Performance of village head assistants (dehyar) on rural sustainable development (Case study: Torghabeh section locating in Binalood city)

As the executive arm of government, village managing plays a great role in implementation, monitoring and organization of development programs to achieve the desired level of sustainable development in rural regions. The present study aimed to investigate the role of village head assistants (dehyar) during the process of rural development. The required data were collected by using library and field methods. An applied descriptive- analytical method was used in order to evaluate the obtained data. 251 heads of households from 10 villages of Torghabeh section were selected as the sample population. To assess the performance of village management during the development process, 49 indicators were used in three dimensions including economic, social and environmental factors following 48 articles assigned to dehyar’s duties. The measured spectrum was in likert questionnaire. The obtained data were inserted into SPSS software and analyzed by using different statistical tests. Cronbach's alpha for 49 indices was equal to 0.89, representing acceptability of research questionnaire. Testing hypotheses was conducted using one-sample t-test (t-student) and cluster analysis. The results of t-test showed that the performance of dehyars in all three dimensions of sustainable development was lower than the average level. The mean performance of dehyars during rural sustainable development was 1.93 that scored as weak and poor. According to the findings, different strategies were proposed including: review on dehyar’s duties, providing reports and informing the villagers, formation of different local groups, implementing income-generating projects, increasing awareness of rural communities, etc.