I am Cornel Hart, and academic Community Development Practitioner, former Programme Coordinator for the Community Development (CD) Professional Degree and the current Evaluator for the Scholarship of Engagement at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). With a Masters in Research Methodology specializing in Programme Evaluation and a PhD from UNISA where I developed a micro-level model for assessing community development towards improved well-being, I bring a blend of academic rigor and practical expertise to my work. My research foci include micro-macro level community well-being assessment, community development practice, and the scholarship of engagement.

My professional journey includes significant contributions to national policy and educational frameworks. Since 2009, I have been part of National SAQA Task Teams for developing new qualifications frameworks and a member of the CD Professionalization Steering Committee. As the head of research for drafting the policy framework for Community Development Practice in South Africa, I actively contributed to the Social Service Professions Bill and Regulations. I also developed the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pilot project for CD in South Africa and remain a member of the CD RPL national task team.  My role also extends to supporting universities across South Africa in designing and offering professional CD qualifications. To date, I have assisted more than six universities with compiling CHE programme accreditation applications and trained academic staff in the CD discourse to ensure the correct philosophies, theories, approaches, and frameworks for CD are taught.

Since 1999, I have owned a development, management, and research consultancy, assisting several SADC governments' cabinets, departments, parastatals, and private companies with Project Cycle Management (PCM) research, project design, management, and evaluation. I have provided extensive training in PCM, Logical Frameworks, Organizational Development, and Research Methodology at all levels, from community-based organizations to directors' levels of corporate entities, as well as national public sector departments of several African countries. My consultancy work led to lecturing and capacity building at several HEIs since 2006 and I became a permanent staff member at UWC in 2016.  The training and lecturing have since 2012 also been extended, to several higher education institutions’ (HEIs) Schools, Faculties and Departments on an annual basis; especially for partnership formulation, community engagement, societal impact (SI) and since 2015, HEI research alignment with the S.A. NDP:Vision 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The latter of which resulted in a 2015 nomination as NDP Vision 2023 commissioner. 

I am a newly inaugurated member of the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES).  Additionally I am a member of the International Association for Community Development (IACD) and the Community Development Society (CDS) and was the Vice-Chair:Operations. I received the CDS International Community Development Best Practice Award in 2017. I am the monitoring and evaluation coordinator for the Community Engagement Unit's (CEU) Scholarship of Engagement for Societal Impact (SoE-SI) web-portal and a Board Member of: the South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum (SAHCEF) as well as the South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP).