Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES)

Cornel Hart

Inducted in
2024

University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Community Development Programme Coordinator

Scholarship of Engagement Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator

https://sites.google.com/uwc.ac.za/cornel-hart-uwc

Photo of Cornel Hart

Biographical Abstracts

Cornel Hart is the Programme Coordinator for the Community Development (CD) Programme and the Evaluator for the Scholarship of Engagement at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Cornel specializes in community well-being assessment, community development practice and community engagement.

Since 2009, she has contributed to national policy and educational frameworks as part of National Task Teams and the CD Professionalization Steering Committee. Her work includes drafting the policy framework for CD Practice in South Africa and developing the Recognition of Prior Learning pilot project. Cornel also supports universities across South Africa in designing and accrediting professional CD qualifications and trains academic staff to ensure the correct philosophies, theories, and approaches are taught.

Since 1999, Cornel has run a consultancy, assisting SADC governments, departments, and private companies with development and evaluation. She provides training in Project Cycle Management, Logical Frameworks and Organizational Development. This consultancy work has led to lecturing and capacity building at several higher education institutions (HEIs) since 2006. Her focus includes partnership formulation, community engagement, and aligning HEI research with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Hart is a member of the International Association for Community Development, and the Community Development Society. She received the CDS International Community Development Best Practice Award in 2017. She is the monitoring and evaluation coordinator for the Community Engagement Unit's Scholarship of Engagement for Societal Impact (SoE-SI) web-portal and serves on the boards of the South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum and the South African College of Applied Psychology.

Areas of Expertise

  • Micro-macro level community well-being assessment
  • Community development practice
  • Scholarship of engagement