LESSONS LEARNT AND SOCIAL
TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPED IN SUPPORT OF DISADVANTAGED GROUPS IN THE PACIFIC
Prepared
by:
December 1993
LESSONS LEARNT
AND SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPED IN SUPPORT OF DISADVANTAGED GROUPS IN THE
PACIFIC
1.
Working with disadvantaged groups requires a deliberate
process which aims to:
a) generate
participation of the disadvantaged groups themselves in all stages of the
change process, from problem identification to the various steps of project
development, including monitoring and evaluation;
The approaches or social technologies so far developed are as follows –
Participatory Island
Profiling and Development Planning
Community representatives, including those from women, youth, subsistence families, etc., who are traditionally at the periphery of local decision-making, are invited to spend time with local leaders and government and NGO workers to gather, update and analyze data and prepare the development profile of the island community. Views are sought on the major problems affecting households in the area. The participants relate cold data to actual reality. The workshop design allows participants to shed off their official titles and roles to see the community in its totality. Right from the start, efforts are made to involve disadvantaged groups and families to identify and validate problems; articulate how they are affected by these problems; share their own vision of a better life; and further strengthen their bond with the rest of the community in seeking solutions to common problems.
The community profile becomes the basis for agreeing how to solve local problems. Disadvantaged groups and families are vigorously encouraged to come up with project ideas. Thus they participate in determining the courses of action required to solve problems affecting their households and the community.
Then both the community and the government/NGOs agree on critical activities to be undertaken to ensure sustained plan implementation and management.
Community Revolving Fund for
Small-Scale High Impact Projects
To provide impetus to plan implementation and create opportunities for enhancing capabilities for project management, monitoring and financial control, a local funding facility is established. Administered jointly by local government and community representatives, the fund is primarily for small-scale income generating projects and other activities identified in the development plan. Funds are readily available in the community and the criteria for assistance include preference for disadvantaged groups. The interest rate or “service fee” is much lower than local bank rates to broaden access by marginal families. In addition, social collateral, rather than property-holding, is used as guarantee for financial assistance; non-repayment will mean risking family honor and good graces from community and religious associations which are highly-esteemed “collateral” and more valuable than possession of material wealth in Pacific societies.
Hands-on and Actual
Demonstration Approach to Technology Adoption
Popular involvement is a vital part of efforts to promote improved and sustainable technologies in agriculture, fisheries, handicraft and other productive sectors. Representative farmers, fishermen or handicraft workers are mobilized to identify the need for the technologies and test the improvements or innovative features of existing technologies; in the process, they acquire needed skills that they themselves demonstrate the suitability of specific technologies for widespread adoption.
Institutional Framework for
Sustainable Development Management
Indigenous institutions and traditional leaders are systematically brought into the mainstream of developmental concerns. Their collaborative roles with government bodies and NGOs are given formal recognition to foster accountability for overall development goals. Cultural values and practices are taken into account in designing plan implementation approaches.
b) build on
existing national capabilities to provide timely policy and programme support
to development initiatives involving disadvantaged groups;
A set of “mainstreaming” approaches have been field-tested and developed to systematically upgrade existing capabilities to integrate concerns of the disadvantaged in national policies, development plans and public investment programmes. Key requirements to institutionalize measures towards this end have been identified, i.e. articulation of the political will, mission statement or policy declaration in support of the disadvantaged; provision of relevant structures, procedures and administrative support; mobilization potential for intersectoral interventions; mechanism or designated focal point for dialogues, negotiations and other joint activities at various levels between the government or the development community and target groups; a facilitative environment to further cultivate the willingness of target groups to fully articulate their specific needs.
These
approaches or specific strategies include: policy or formulation workshops;
high-level consultative conferences; participatory data gathering; training of
national trainers; field exposure or practicum; and indicator development
workshops.
c.
assist national and local governments, in partnership with
marginal communities, carry out a catalytic, capability-building and
area-focused programme with direct support and empowerment objectives;
Project
experiences have validated the basic components of such a programme:
·
a core food production and income generation programme
which makes possible a significant level of human productivity while preserving
the life-support systems of the atolls and small islands;
·
a core social development programme directed at the
provision of essential services to village communities with expanded outreach
to marginalized groups and households;
·
a social mobilization and training component which will build
skills and remold attitudes, and thus reorient government and indigenous
institutions towards collectively planning, implementing and managing the
target-sensitive core development programmes;
·
national-level support activities which will result in policies,
technical assistance, package of pertinent services and funding support, all to
provide a facilitative environment to the overall programme.
Change events with community organizing and technical skills have proven to be indispensable in carrying out the intensive process which seeks to put in place a comprehensive programme for marginalized communities and groups. Through the process, these fieldworkers identify advanced elements from the government and the community who can carry out the process after the initial social preparation and demonstration phase. They also conduct the initial advocacy activities to institutionalize the process and the resulting programme in the national development plan and in projects and operations plans of relevant sectoral agencies and NGOs.
This
vital role in initiating and advocating for a process-driven approach in
generating policy and programme support, as well as the maximum involvement of
specific disadvantaged groups, was performed creditably by UNVs and DDS
fieldworkers during the UNDP Fourth Cycle.
On account of the innovative nature of the interventions, and the
requirement for immersion in the hazardous task environment of the
disadvantaged groups, as well as the understandable sensitivities of the
emerging technocracy in the Pacific, this critical role can only be performed
by highly committed change agents with a vast reservoir of patience, bulldog
persistence and tenacity in addition to their technical skills.
Project
experiences indicate that to ensure the integrity of the process and level off
both the interpersonal and technical skills of fieldworkers, mobile regional
team will have to provide backstopping support. This multi-disciplinary team will have to include among its key
result areas the strengthening of linkages with related programmes and donor
agencies.
Based on
field experiences of the various projects involved with disadvantaged groups,
these strategies will necessarily include:
·
Mobilization of NGOs, grassroots support organizations,
community-based organizations and indigenous institutions to complement formal
structures and government-mandated entities;
·
Creative use of entry points in working with specific
components of the programme without losing sight of the integrative character
of the programme which will be more a result of the process, rather than a
precondition for its implementation;
·
Development of programme concentration areas as learning,
research and demonstration sites on innovative approaches for marginal
communities and groups.
December 1993
Suva, Fiji