COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FOR EMPOWERED & ACTI VE COMMUNITIES
D O C UM E N TI N G UM UH UZA C O M M UN I T Y E N G A G EM E N T A PPR O A C H PREPARED FOR UMUHUZA BY
Jean Pierre BUCYENSENGE Independent consultant
MARCH 2020
TABLE OF CONTENT 1.
2.
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1.
About Umuhuza ........................................................................................................................ 3
1.2.
Understanding Community Engagement ......................................................................... 3
UMUHUZA COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT APPROACH ............................................................... 5 2.1.
3.
4.
Understanding the Umuhuza Community Engagement Approach .......................... 8
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN ACTION .................................................................................... 9 3.1.
Umuhuza Experience: Some best practices .................................................................... 9
3.2.
Success Stories ....................................................................................................................... 11
3.3.
Challenges............................................................................................................................... 14
3.4.
Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 14
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 15
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 16
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1.
About Umuhuza
Umuhuza envisions a society in which communities live in harmony, mutual respect and dignity. The work of Umuhuza focuses on peace education, family literacy and community economic empowerment. Founded in 2005, Umuhuza is a non-governmental works across districts to ensure that communities live in harmony, peace, dignity and mutual respect. Umuhuza Organization works to:
i) ii) iii) iv) v)
1.2.
Instill values and capacity to build the culture of peace and non-violent conflict management approaches within the targeted communities; Promote mutual respect, justice, solidarity and socio-economic equity; Revive Rwandan traditional positive values of dialogue, respect of diversity, responsible parenting, support and protection of vulnerable groups and hardworking; Contribute to the national efforts to strengthen social cohesion by creating and promoting community spaces for interaction, joint interests and mutual mentorship; Participate in the existing initiatives to empower communities, provide emotional support and psychological counselling for the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims of conflicts, gender-based violence and social stigma.
Understanding Community Engagement
Also referred to as Citizen/Public Engagement or Participation, Community Engagement encompasses numerous methods to bring people together to address issues of public importance’. Community Engagement enables people's involvement in decision-making about issues impacting their lives - a process capable of addressing specific needs and
priorities relevant to people and at the same time assisting in their empowerment and reflects an attempt to build a Approach where meanings, interpretations and decisions are the result of collaboration and consensus among all stakeholders (Mefalopulos P., 2003; Muturi N. & Mwangi S., 2009). It allows the sharing of information, perceptions and opinions among the various stakeholders and thereby facilitates their empowerment. Engaging communities in planning and decision making can strengthen their capacity to take action that produces positive changes and helps to give communities a sense of ownership of projects and interventions, making them more sustainable into the future. (Tufte T. & Mefalopulos P., 2009, Gumucio Dragon A., 2001). In Rwanda, community engagement is rooted in national policies and seen as a critical element in the country’s journey to socio-economic transformation. Rwanda’s National Strategy for Transformation (NST 1) relies on “collaboration and partnership among all stakeholders and enhancing ownership at all levels” to reach its targets. Citizen participation in the decision making and local governance is also still seen as essential in identifying local priorities, advancing local development and increasing the uptake of government policies. However, the level of engagement has been found to be relatively low mainly due to the fact that local leaders do not assign enough time to listen to citizens. Other reported reasons include residents believing that leaders know their needs and the fact that some do not feel confident to provide ideas and opinions in the local governance and the decision making process (RALGA, 2017; RGB, 2018). Umuhuza has adopted the Community Engagement Approach to ensure concerted action and dialogue and the participation of communities, stakeholders and all partners at all levels of activities and in all actions. Throughout all the organization’s focus areas, community engagement is central to our strategy of peace building, community empowerment and family literacy. Through the adoption and use of this Approach, Umuhuza guarantees that its interventions are not merely designed for people without their participation but rather emanate from them and that they are actively involved in their planning, execution and monitoring. Empowered communities are also in a good position to contribute their ideas in the local governance and decision making process; and hold their leaders accountable.
2. UMUHUZA COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT APPROACH
Through all its areas of focus, Umuhuza adopts Community Engagement as a driver of the success and sustainability of its interventions – to ensure that communities own the activities being implemented, that results and success can continue to drive societal change, and that they are replicated within communities and among peer organizations and local leadership structures. Umuhuza’s Community Engagement Approach is not a one-time intervention, but rather an ongoing process that is implemented throughout the entire project cycle and enables relationship, trust and ownership of the organization’s activities over time. This is a planned process which we design purposely to contribute to the overall objectives of the organization. Peer organization (such as CBOs, FBOs or CSOs), national and local leaders, communities and volunteer groups contribute and participate in this process at varying levels – from providing advices, ideas and opinions in the planning process, co-designing interventions, undertaking some aspects of the engagement and delivering some activities to meet the overall outcomes and impact. Umuhuza believes that engaging all our stakeholders in the discussions and processes to design, execute and monitor our projects and activities increases everyone’s level of awareness, allows individuals, institutions and organizations to advocate for our mission and offers an opportunity to gather their expertise, advice, opinions and feedback. This approach also allows the sharing of experiences, and knowledge among the various stakeholder groups.
