Community leadership and sustainable local development

Abstract

Introduction: Community leadership in Latin America emerged from the need to defend rights, ensure survival, and organize life within communities that were often marginalized or repressed. Study Objective: To analyze the contributions and/or limitations of community leadership in the process of sustainable local development of the Bazán Neighborhood Committee, Salinas Canton, 2025. Materials and Methods: To achieve the objective of analyzing the contributions or limitations of said leadership, a phenomenological interpretative research approach was adopted. Data collection mechanisms were applied, such as observation and interviews, with the participation of 20 people, including residents and topic professionals, seeking to characterize the leader's contributions in a neighborhood population of Bazán with 812 inhabitants. Results: Leadership in the neighborhood is usually represented by the Neighborhood Board, residents with community recognition, and, on occasions, by leaders of sports or religious organizations who energize participation. One of the weaknesses in leadership is considered structural and has to do with the lack of technical and management capacities among many leaders; they lack the commitment, experience, and knowledge necessary for efficient organizational management. Conclusions: There is a marked disconnect between leadership and the community, where the action of leaders is perceived as ineffective, reactive, and focused on the urgent, rather than fostering strategic planning.