The overall aim of ILIMALETHU shall be to promote and facilitate development in the poorest areas of South Africa. This shall entail improving access by local communities to basic community services, within the context of prevailing social and economic development policies and strategies of the Government on rural development and urban renewal. Such services will be in the areas of health, education, water, food and agriculture, tourism, income generation, technology and others which may be identified and/or prioritized from time to time.

There are five specific goals of the organization, and these are as follows:

	To identify disadvantaged communities, serve as catalyst for their development through a specific project, and enable them to do it themselves, within the framework of national, provincial, and local government.
	To encourage, motivate, and enable communities to play a key role in the initiation, establishment, and sustainability of social services and income generating activities, within the national development framework.
	To enable communities to grow in their understanding of development until they can provide best practice experiences to other communities for every aspect of their well-being.
	To contribute to the improvement of indicators of the millennium development goals (MDG), by encouraging communities to develop their own, in consultation with United Nations Agencies in South Africa; AND
	To mobilize all available resources, nationally and internationally, in order to achieve the above goals.