Our Community Engagement Approach is a five-stage process which we always ensure is rightly implemented:
Inform
Review
Collaborate
Consult
Involve
FIGURE1: Umuhuza Community Engagement Approach (Source: Developed from Umuhuza work documents and elaborated by J.P. BUCYENSENGE)
Inform umuhuza provides accurate update and balanced information about new programs/activities and their objectives. The Organization also keeps providing updates to communities, partners and stakeholders during the entire project implementation cycle.
Consult Through consultation with our partners and stakeholders (Including Central governemnt, provincial official, district & sector level leaders and communities, peer organizations and FBOs, among others), Umuhuza invites them to provide feedback on alternatives, analyses and decisions related to programs, activities and projects. The Organization also informs the various groups on how their feedback has informed the decisions and plans.
Involve We work with communities, partners and stakeholders to ensure that their experiences, concerns, challenges and expectations are considered at every stage - from planning to implementation & monitoring. The organization also keeps providing information on how the inputs from the various stakeholder groups continue to influence decisions and activities being undertaken
Collaborate Umuhuza values partnerships because we believe that collaboration and building partnerships is important in ensuring delivery, succesful implementation and sustainability of our interventions - even when our interventions in a community or a district have completed. We enable our partners, stakeholders and communities to participate in every aspect of the implementation of our activities
Review Constant review and evaluation of our interventions guarantees that we can constantly understand what is working and what is not working so that we can take timely action to ensure that we reach the set objectives and make the desired impact. We do this through kick off meetings, regular consultative and review meetings and feedback encounters with our Partners, communities and stakeholders.
FIGURE 2 : Umuhuza Community Engagement Approach explainer (Source: Developed from Umuhuza work documents and elaborated by J.P. BUCYENSENGE)
2.1.
Understanding the Umuhuza Community Engagement Approach Table 1: Umuhuza Community Engagement Approach explained
1. INFORM (Information sharing)
•
•
•
2. CONSULT (Consultations )
•
• 3. INVOLVE (Planning Together)
•
•
• 4. COLLABORATE (Acting Together)
•
5. REVIEW (Regular monitoring, evaluation & Learning)
•
• •
The objective is to regularly share accurate, timely, relevant and easy-to-understand information about new projects, activities and interventions. Information is shared through passive channels (such as brochures, posters, manuals, concepts, project briefs, media articles, radio programs, posts on our website and other written materials) or active (face-to-face meetings including grassroots-level meetings, awareness raising & consultative meetings with communities, partners and stakeholders, exhibitions & campaigns, etc). Providing information is critical in ensuring that partners, stakeholders and target communities understands better our programs and activities and increases their capacity to effectively contribute in successive levels of engagement. The objective is to actively seek opinions and experiences of target communities, partners and stakeholders before a final decision is made. This is done using a combination of tools and channels that include stakeholder meetings, existing community events/structures (such as Inteko z’abaturage, umuganda, etc), surveys , etc. By planning together with the target community in identifying and analyzing issues and identifying preferred solutions to their challenges, Umuhuza ensures that communities and stakeholders provide input into the planning, implementation and evaluation. This involves building permanent partnerships and a strong reporting mechanism so that we can keep track of contributions from the various groups This is done through regular stakeholder meetings, workshops, discussions, action plan consultative and review meetings, etc. Partners, stakeholders, volunteers and target communities/beneficiaries are actively involved in implementing activities (We recognize and value the shared responsibilities to take decisions and implement them). This is critical in ensuring that we build capacity among and empower communities and all our stakeholder groups for efficient planning and implementation of the activities to address community issues. Constant review and evaluation of our interventions guarantees that we can regularly understand what is working and what is not working so that we can take timely appropriate action to ensure that we reach the set objectives and make the desired impact. At this stage, we also identify lessons and best practices that we integrate in our future plans and interventions We do this through our regular review meetings and feedback encounters with our Partners, communities and stakeholders for performance and expenditure monitoring.
3. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN ACTION Umuhuza has proven that Community Engagement works and is better at making an impact within target communities. We know and have evidence that Community Engagement is making changes in the way we do our activities, their results and sustainability; and is a driver of community and stakeholder involvement in the design, implementation and monitoring of our interventions.
3.1.
Umuhuza Experience: Some best practices
From the Umuhuza experience, we have learnt that Community Engagement works when it is well implemented and coordinated. i)
Keep communities informed & engaged
Regularly sharing information about Umuhuza programs and activities with the target communities is important to win the community support and ensure their active participation at every stage of implementation. Umuhuza ensures that target communities can access information about our work at every stage, through awareness meetings, existing civic service models/ structures ( Umuganda, Inteko rusange z’Abaturage, Umugoroba w’Ababyeyi, Ibimina, etc…); dissemination of information, education and communication materials, the media, internet, face-to-face encounters, campaigns and trainings among others. Umuhuza also provides feedback on how community inputs, ideas and advices inform the decision making process and how it influences our work. This is important to keep ideas flowing, ensure continued citizen participation in our programs and empower communities to take decisions on matters that affect their lives and communities. ii)
Get local leaders on board
Local leaders are important actors in winning community support and guaranteeing successful project implementation. Local leaders also play an important role in ensuring the sustainability of Umuhuza activities through continuous uptake of lessons from our programs and scaling them throughout their daily operations. Umuhuza ensures that leaders – from central to village level- are kept informed of our programs, plans and activities to guarantee their active involvement and collaboration. Through national, provincial, district, sector, cell and village-level awareness meetings, establishing collaboration mechanisms (such as through signing collaborative MoUs with public institutions and involving districts and sectors in the implementation of our activities, Umuhuza ensures that leaders remain informed and play an active role in all our activities.
iii)
Partner with other organizations
Partnering with other organizations, including Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Faithbased organizations (FBOs) and Community-based Organizations (CBOs), is essential in garnering the needed support for the successful project implementation. These organizations are already entrenched in the communities where they are based and have a better understanding of these communities. The organizations also have an influence over local communities. Partnering with them is essential to ensure that they actively participate in passing our messages to the communities and the overall implementation of our projects. It is also essential that Umuhuza activities are included in local leaders performance contracts and priorities (Imihigo) for implementation. iv)
Use existing community structures
Instead of establishing new structures, Umuhuza prefers to use existing community structures to spread its messages. These include using the monthly community work ‘Umuganda’, community meetings “inteko z’abaturage”, the parents gathering “Umugoroba w’ababyeyi”, community savings groups “ibimina” , Community volunteer groups such as Community health workers “abajyanama b’ubuzima” , “Inshuti z’umuryango” , national service “Urugerero/intore” and others to spread our messages to communities. We target these structures because we are confident our target communities will listen to our messages and thus allow us to influence their mindsets and behaviors. v)
Integrate behavior change with economic empowerment
Influencing behaviors should go hand in hand with community economic empowerment to guarantee the socio-economic welfare of target communities. We have realized that when communities certain positive behaviors, their economic status also improves. This is true, for example, for families who were constantly embroiled in quarrels between husbands and wives and who experience a significant turn-around within their lives when they start to live peacefully. Umuhuza always highlights the link between social behaviors and community welfare. In addition, we support income generation activities for target groups including community volunteers and parents/caregivers which in the end serve as a motivation and incentives to meet regularly, keep them together and continue facilitating community interventions even after the phase out of the projects. From our experience, we have realized that communities integrate discussions on positive behaviors (Positive parenting, children rights, peaceful cohabitation, etc.) as part of their group activities when they regularly meet to work on their income-generating activities. vi)
Facilitate peer learning
Peer Learning Circles are organized for community volunteers to improve their practical learning: skills, knowledge and practices, and learning some long-held ideas, which are often difficult to uproot. This enables the sharing of experiences and skills, which results in strengthening their capacity and improving performance among these volunteer groups.
On a bigger extent, Umuhuza encourages all stakeholders, partners, communities and volunteers to commit to learning from each other, understand barriers and limitations that others face and how they overcome them and recognize that each relies on the experiences and expertise of others to implement successful projects and activities. Achieving goals requires collective efforts, mutual learning and sharing.
3.2.
Success Stories
Community engagement is not easy work, but it is important work. Here are a sample of initiatives in which Umuhuza is pursuing a community engagement strategy and making a strong impact within target communities:
i)
Learning through radio
Working with Save The Childen, Umuhuza designed a radio program targeting communities with messages on positive parenting. Through targeted radio messages, aired weekly on Huguka Community radio, Umuhuza targets parents mostly in rural areas. For every radio program sessions, organized groups of parents come together to listen to the programs and topics being discussed. Thereafter, they have reflections on the day’s topic and end up with lessons drawn from the program- which they go on to replicate in their families. This program is proving to be a very instrumental in influencing parents’ behaviors and actions. The following are examples of how the radio program is contributing to changing attitudes of parents, particularly men, vis-à-vis positive parenting.
