Effects of the community development process

We must constantly bear in mind that community development processes may generate expected and unexpected results in the community and its environment, beyond the planned achievements. An effect is any process or a factor which appears in the community involved in the community development process and its immediate environment, but not as a planned achievement. Expected and unexpected, positive and negative effects of the development process may appear at any stage (a number of active citizens and communities larger than expected, whose continuous support requires extra resources or more intensive activities on behalf of the professionals; escalating conflicts at a municipality at the early stages of the community development process), and the success and achievements of the entire development process may be affected by the developer noticing these effects in time and managing them in some way, if necessary. The long-term effects of the process may only appear years after the local activities have been finished. We need a permanent follow-up and assessment of the process to be able to consciously and effectively manage the effects arising during the process.