Community Mobilization & Multistakeholder Engagement

CMS Road Show – LuzonPhilDHRAA Partnership Center29 to 31 August 2013

Learning Objectives

At the end of this session, you should be able to:

Demonstrate increased knowledge of the principles of and key steps in community mobilization;

Apply some tools for engaging different community stakeholders in collective action;

Identify tasks in involving communities and some strategies to facilitate stakeholder engagement.

Your Idea of a “Community”

What comes to mind when you first hear the word “community”?

What is a Community? A set of people that share any or all of the following:

Territory Resources Language Culture Religion Occupation Interests Etc.

We all belong to a community. What are some of the communities you belong to?

What is a Community? People are the heart of a community.

Heterogeneous Diverse needs Different motivations Diverse skills Various resources

How do we bring them together and harness what they have to offer?

Community Mobilization The process of building social relationships in pursuit

of common community interests. Increases participatory decision-making processes by

bringing diverse stakeholders into a common process Expands inclusion of often marginalized populations,

such as women, youth, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and religious or ethnic minorities

Depends on local resources, both human and material Fosters stronger relationships between local

government, businesses, community members and CBO/NGOs

Ensures local ownership of development Promotes a more active and informed citizenry

Community Mobilization: Some Principles

Participation When people are involved from design to

implementation and assessment, ownership is high

Context sensitivity Local solutions to local problems

Empowerment, not dependence Communities as actors, not recipients

Prepare: Get to know the

community

Involve stakeholders

Issue analysis & community

visioning

Develop & execute a community action plan

Sustain

WHO?

WHY?WHAT,

WHERE, WHEN?

DO

!

Steps in Community Mobilization

1. Get to Know the Community

Core area of community development E.g., Livelihood, Maternal health, Public education

Identify a common issue that the community can get involved in.

Gather information on the community & the issue by: Talking to people in the community Talking to community leaders Conducting surveys, FGDs (formal)

Plan for a community gathering or dialogue on the issue.*

2. Involve Stakeholders

Decide who is crucial to involve

Be inclusive

Core group of actors Roles E.g., Who would

be a good infomediary/leader?

Stakeholders: groups and individuals who Primary: are directly involved in the

issue; can affect or are affected by the issue

Secondary: intermediaries; can help facilitate awareness and understanding; can mobilize additional support or resources

3. Organize around an issue

Identify and prioritize current underlying conditions What are the current problems in public education in

the school? (Context) What causes these problems? (Cause) Which of these can we do something about?

(Priorities)

Develop a community vision How does a good public education system in our

community look like? What key changes/improvements are in place?

3. Organize around an issue

Vision - summarize your community’s dream for the future. The vision should be: Easy to communicate to potential new members. Uplifting and inspiring, clearly communicating your hopes

for your community. A reflection of the perspective of the community it

represents.

Mission - state your community mission. It should include: A statement of what it is going to do and why. Widely inclusive language to avoid limiting potential new

members and strategies with which to bring about the vision.

3. Organize around an issue

Community Road Map

4. Community Action Planning

What strategies & activities are needed? Awareness raising Fundraising Capacity building

Who can contribute what? Resources Expertise

Timeline

How do we know we’ve achieved our objectives? Measure , evaluate Keeping track of achievements builds confidence

5. Sustain

Community planning on how to sustain efforts Commitments and roles Next steps: scale up/expand or repeat? Continuous capacity building requirements

Your Role as Community Mobilizer

You as leader Finding leaders in the community

WHICH FACILITATES GREATER COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP AND INVOLVEMENT?

