COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

[Link] ORGANISATION

Community organization is a process by which community identifies its needs or objectives,

orders (or ranks) these needs or objectives, develops the confidence and will to work at these
needs or objectives, finds the resources (internal and/or external) to deal with these needs or
objectives takes action in respect to them and in so doing extends and develops co-operative
and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community.

Community Organization, according to the United Nations, is necessary to achieve Community

Development and by achieving Community Development, you can achieve total development of
a developing country, in all economic, physical and social aspects.

You start at the grassroots level: organize and develop the community first before developing
the country.

There are 3 basic models of community organization:

1) Locality development - this is a method of working with community groups.

Here the important focus is about the process of community building. Leadership development
and the education of the participants are the essential elements in the process. It aims at
meeting the needs of the target population in a defined area. E.g. the Ta’ang area.

2) Social planning - this is a method of working with a large population.

The focus is in evaluating welfare needs and existing services in the area and planning a
possible blue print for a more efficient delivery of services to the social problems. It is a
responsive model to the needs and attitudes of the community. E.g. Income generating, Health,
Affordable education...etc.

3) Social Action - this is a strategy used by groups or sub communities or even national
organizations that feel that they have inadequate power and resources to meet their needs.

So they confront with the power structure using conflict as a method to solve their issues
related to inequalities and deprivation. E.g. A structural systems change in social policies that
bring disparities between people of different socio-economic condition in social rights like
educational policies, employment policies...etc.
Example of starting at the grassroots level

Community driven development in Myanmar

[Link]
development-in-myanmar

The Myanmar National Community Driven Development Project (NCDDP) has put people at the
center of decision-making. As they get involved in the many phases of the project, community
members gain skills and understand the process of improving their communities clearly.

Before decisions, about developing the community, were taken in a small committee, where no
women were allowed.

Before, there was no transparency, no accountability.

So no:

ownership in the community

fresh, new ideas

new resources

strategy

commitment, participation

Gender Equality

3 stages:

1. Planning, needs assessment

Priorities are set

2. Implementation

Effective

Transparent financial management

Monitoring and technical assistance

Commitment from the stakeholders

3. Completion and impact

Evaluation

Lessons learnt, Base for future plans

What are community – based organizations?

Community – based organizations (CBOs), also called Community Service Organizations (CSO)
are the tool to undertake the work of organizing the community. Some will be dissolved after
they accomplish the task they set out to do, others will remain in the community.
Within community-based organizations, there are many variations in terms of size and
organizational structure. Some are formally incorporated, with a written constitution and a
board of directors, while others are much smaller and are more informal.
Community based organizations often incorporate the processes of community organization,
the action that usually comes from these organizations. They have power to address the issues
that affect the individuals in the society and within their social institutions, as well
as community development.
The recent evolution of community organizations, especially in developing countries, has
strengthened the view that these "bottom-up" organizations are more effective addressing
local needs than larger, international charitable organizations.
It is not the multiplicity of institutions, interest groups or set of activities which embodies
community organization.
Factors like raising awareness, interaction, integration and co-ordination of the existing
institutions, interest groups and activities, and evolving new groups and institutions, if
necessary, to meet the changing conditions and needs of the community, are much more
important.
Community organization is known to lead to greater understanding of community context, and
is characterized by community planning, community action and mobilization, the promotion of
community change and, ultimately, influence within larger systems.
Community organizations are generally not-for-profit and money raised usually goes back into
supporting the activities of the organization.
Most CBOs are non-governmental, private voluntary organizations, managed by volunteers
What is an organization?

An organization is the planned coordination of the activities of a number of people for the
achievement of a common goal.

In other words, you bring a group of people together in a team, you select one or several
leaders and you design activities to achieve a certain goal that you all have in common.
Also notice the phrase “planned coordination”. The efforts of the people in the organization
have to be coordinated, they have to be planned. An organization can NOT work properly if
people are all doing different things, at different times. Instead of working together, they might
actually be working against each other. If not planned the activities might come at the wrong
time, would lack preparation, and could be in the wrong area, for the wrong target group.

Every organization is different; every organization is unique with a different set of values, with a
different vision and mission, with a different strategic plan, a different structure, and a different
culture.

Most CBOs want a change in conditions, opportunities, behavior, attitudes, quality of life.

What is change?

Change is the difference in a situation at different points in time.

Change can be a social change, a change in culture, in attitudes, in behavior.

There are different types of changes:

1. Transformational Change

- makes radical changes in the community

2. Incremental Change

- continuing adjustments to existing ways and practices.

