Lectures and Discussions

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.

Part A: What the Community Needs to Do

This first half of the course looks at community empowerment from the point of view of the community. How does a community become more empowered? It complements the second half of the course which shows what the mobiliser must do to stimulate this process of empowerment.

Key points

We want to be able to make communities stronger, more self reliant, less dependent upon handouts. We want them to improve their power, their ability, their strength. This course shows you how, first by explaining the process from the point of view of the community, second by explaining it from the point of view of an individual, the mobilizer who stimulates, guides and encourages the community to undergo that social process.

Introduction to the Empowerment Methodology

Key points

Read the Human Factor paper to get an idea of the empowerment process, including the eight elements of the process, the six dimensions of culture, and the sixteen elements of strength. The rest of the course is based on these things, so they should be read first.

Avoiding Social Engineering

Key points

If social change is imposed upon a community it will fail, and the outcome will be far from what is hoped. Even if we want a community to fight poverty and become stronger, we can not do it for the community. We can encourage and stimulate, but ultimately it is the community members themselves who must decide if they want that, and who must take necessary steps to achieve it. In empowerment terminology, we distinguish between capacity building (imposed) and capacity development (encouraged).

Outcomes

The student will be introduced to the concept of social engineering as forced social change where the participants do not make the choices to change The student will learn that we can not force a community to grow and become stronger (social engineering) but we can encourage and guide it to develop itself The student will be able to distinguish between capacity building (social engineering) and capacity development where the participants take responsibility for their own strengthening.

Why Empower a Community?

Key points

Why should we empower a community? Why should we choose one community and not another the empower? Empowerment of a community means that it has more capacity, more ability, or more strength, three concepts that are seen as the same in this course. Wealth and money are not the same things, and poverty is not just a lack of money, but is a social problem, involving attitudes and ways of doing things. Community participation in decision making is essential for success in empowerment.

Outcomes

The student will be able to explain the arguments for helping communities to become empowered The student will be able to see that the community is the most effective institution to change for fighting the war on poverty The student will be able to distinguish between communities that should or should not be empowered. Similarly: could and could not The student will be able to see that power, capacity and ability all describe strength of a community The student will have tools for choosing which communities to empower The student will be able to distinguish between wealth and money The student will recognize poverty as a social problem which needs a social solution The student will see that participation means participating in decision making, not only contributing or being consulted The student will recognize that community participation is essential for success and sustaining a community project

Factors of Poverty (Not Causes)

Key points

As introduced last section, the purpose of community empowerment is to fight poverty (not poor people). To fight poverty we must attack factors. The five main factors are disease, apathy, dependency, ignorance and dishonesty.

Outcomes

The student will be able to distinuish between factors and causes The student will recognize that fighting poverty requires addressing factors; not symptoms; not causes The student will recognize the role of disease as a factor of poverty The student will recognize the role of apathy as a factor of poverty The student will recognize the role of dependency as a factor of poverty The student will recognize the role of ignorance as a factor of poverty The student will recognize the role of dishonesty as a factor of poverty

The Problem with Charity

Key points

Charity means giving gifts. Usually that implies giving them to poor people. Honorable as that may be, it may cause problems, including training recipients to expect more charity. This expectation can be called dependency. Charity is appropriate for emergency response, but must not continue after the need; it hinders sustainable development. At the government to government level, chariy encourages embezzlement by civil servants and politicians of the recipient country.

Outcomes

The student will recognize the charity approach which contributes to poverty rather than counteracts it The student will recognise the value and dangers of seeing the dependency syndrome as like the so called "welfare mentality" which keeps people on social security assistance from seeing jobs The student will see that the cliche slogan "Better a hand up than a handout," has some validity in explaining the dangers of charity The student will see that corruption, which is encouraged by charity, causes far more to be lost by the society than is gained by the embezzler The student will see that the empowerment method is based more on a partnership while the charity method is based pn condescending and patronizing attitudes

The Dependency Syndrome

Key points

While Charity is appropriate for emergency response, it is inappropriate for sustainable development. As much as it contributes to dependency, it sustains poverty. Giving alms trains the receiver to continue begging, whether the receiver be an individual, community or country, Money transfers simply shift money around, and do not, in themselves, create new wealth. Genuine income generation requires that new wealth be created, usually in the form of value added.

