliar with the methods of seeking assistance offered to rural communities, they either do not attempt to obtain the resources or quit at the first discouraging response, thereby depriving themselves of necessary services.