3. Top-down Change

- is initiated by the community’s leadership, local or national

government

4. Bottom-up change

- is initiated by empowered persons working at all levels in the

community

Leadership comes into the picture because good leadership is essential in bringing about
change.
Why people may resist change

• Fear of the unknown not understanding what is happening or what comes next and not
seeing a reason for the change and/or not understanding its benefits

• Disrupted habits feeling upset to see the end of the old ways of doing things

• Loss of confidence feeling incapable of performing well under the new ways of doing
things

• Loss of control feeling that things are being done “to” you rather than “by” or “with”
you

• Poor timing feeling overwhelmed by the situation or that things are moving too fast

• Loss of face feeling inadequate or humiliated because it appears that the old ways
weren’t good ways

Checkpoints for Successful Change

• Benefit—make sure people involved see a clear advantage in the change.

• Compatibility—keep the change as close as possible to existing values and experiences.

• Simplicity—make the change as easy as possible to understand and use.

• Triability—allow people to try the change step-by-step, making adjustments as they go.

Of course, the change process has to be planned, it should not just happen or be improvised.

The different steps in the process are:

 Anticipating change: a well-run community organization can foresee changes coming, a

well-run organization knows when a changing environment makes interventions
possible.

As we saw earlier, leadership is vitally important for the change process, in assessing the
readiness for change, the timing for the interventions and creating participation and
involvement of the community. Through facilitation & support, and good
communication the change process will run smoothly and effectively
  Analysis of the situation
• Analysis of the situation is the process of understanding the needs in the
community. It will provide the information necessary for designing change
interventions...

• This is a collaborative process between organization members and the community to

collect to collect pertinent information, analyse it and draw conclusions for action planning and
interventions.

• Situation Analysis may be uncovering causes for specific problems or it may be directed
at assessing the overall desire for improvement to discover the areas for future
development.
• In the different models: organizational level analysis, focus group level analysis,
individual level analysis and program activities analysis you see the same pattern: we
look at the inputs, analyze how we can transform them to obtain the outputs.
 Planning and implementing change
• In this stage, organization members and members of the community jointly plan
and implement interventions.

• They design interventions to achieve the organization's vision or goals and make action
plans to implement them.

• There are several criteria for designing interventions, including the community’s
readiness for change, its current change capability, its structure and culture.
 Interventions

– Depending on the outcomes of the analysis, there are four major types of interventions

- Strategic interventions
- Human Process Interventions
- Techno structural interventions
- Human Resources Management Interventions

1. Strategic interventions
 • integrated Strategic Change, following the Theory of Change
• Alliances and Networks
• Culture Change
• Community Organization Learning and Knowledge Management

2. Human Process Interventions

• Coaching, mentoring of key people in the community

• Training and Development of community members to raise awareness, knowledge of

their rights

• Focus groups and exchanges with the community

3. Techno structural Interventions

• Structural Design of services in the community

• Reengineering
• Involvement of community members in improving the technical structures

4. Interventions to raise community members’ capacity

• Goal Setting
• Performance Appraisal
• Training, counselling, Career Planning and Development
 Evaluation and institutionalizing

[Link] PLANNING
 1. Why do we need a plan?

The government needs a plan so that it can develop the country. A leader of an organization
needs a plan to operate his/her organization. A leader of the community needs a plan to
develop his/her community.

A leader needs a plan so that he/she can make improvements in his/her community.

2. How can a plan help?

With a plan, a leader knows where to go, what to do and how to do it. A good plan promotes
participation. It helps to improve the community.

3. What are the key factors for a good plan?

 Commitment and honesty

 Participation from all stakeholders

 Well informed about the basic information

4. How can these key factors have an impact on making a plan?

Commitment and honesty

Commitment means you feel dedicated to your community and to the people living in the
community. You are devoted to your community and community members. Honesty means
that you will be frank and sincere with the people in the community and other stakeholders.
You trust them and do not cheat them. The plan will be made together and will respond to their
needs and interests.

Participation from all stakeholders

A leader alone cannot lead a community effectively. All stakeholders (Community

representatives, authorities, members of the community) have a key role in developing the
community. So, all stakeholders should be consulted.

They should be aware of all activities in the community and feel ownership . Involving them in
making the community plan makes the plan more comprehensive and promotes ownership. It
becomes OUR plan and by this their participation becomes much more active.

Basic information
The community development must be realistic. So, it should be based on the real situation of
the community and the plan of the national or provincial levels. The documents we use to make
a community plan are the following:

- the information regarding the achievements of the community

- the information from the area

- the provincial and national development plan

- plan format

5. What are the different elements of a plan?

The different elements of a plan are the following:

- the vision

- the goals

- the objectives

- the action plan

- the implementation

- the monitoring and the evaluation

The vision

A vision is a dream for the future. A community vision should be made within the context of
the national or the ministry vision and should have six attributes which are the following:

a. future oriented:

The goal to be reached is more important than the time it takes. A community leader could
imagine all members of the community having access to clean drinking water and it could take
5 years!

b. having a clear image:

A community leader should have a clear image of what his/her community will look like in the
future and how to get there. He/she should be able to describe that image.

c. idealistic:
A good leader should think about how he/she can improve the current state of affairs. A good
vision should be looking for new ideas for development and should be challenging.

d .unique:

The uniqueness of the vision makes the community different from the others.

e. relevant:

There are different people taking part in a school. An effective director knows that a good vision
is a reflection of the ideas of these people.

f. shared:

To make the vision happen it must be shared by all stakeholders. An effective school director is
able to communicate his/her own vision in a way that motivates and inspires others and that
attracts and commits them.