Outcomes

The student will be able to recognize dependency in a community and in a Government, knowing that this is a factor contributing to poverty. The student will be able to distinguish between appropriate uses of charity, such as during an emergency response, and inappropriate uses, such as sustainable development The student will recognize that giving alms trains the receiver to be more of a beggar The student will see the pedagogical value to the broken bone analogy in the shift from emergency response (charity) to the empowerment methodology (sustainable development) The student will recognize that money transfers may alleviate specific cases of poverty but does not solve the social problem of poverty The student will know the basics of income generation (formation of new wealth)

Hidden Resources

Key points

Communities hide their resources. There are several reasons for this. One is that community members believe they will qualify for assistance if outsiders think they are more poor than they are, in the hopes they will get more aid. Another is that many things they think of as liabilities can be assets if seen the right way. If they are more transparent, they can become more empowered. They must use their own assets to become more self reliant, and there is greater benefit to them that way than in hiding those assets. Some of what results in assets being seen as liabilities is in the naming of them. The phenomenon of spin doctoring (newspeak) used to hide crimes by guilty governments, can also be used to redefine liabilities as assets.

Outcomes

The student will recognize that communities have a tendency to hide their resources, and how to reveal them for empowering q community The student will be able to list the various reasons why people hide their wealth The student will be able to cite why transparency is important in revealing community resources to empower a community The student will be able to identify what some people call liabilities, yet can be resources for community empowerment The student will be able to twist newspeak or spin doctoring for beneficial purposes rather than for obfuscating governmental misdeeds.

The Mobilization Cycle

Key points

The mobilization intervention has a distinct structure and, when repeated as it should be, can be seen as a "cycle." While its structure is basic, it will be varied according to conditions in the community, and the policies or the agency for whom the mobilizer may work. A single project by itself does not empower a community; like exercise, it needs to be repeated. The intervention should be sustained and continuous and good records and reports can help achieve those objectives.

Outcomes

The student will understand the mobilization intervention as a "cycle" The student will be able to create a mobilization cycle for any community The student will know how to use training as a method of mobilizing The student will see the danger of a single community project and be able to use the cycle approach to ensure a sustainable ongoing process The student will learn how records can be used to ensure the cycle is sustained The student will know how records can be used to make reports

Part B: What You Need to do to Mobilise a Community

This second half of the course describes what the the individual, the mobilizer, needs to do in order to achieve the social process described in Part A. This is a complement to Part A which describes the process from the point of view of the community

Key points

The mobilizer must have some required characteristics and skills, some intrinsic and some trainable. To become a mobilizer, the individual should be involved in self assessment and self selection or deselection. Then the mobiizer needs to know what to do to mobilize a community for empowerment.

Outcomes

The student will Be able to work as a mobilizer in the field to empower a community The student will be able to coordinate or manage a team of mobilizers The student will be able to train new mobilizers

To Be a Mobiliser

Key points

The mobilizer must have some skills and characteristics, some intrinsic and some that can be acquired through training. Among these, reputation is the most important. One overlooked characteristic is the ability to walk away from a community that is not ready to be mobilized.

Outcomes

The student will be able to self assess to see if she or he can become a mobilizer The student will be able to distinguish between intrinsic and learnable characteristics of a mobilizer The student will recognize that reputation is the most important asset of the mobilizer The student will recognize that integrity is not only important in itself, but that the community members must see it in their mobilizer and in their leaders The student will be able to recognize communities that are not ready to be mobilized The student will recognize that the mobilizer must be able to walk away from communities that are not ready to be mobilized.

