The significant of Village Data for Village Development: The experiential journey of Community Development Program (KKL) Parahyangan Catholic University

Abstract

It is common knowledge that development planning at the village level is rarely based on valid and updated data. Students and lecturers in the Public Administration Department Para-hyangan Catholic University, who have been working with villages in West Java Province for several decades encountered situations to support that argument. It is difficult to obtain valid and updated data to use as evidence in developing initiatives and programs for the village de-velopment. Students’ Community Development Program (Kuliah Kerja Lapangan henceforth KKL themed Universities Contribution to Village Development was initiated with the goal of improving the quality of data in rural areas (Garut District) by collecting and updating village data, developing the capacity of village government leaders and staff to collect and update vil-lage data on their own. This paper discusses three major works that the Students’ Community Development Program (KKN) themed Universities Contribution to Village Development have made. The three areas relate to 1) elaboration of the logic of the program; (2) discussion of the process of data collection and analysis of data in the three villages; and (3) discussion of output and outcomes of the program. Research action, as Lewin argues, has three goals: to advance knowledge; to improve a concrete situation; and to improve behavioral science methodology. This paper presents a case study that shows the existence of a problem in a community, and concrete actions taken to solve it through the application of knowledge acquired through Com-munity Development Program (KKL) experience of Universitas Membangun Desa.