Examples:

The goals

What are the goals?

What makes them different from the vision?
How identify them?

The goals must be more specific than the vision, and time based. In general the SMART model is
strongly recommended. This means the goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Realistic and Time based.

Many leaders aim to set perfect goals. This is very dangerous because perfection is hard to
accomplish and the failure of implementation could give people negative feelings.

Examples:

Objectives

What are the objectives?

What makes them different from the goals?
How identify them?

Each goal should have many objectives: the objectives are more specific, more precise. They are
tangible and can be measured, goals cannot.
One way to identify the objectives is the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In order to identify these, the community needs to do
a self-assessment. This can be based on a checklist.

Example:

Based on the SWOT analysis, examples of objectives can be:

- improve infrastructure: roads, irrigation, bridges,…

- make the environment safe and attractive, healthy

- build the 2 ways communication between government and community

- maximize the use of available resource people in the area

Example:

The Action Plan

What is an action plan?

How to create it?

To accomplish the objectives leaders need to create an action plan. The action plan is the series
of activities identified to achieve the objectives. Each objective can have many activities. Each
activity must be SMART. We use the following format

Activities Person Indicators Starting date Completion date

Responsible

Implementation

How to implement a plan?

How to make the plan owned by all stakeholders?

The plan can only be implemented when the stakeholders feel ownership and are aware of
their responsibilities. The participation of all stakeholders in making the plan makes the plan
comprehensive and promotes ownership, but involvement alone is no guarantee for
ownership.
The shareholders must be given effective support and a system of monitoring and evaluation
should be put into place.

To make sure the stakeholders feel ownership, the following strategies should be used:

 Communicate the plan to all those who helped create the plan

 Disseminate the plan to the broad community

 Keep reminding the stakeholders at every formal and informal meetings

Providing permanent technical support to all stakeholders is a key issue for an effective
implementation of the plan. The assistance can be provided through different ways, such as:

- observation and feedback

- training programs

- learning from others (study tours, exchange of experiences with other communities)

Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring is checking to make sure that progress is being made. It is a reflection of the
achievement of the objectives against the indicators set out in the plan. The leader checks the
progress of the implementation of the plan and strives for achieving the goals set. Every activity
included in the plan should be monitored.

Methods used:

a) observation, for example a formal or informal observation

Observation is very practical. Good observation is an effective way to help to improve

conditions in the community. It could be formal or informal. The formal observation takes time,
while the informal one concerns a quick visit during a short period of time. Both observation,
formal and informal, require a face-to-face feedback meeting at the end.

b) periodic assessment of some activities

Some activities require an involvement of many stakeholders and a length of time to achieve.
Based on the plan, leaders need to decide on dates to check for progress. We call it assessment
and it can be carried out weekly or monthly or termly. A Community Development Plan is a
continuous effort. The plan is to be monitored and evaluated continuously, NOT put away in
some drawer!

Evaluation of the plan is carried out at the end of the project. It has as its main aim to:
 - check for the achievement of the goals

- identify lessons learned from the implementation

- identify the problem to be used and the basis for setting the next plan

Each activity must be evaluated. The evaluation days must be scheduled ahead of time and all
stakeholders must be well informed to enable them to attend. The evaluation form must also
be well prepared and disseminated. The following is a suggested evaluation form.

All stakeholders should be given full opportunity in sharing opinions about the achievement of
the plan and should be involved in looking for ways of improving the next plan.

Evaluation Form

Objective1:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………….

Evaluation

Activities Indicators Achievement Lessons learned Plan for further

against the improvement
indicators

1-…………………….
………………………..

When the program has proven to be effective, when the CBO has been successful, they can:

- Use the experience gained as a base for future plans

- Export , exchange with other communities
- Alternative: community mobiliser/organizer
- Decide to dissolve
When the CBO decides to continue its activities, now is a good time to institutionalize the
changes, to ensure that the long term impact is sustainable.

Through legislation, support from authorities, alliances, networks,… a guarantee can be found
that the changes will be permanent, at least till a new update is needed.

View and discuss documentay : 15 years of community development

Which elements in community organization and planning that are key to success do we
recognize in this program?