Getting Prepared

Key points

The mobilizer needs to know the goals of mobilization, the characteristics of the target community, the skills needed for mobilization, and the basic concepts in community empowerment

Outcomes

The student will be able to cite the goals of mobilization for empowerment The student will be able to assess the nature and organization of the target communities The student will be able to list the skills needed to mobilize The student will be able to list and define the basic empowerment concepts

Getting Started (Preparing the Community)

Key points

Just as the mobilizer must first get prepared, the first action of the mobilizer is to prepare the community for empowerment. First is to get legitimization for community work in the area, from the appropriate authorities. They need to be persuaded that in the long run it will benefit them to become enablers of self reliance instead of providers of facilities and services. ensuring that the authorities and the population know the mobilizer does not come with gifts is the most important information to convey. Next, in preparing the community, the mobilizer must guide the community to organize (for decision making and for action) and guide them to choose an appropriate and realistic action. This usually involves challenging them to rethink their first wishes, which are usually unrealistic.

Outcomes

The student will know how to get necessary permissions to being a mobilizer in the area The student will know how to raise awareness, especially among officials and leaders, without raising expectations that gifts are forthcoming The student will know the importance of challenging the community's first wishes, and how to convert them into do-able actions by the community The student will be able to guide a community in making decisions about what action it should take

Organizing the Community

Key points

The community must be organized for making decisions, and must be organized for action. The technique of community organizing is a combination of management training and trade union organizing. These are then used to guide the community in making a plan for its own development, and also for making a project design for its chosen action.

Outcomes

The student will know how to organize for decision making and organize for action, and be able to distinguish between them The student will recognize the origin and parallels or community organizing with both management training and union organizing The student will be able to guide the community in making a plan of action The student will be able to guide the community to design a community project

Implementing the Community Action

Key points

Since action is needed to distinguish organizing from mobilization, the community must act in accordance with its plan and project design. The mobilizer stimulates and encourages that action. While they are engaged in a project, community members become more aware of the skills they need, and the mobilizer must be prepared to assist them on obtaining those skills. Monitoring of the project by the community is needed. Celebration of its completion is public recognition and an opportunity to repeat the cycle

Outcomes

The student will recognize that community action is vital for community empowerment The student will know how to stimulate the community to take action by implementing its plan The student will recognize that after the action starts the community members become more aware of the skills they need The student will be prepared to provide needed skills when the community recognizes their need The student will recognize the need for the community to monitor its own action, and will be able to encourage and guide the community to do so The student will recognize the need for public celebration, that it is part of the necessary work of the mobilizer. The student will learn to look up words like veisalgia

Sustaining the Process

Key points

Since the mobilization intervention must be sustained, the cycle must be repeated. When the mobilizer prepares to leave, either the agency must replace with a new mobilizer, or a community member must be recruited and trained by the mobilizer to carry on. (In a few rare cases, another agency will provide a new mobilizer). The mobilizer must refer to her or his journal on which to base a written hand over report.

Outcomes

The student will understand the importance of sustaining the intervention beyond a single community project The student will see that if a community cannot maintain its facility, it might as well have not been installed The student will understand the need for finding community leaders to carry on, and how to identify and prepare them to do so The student will know how to take notes from her or his journals and prepare a handover report for the new incoming mobilizer

Community Empowerment and National Development (Conclusion)

Content generated from student discussions

Key points

When so many countries became independent of colonial rule after World War II, what did they expect, and why? Why were they disappointed? Many national politicians were convinced that there should be community participation in local projects, and many aid projects said there should be community participation. Why did that not happen? If a newly independent country is to become self reliant, and to decrease poverty, where should it begin to ensure those happen? Why is the community the most effective level for that to happen? If you want national development and a decline in poverty, go to the right place to get it, the community. Decreeing that it would happen will not make it happen; an intervention is needed, and that needed intervention is the community empowerment methodology.

• Expectations in Newly Independent Countries
• To Decree That Participation is Allowed does not Guarantee It
• The Community is the Medium Where it Can Work
• Do not Ask a Chicken for Milk, or a Cow for Eggs

Outcomes

The student will understand the role of community empowerment in national development The student will understand an important factor (among several) in the failure of newly independent countries to become self reliant The student will understand that new rules or laws allowing community participation do not guarantee that there will be community participation (the government or alternatives must take a proactive role in stimulating and encouraging community empowerment interventions) The student will understand the necessity of obtaining needed resources from the right sources. (Cows do not provide eggs)