Mobilizing Communities for Development and Social Change Save the Children US

1. Mobilizing Communities for Development and Social Change Save the Children US

2. What is community mobilization?

3. Operational Definition • Community mobilization is a capacity-building process through which community individuals, groups, or organizations plan, carry out, and evaluate activities on a participatory and sustained basis to improve their health, education, food security, etc, and other needs, either on their own initiative or stimulated by others.

4. Community Mobilization: Definitions • Community mobilization is not a campaign, nor is it a series of campaigns. It is a continual and cumulative communic-ational, educational and organizational process that produces a growing autonomy and conscience.

5. Community Mobilization is not... • Social mobilization • Community participation • Advocacy • Interpersonal communication Although community mobilization may utilize the above strategies, or may be a strategy utilized by them, these terms are not synonymous.

6. What is the difference between community mobilization and social mobilization?

7. Social Mobilization • Social mobilization is a process of bringing together all feasible inter-sectoral partners and allies to determine felt-needs and raise awareness of, and demand for, a particular development objective. (UNICEF)

8. Successful social mobilization strategies have been one-time or annual campaigns to solve one problem (e.g. UNICEF’s EPI strategy of the 1980s). • Maternal and neonatal health is more complex and program strategies are evolving. (e.g. Nepal Safe Motherhood network).

9. Illustrative ‘Communication’ Activities Interpersonal Communication/ Counseling 22% Community Mobilization 36% Mass Media 42%

10. Why Community Mobilization? • Decentralization and democratization require increased community level decision-making • Communities have different needs and problems, different cultures, beliefs and practices--one message may not fit all • Builds mechanisms and systems to sustain health improvements

11. Why Community Mobilization? • Brings additional resources that may not be available to health system alone • Communities can apply political pressure to improve services. • Empowering CM approaches can strengthen community members’ skills and capacity to address the underlying causes of health problems and reduce barriers to access of information and services.

12. Why Community Mobilization? • Social structures and norms may need to be changed if true access to information and services is to be achieved by those who need them most. CM can help to facilitate these changes. • CM can increase community members’ awareness of their right to decent treatment and can strengthen members’ ability to claim this right.

13. What is Community?

14. What is community? • Geographically defined • Shared interests, identity and/or characteristics • Shared resources

15. Consider using CM when and where…. • National IEC campaigns fail to reach pockets of the country because access to mass media is limited, language is different, etc. • Systemic changes are needed at community level • Sustained community support is desired • Theme is too politically sensitive to be thrust of a major national campaign

16. Consider using CM when and where…. • Settings are very diverse and local solutions are required • Problem of individuals affects the rest of the community • Communities themselves have identified a health problem and request assistance • Community resources are required or desirable

17. For the Group….. • What are some of the important/key elements of community mobilization?

18. Human rights Community Health Culture Gender Education Communication Leadership Mobilization Participation Dialogue of knowledge Power Equality Citizenship Ethics Role of institutions Key Elements of Community Mobilization

19. Dimensions of Community Participation Collective action Outsider Control Co-learning Collaborating Consulted Sustainability Cooperating Co-opted Adapted from: Andrea Cornwall, 1995, IDS

20. Putting the strategies together--A Community Action Cycle GETTING ORGANIZED Preparing to Mobilize EXPLORING C.M. FOCUS & SETTING PRIORITIES EVALUATING TOGETHER PLANNING TOGETHER COMMUNITY ACTION

21. What skills do “Mobilizers” need? • Understand and be able to apply learning and behavior change principles and theories • Be politically, culturally and gender sensitive • Excellent communication skills-- LISTEN! • Facilitation skills; know and use appropriate methods/techniques--Don’t “facipulate” • Technical knowledge of heath issue • Possess program design and management skills • Organizational development skills (group dynamics, structures, etc.) • Be able to assess, support and build community capacity/competency (organization, participation, leadership, management, link to external orgs, etc.)

22. What roles can external organizations play in community mobilization? • Mobilizer: works directly with existing leaders and community groups to stimulate action. • Organizer: forms new organizations or bring existing organizations together in new ways around an issue. • Partner: may focus on capacity building of local organizations or complement local organizations in a joint effort. • Liaison: links communities with resources, builds networks. • Advisor: provides assistance to communities who request specific advice/technical expertise. • Advocate: supports community members efforts to obtain resources or change policies. • Donor: provides funding to community to address health issue • Marketer: shares experience with others to expand CM

23. Community Mobilization Strategies and Approaches

24. Program Approaches • Problem-posing approaches (Freire: critical reflection, generative themes, critical incidents….) • Strength-based approaches (Cooperrider, Zeitlin, etc., organizational development “Appreciative Inquiry”) • Mixed/Others?

25. Community Organizing • Identify and work with existing organizations and leaders. • Identify those most affected by issue. If they are not already organized, facilitate organization and work with and through them. • Establish support groups. • Redefine community structures and roles.

26. Community Organizing- cont’d • Organize community around: • Critical incidents • Common problem(s)/issue(s) • Expressed needs • Traditional community events • General development activities • Emergencies

27. Strength-Based Strategies • Appreciative Inquiry - Discover (what is now) - Dream (what might be) - Design (what should be) - Deliver (what will be) • Assets-based approaches

28. Strength-Based Strategies • “Positive Deviance” (SC/Vietnam) Identify those who practice healthy behaviors and enlist them to model positive behaviors for others.

29. Participatory Research & Evaluation • Rural Rapid Appraisal • Participatory Research & Assessment • Participatory Learning & Action • “Autodiagnosis” Community participates in question formulation, design of methods and instruments, conduct, analysis of research & evaluation.