JEAN CLAUDE GIRINSHUTI, his wife and their daughter live in Kibanda Village, Kinazi sector and are among those who completed the 18 First Steps parenting sessions. Before attending the parenting session program, Jean Claude used to quarrel with his wife, Rosine Mukeshimana. He couldn’t pay health insurance subscriptions for the family; neither could he provide them food and other basic necessities. When First Steps program started in their village, Jean Claude and his wife joined them and through the radio messaging, he realized that his behaviors were negatively impacting his family. And so, he decided to change. He started being supportive to his wife, taking care of their child, providing food and other basic necessities to his family and became more open to discuss and listen to his wife’s ideas. Jean Claude has made it his mission to change other men in his village. He regularly shares his testimony with others and is always open to share what he has learnt from the program. Jean Claude has mobilized other 4 men to join the First Steps sessions and he has been nominated to lead his village’s parent group.
Before joining the parenting sessions, Valens Dukundane thought taking care of their children was the sole responsibility of his wife, fortune Mukandori. After learning from the radio program and listening to the testimony of a father who used to play and have fun with his child, Valens changed his attitudes and nowadays he dedicate part of his time to play and have fun with his children. When his wife is not at home, Valens happily stays home to take care of their children.
i)
Changing mindsets through community engagement
Jean Bosco Abizihiwe, a resident of Kagarama village, Gatumba Sector , Ngororero District, always thought that looking after his children and having fun with them is a job reserved for her wife. For him, the sight of a man playing with kids was a disgrace and shameful; and so he kept away from his children. However, this changed when Jean Bosco started attending sessions on positive parenting and received reading materials from Umuhuza. By participating in positive parenting sessions, Bosco got exposed to information on parenting and the role of both men and women in taking care of children. Through continued exposure to information, discussions and exchange as well as feedback collection from participants in these sessions, there was a significant change in people’s mindset and we have observed men starting to take care of children and having fun with them through plays, songs and dances. Bosco says he now understands the role of husbands in taking care of children, interacting with them and ensuring their welfare.
Consolee MUKAMANA – The Volunteer who became a women representative My Name is Mukamana Console. I am a Community Family Volunteer Since 2015 in Kimiramba Village, Nyenyeri Cell,Kabaya Sector in Ngororero District. I was trained by Umuhuza on First Steps 0-3 Project and after my training, I coached 40 parents that were selected in my village in phase one and two of this program on positive parenting. Being a community family volunteer has increased the trust that my community members have in me. This is why I was elected as the Nyenyeri cell Women Council representative and member of Women Council in our Sector. Based on the skills on positive parenting that I acquired from Umuhuza training and work, the parents whom I trained in parenting sessions requested me to start a Nursery in our Village because we really needed it. I headed by this call to found a Nursery school and today we have over 80 children enrolled. Each parent contributes 1000 Frw per month to provide porridge to their children. The parents are happy to have the nursery near them because they know that their children are safe and learning.
Shengampuli Reading Club initiate a savings program
Literacy Champions from Shengampuli Reading Club in Masoro Sector, Rulindo District initiated a savings program to tackle issues related to children’s studies. Beatrice Cyurinyana, a community Literacy Champion at Shengampuli Reading Club, fronted the idea to other club members who supported it as they believed it would help them solve some of their basic issues, including regularly acquiring school materials for their children. Each parent saves 100 Frw per week and since June 2019, the cub has saved 589,940 RWF with target of reaching 1,000,000 RWF by January 2020. Marie Josee Mukakanani, the Sector Education Inspector from Masoro Sector, attributes savings sensitization to Literacy Champions. “As sector leadership, we failed to sustain financial literacy programs. We collaborated with Literacy Champions so that they can assist us with sensitization. Then parents started saving for their children. As a result of the savings, every parent is optimistic that that money will facilitate his/her child’s studies,” said the Sector Education Inspector.
Community members produce storybook Umuhuza trained community volunteers known as Literacy Champions from Akanzu Reading Club in Nzige Sector, Rwamagana District. Using papers and pencils, the club members begun producing storybooks help children to read.
