In this paper, the author attempts to build a theory of community leadership and country ownership in local development from evidence emerging from development practice and theoretical developments in the analysis of organisational relationships, which are purported to optimise developmental benefits from local development. In particular, it builds on the four-point categorisation of Nongovernmental Organisations, based on the evolution of organisational form and strategy, that was propounded by David Korten in 1990, as well as partnership and theories of collaboration that have been developed by scholars of local governance and development. The paper argues that Korten’s categories are still useful, but a new dimension needs to be posited; one which recognises the changing organisational and development thought. As such, the paper further argues that a fifth category has been developing since the early 2000s based on aid relationships and partnerships in a multi-level governance arrangement between the state, international development partners (IDPs) and local communities, in which the state has increasingly taken a residual role and communities have been placed in the driving seat in the context of co-production of public infrastructural services. It is within this fifth iteration that a community leadership model of local development is being posited here in this paper. This model is centred on the corporatisation and hybridisation based on the foundation of community development councils, assisted by the central government intermediary agencies the Jamaica Social Investment Fund and the Social Development Commission. Through the corporatisation process the community development councils are metamorphosed into Benevolent Societies (BS) which have legal personality, and can therefore sue and be sued. The JSIF (from aid resources) and SDC provide financial and organisational support to the BS respectively, while the IDPs provide the initial funding to the BS through the instrumentalities of the JSIF. This paper intends to examine the nature of these new organisational relationships and arrangements for local development, the sustainability of the developmental outcomes achieved through this model, and also argue that the elusive concept of country ownership in aid relationships could be palpably realised in local development practice when anchored in the community leadership model.

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