30. Community Development • “C-BIRD”- community-based integrated rural development • Institutional development approaches • Partnering (joint agreements, plans, etc.) • Leadership training (changing concept)

31. Community Development • “Community Action Cycle” (SC/Bolivia Warmi Project) Autodiagnosis Participatory Planning Together Evaluation Implementation

32. Participatory Communication & Community-based Media • Community members develop, design and produce: • Local radio shows • Street theater, dramas, concerts • Print materials (newspapers, educational materials, booklets, comics, brochures...) • Slide shows, videos • Health fairs (“Lilac Tent”) • Other (“talking drums”, town crier, etc.)

33. “Community Defined Quality” • Community members work with service providers to define and improve quality of care. (e.g. Peru “Building Bridges for Quality” project, Save the Children/Nepal CDQ project)

34. Advocacy • Political action • Petitions • Lobbying • Demonstrations and rallies • Support of political candidates • Drafting of legislation or policy proposals

35. Evaluating CM programs Current SC (JHU/PCS4) community mobilization projects are attempting to measure indicators related to: • Health outcomes • Community competency/capacity outcomes • Linkages/relationships between communities and service providers

36. CM “sticky issues” • Varying opinions about what CM is and how it should be done • Evaluation frameworks, indicators • Going to scale • Cost-effectiveness compared with other approaches (goals and objectives may not be comparable) • Donor support often not realistic (time frames and resources)

37. More “sticky issues” • Ethical and political issues related to equity and empowerment (cultural biases, transparency, control, what is role of external orgs.? etc.) • CM often not considered a technical discipline • Emphasis on tools and methods rather than comprehensive approaches & philosophy

39. Key Element: Community • Community is not merely a human space confined to a defined territory. Communities today may be defined more broadly in terms of common interests or characteristics, but they are not homogenous and are likely to be full of conflict and contradiction. Many people living in a community may be excluded from decision-making processes and have limited access to services and information. These marginalized groups are often at greater risk of health problems. They have the right and should be invited to actively participate in community work to ensure that their needs are addressed. It is important to respect and promote a community’s autonomy, but this autonomy should not be interpreted as isolation from the outside world.

40. Key Element: Mobilization • Mobilization is always closer to interaction and dialogue about knowledge than messages with which one intends to change behaviors. Mobilization cannot be confused with spontaneous and sporadic impulses. Experience shows that in some cases it is necessary to create new organizations in the community to stimulate the mobilization process. Mobilization is not a linear process; it has its peaks, its highs and lows. Mobilization does not only seek to resolve specific problems, but also to influence local, regional and national policies.

41. Key Element: Participation • Participation is not merely an instrument to more effectively ensure compliance with reaching project objectives, but is a right and a fundamental necessity of people and of communities. Participation cannot be considered as merely a strategy of health services to obtain the collaboration of the population. Participation is an action of responsibility, of liberty and self-determination. Participation is important in relation to the group, but also as a democratic value. From participation, one learns how to pass from co-management to self-management. Participation can resolve conflicts, but it can also generate them. One should not sanctify participation, it is not a panacea nor is it indispensable for all occasions. It has to do with passing from a representative democracy to a participatory one.

42. Key Element: Dialogue of Knowledge • Community mobilizers should recognize the importance of both kinds of knowledge: the scientific technical and the popular traditional. Establishing a respectful dialogue between the two can lead to innovative and effective “new improved practices” and broader understanding of the rationale behind existing and recommended actions.

43. More Definitions... • Approach: An approach is the course to be followed, in a broad sense. Your approach helps to define how you orient your program. For example, • Problem-posing • Appreciative, Strength-Based, Asset-Based

44. Strategy: A strategy sets forth the direction in which you move toward achieving a specific goal. For example, • Organize and strengthen women’s groups. • Work with traditional healers to increase community acceptance of condom use • Child-to-child promotion of healthy practices

45. Methodology: “a set or system of methods, principles, and rules used in a given discipline, as in the arts or sciences.” (Webster’s Dictionary) For example, • “4-D’s” of Appreciative Inquiry • Warmi’s “community action cycle” • Participatory Rural Appraisal

46. Methods: Methods are the techniques and tools that you use in your program. For example, • Facilitated group discussion • Venn Diagram analysis of community relationships • Socio-drama or role play

47. Activity: “a specific deed, action, function, or sphere of action.” (Webster’s) For example, • Train 50 Community Volunteer Health workers in how to facilitate group meetings. • Community youth group will develop and perform a drama depicting how HIV/AIDS affects young people in the community.

48. Measuring a Group’s Social Standing and Capacity for Collective Action • Increased access to resources • Increased collective bargaining power • Improved status, self-esteem and cultural identity • The ability to reflect critically and solve problems • The ability to make choices • Recognition and response of people’s demand by officials • Self-discipline and the ability to work with others (Suzanne Kindervatter Non-formal education as an empowering process: case studies from Indonesia and Thailand. Amherst: Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts, 1979.)

49. Dimensions and Sub-Dimensions of Community Capacity • Citizen participation that is characterized by: • Strong participant base • Diverse network that enables different interests to take collective action • Benefits overriding costs associated with participation • Citizen involvement in defining and resolving needs Identifying and Defining the Dimensions of Community Capacity to Provide a Basis for Measurement, Robert M. Goodman, Ph.D. et al., Health Education and Behavior, Vol. 25 (3): 258-278 (June 1998).

50. Leadership that is characterized by: • Inclusion of formal and informal leaders • Providing direction and structure for participants • Encouraging participation from a diverse network of community participants • Implementing procedures for ensuring participation from all during group meetings and events • Facilitating the sharing of information and resources by participants and organizations Goodman, et al (1998)