Murumunawe Clementine, a Literacy Champion at G.S Akanzu, explained that handwriting storybooks will help them to sustain reading club activities once the USAID-funded Mureke Dusome project concludes. “The Mureke Dusome project is expected to end in 2021, but for us, we will keep teaching children. That’s why we started implementing the idea of producing storybooks using available resources,” elaborated Clementine.
3.3.
Challenges
›
Attitudes and expectations: People, particularly community members, tend to think that they cannot provide constructive input, that their ideas, opinions and experiences will not be taken seriously or simply that they cannot influence the decision-making process. These barriers often limit their contributions. Continuing to encourage them to contribute throughout the entire project cycle as well as giving information on how their ideas have influenced decisions is a good tool to ensure the continued flow of ideas from target communities
›
Conflicting priorities: Local leaders tend to always want to implement projects
depending on their immediate plans and performance contracts – rather than basing on the long term results. Sometimes this may result in conflicting priorities. To address this, Umuhuza engages them continuously to discuss the best implementation mechanisms and priority activities until they can confidently support the projects/interventions. ›
Limited resources: engaging communities require both human and financial resources. Limited resources mean that we cannot reach all areas, all groups and all communities.
3.4. ›
›
Recommendations
While working through existing structures is important and should be encouraged, it is as well important to foster a safe and favorable environment to enable citizens to provide input, opinions and experiences; Ensure citizens’ early involvement in the decision making and project design processes and acknowledge power imbalances between citizens, leaders, and other professionals – and work to address them. Also ensure that all plans and activities take into account the motivations and expectations of target communities, country priorities and partner organizations motivations.
›
Continue to document the Umuhuza community engagement practice, how it influence behaviors and empowers communities and how it changes overtime to ensure that Umuhuza remains a learning organization and that its best practices can be shared with others for replication.
4. CONCLUSION Only a well-informed community can be an effective part of the decision-making process and ensure smooth and successful implementation of projects, plans and interventions. When well-informed communities, stakeholders and partners are given an opportunity to be involved in the entire project cycle, they can be crucial in helping a project to be successful and results to be sustainable Incorporating their ideas, experiences and opinions is crucial in reducing potential conflicts and leveraging the savoir-faire of every one of them to drive the project to a successful completion. Regularly providing them with information and feedback on how their inputs contribute to the decision making process is crucial in galvanizing their support because it proves that their ideas and contributions are valued – encouraging them to contribute to the planning, implementation and monitoring of activities and results which is likely to lead to the success and sustainability of the project/activity/intervention.
REFERENCES ARTICLES, BOOKS & ONLINE MATERIALS i)
Brunton, G., Thomas, J., O’Mara-Eves, A. et al. (2017) Narratives of community engagement: a systematic review-derived conceptual framework for public health interventions. BMC Public Health 17, 944 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4958-4 ii) Carina Zhu, Community Engagement: A summary of theoretical concepts. Accessible at https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/poph/hi-poph-survcomm-phids-engage-concepts.pdf iii) Douglas Glando et al., (2017), 10 Best resources for community engagement in implementation research, Health Policy and Planning, 32, 2017, 1457–1465. [Online]. Accessible at https://bit.ly/2UogIva iv) Government of Rwanda, 7 Years Government Programme: National Strategy for Transformation (NST 1), 2017 – 2024, Final Version. [Online]. Available at https://bit.ly/2WIRV7T v) Gumucio Dagron, A. (2001), Making Waves. Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change, New York: Rockefeller Foundation. vi) Martha A. Walker, Community Engagement. [Online]. Available at https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/community_engagement_handout. pdf vii) Mefalopulos P. (2003), Theory and Practice of Participatory Communication: The case of the FAO Project “Communication for Development in Southern Africa”, The University of Texas at Austin viii) Muturi N. & Mwangi S. (2009), The Theory and Practice Gap in Participatory Communication: A Caribbean Case Study, The Journal of International Communication ix) RALGA (2017), Dynamics of Direct Citizen Participation in Rwandan Local Governance. [Online]. Available at https://bit.ly/2yaeVm5 x) Rwanda Governance Board – RGB (2018), Good Governance and Decentralization in Rwanda, Vol. VI Special Issue. Available at: https://bit.ly/3dy63qr UMUHUZA DOCUMENTS xi) Umuhuza website xii) Presentations: Community Involvement Working Group (CIWG) Presentation; Consultative meeting on school - community partnership for education; Umuhuza organization: Mission, vision, activities & Consultative meeting on the “GREAT: Gender Responsive Education and Transformation” project in BUGESERA District; xiii) Word Documents: Community Engagement Project Report (2019); Sample project Concept Note; ECD Success Stories, Peer Learning Circles/Community Of Practice & many more