Multi-Stakeholder Engagement

Key Tasks as CMS Area Coordinators Identify school community stakeholders to involve

(macro) Facilitating stakeholder participation in identifying

and solving issues (micro)

Bringing Stakeholders on Board: Mapping

1. The Power-Interest

Grid(Bryson, 1995)

Power to influence the issue High Low

Interest in the issue High Low

Bringing Stakeholders on Board: Mapping

1. The Power-Interest

Grid(Bryson, 1995)

Power to influence the issue High Low

Interest in the issue High Low

Keep satisfied; Meet their needs

Key Players;Manage closely

Minimal EffortKeep informed;Show consideration

Bringing Stakeholders on Board:Mapping

Impact, or influence High Low

Attitude Positive Negative

2. Impact-Attitude Grid

(Riley & Weintraub)

x

x

high

+–

low

*

x

x

*

x*

Top 3-5 Action Points

Exercise: Mapping School Stakeholders

Form 2 groups

Identify 5-8 key stakeholders in CMS communities Parents, students, school administrator, DepEd, local media,

infomediary, teachers, etc.

Group 1: Using the Power-Interest Grid, map stakeholders and identify one action per quadrant

Group 2: Using the Impact-Attitude Grid, map the stakeholders and identify three action points

Assign a reporter. Three (3) minutes to report

Stakeholder Participation

Stakeholder Participation

You’ve identified your key stakeholders…

NOW WHAT?

Plan activities to involve key stakeholders

Keep them involved, from start to finish

Allow them to find solutions to their problems

Empowerment is not about telling them what to do or doing things for them but building their capacity to do

Stakeholder Participation:Scenarios

Scenario 1: The school year is about to start but there are no funds to get the school ready. The classrooms and school grounds are dirty and the furniture are not in their proper places.

a. Talk to the principal and compel her to find funds for cleaners.

b. Clean the entire school yourself.c. Mobilize school community members to volunteer

to get the school ready.

Stakeholder Participation:Scenarios

Scenario 2: You want to set up regular data updating activities for CMS in a new school. However, you live in a different city and it’s costly for you to keep traveling to the school to coordinate the activities. What’s the best way to empower the school community to conduct monitoring?

What are concrete ways to get community stakeholders to participate during… Planning sessions Community dialogue Problem-solving sessions ?

Stakeholder Participation: Strategies

Brainstorming Generate as many ideas Suspend judgment Encourage creativity Everyone pitches in

Sample Process Individuals write down ideas Ideas are posted and similar ideas grouped together Group reviews ideas

Enhances ideas Adds other ideas

Stakeholder Participation: Strategies

Stepladder technique Individuals to small groups to big group Allows every individual to contribute Results in a few, well thought out ideas

Sample Process Each individual writes down an idea Form groups of two and enhance the ideas The process is repeated in groups of three, four, etc.

until only two groups remain Big group comes together to share and finalize ideas

Stakeholder Participation:Strategies

Contributions Assessment Begins with what each individual can contribute Action-oriented Good way of securing commitment and active

involvement of members

Sample Process Each individual writes down 1-2 things they

contribute These are posted and shared to the big group Group constructs a workplan based on

commitments and adds what else can be done

Roleplay Exercise

Problem: How can we increase awareness on the lack of textbooks in the school?

Roles Area coordinator (Facilitator) Local DepEd representative Parent leader Student representative Local media Local business owner

Decide on a strategy for facilitating stakeholder participation: brainstorming, stepladder, contributions assessment

Roleplay Exercise

Reflect on your experience. Did everyone participate? Why or why not? How did the process ensure participation of

stakeholders? What was the role of the facilitator in the process?

Stakeholder Participation:Tips for Community Mobilizers

Compel: Anchor participation on their interests E.g., Parents want their children to have access to

good quality education

Invite stakeholders to bring in their resources and knowledge to the process E.g., Local businesses can donate resources to

schools, as part of their CSR program

Facilitate local participation on coming up to solutions to problems

Other Activities to Involve Stakeholders in

Joint Context and Stakeholders Analysis

Awareness Raising Campaigns IEC, Fun run, Fiesta, Word-of-mouth

Monitoring activities Data updating

Multi-stakeholder Problem-Solving Sessions

Resource Generation Fundraising

Salamat!